Habesne Latinam?

In the School District of University City the answer to that question (which, by the way, is “Got Latin?” for those of us less educated) is a resounding HABEO (YES)! While the notion of studying this classical language may conjure up images of stodgy old tweed-clad professors and British school boys, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, Latin in U. City is COOL and our Latin students (not to mention teachers) are young, hip, and love learning about language, history, and culture.

One of only six districts in the St. Louis area to offer AP (advanced placement) Latin, students in U. City can begin taking Latin formally in the sixth grade, although many are exposed at much younger ages thanks to outreach programs by the high school’s Latin Club. Courses are offered at all levels through high school, culminating with the AP (Advanced Placement) Latin for seniors. In addition to the coursework offered during the school day, UCHS has an active and energetic aforementioned Latin Club, which meets weekly after school , and many students are involved in the Missouri Junior Classical League (MOJCL), hosts a Winter Classics Fest, and stages fun events like the annual Homerathon (a marathon reading from the works of Homer) in the Delmar Loop.

UCHS Latin Students (along with the head of Pentheus)
prepare to leave for national convention. 

UCHS Latin Club students bring home numerous awards each year at the state convention of the Missouri Junior Classical League, held in April in Columbia (view the cheeky convention trailer here). You can read about this year's attendees and their accomplishments in our previous blog post. UCHS also sends a delegation to the National Junior League Convention each year. This year students will travel to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to attend the 60th annual NCJL convention.

Latin Club students march in the UCHS Homecoming parade

So why, you may ask, as we speed though the 21st Century, should students study a “dead” language like Latin? There are lots of reasons, according to UCHS Latin teacher Jennifer Whinney:

“It is important for kids to study Latin because it emphasizes the importance of the mechanics and structure of language while exposing them to ancient culture and history. Learning Latin leads to improvement in English skills like grammar and reading. It also exposes students to great authors like Ovid and Vergil that they may not read in English classes. “

Numerous studies show that students who have taken Latin consistently outperform all other students on the verbal portion of the SAT, have higher grade point averages, accelerated reading and vocabulary skills, improved math problem solving abilities, improved study skills and greater knowledge of ancient history and culture. Lots of famous people have studied Latin, including popular authors J.K. Rowling and Toni Morrison, poet Langston Hughes, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois, and former president Bill Clinton (in fact, most former presidents studied Latin.) It is not surprising, therefore, that many of the top academics in the 2013 senior class are Latin students. Still not convinced? Check out this or this or this.

UCHS sophomore Andrew White acknowledges the academic aspects of studying Latin:

"There are lots of Latin roots in English and romance languages so by taking Latin you are learning several languages for the price of one”, but he also appreciates how a good teacher can make it fun, "Learning about the history and mythology is also very interesting if the teacher assigns creative and fun projects. It can be fun to give these classic stories a new twist by filming updated versions, with friends playing gods, for example. We once even cast a cat as the cyclops."

2013 graduating senior and Latin student Grace Deitzler is heading to Missouri S&T this fall to study Biological Sciences and Information Technology. She credits her study of Latin with greatly expanding her scientific vocabulary and her familiarity with terms common in her coursework. Plus, she says, she had a lot of fun.

To be sure, Latin classes are academically challenging. Students must master vocabulary and grammar and derivatives and declensions and lots of translating, along with a serious dose of Roman history, culture, and mythology. But the magic of our Latin classes, the secret ingredient that has made them so popular for so many years, is that the kids have fun. Serious fun, of the kind that spawns a deep and abiding love of learning, not just Latin but across all subjects and disciplines. but our marvelous teachers. Plus, and perhaps most importantly, UCHS Latin students have fun and develop a genuine love of learning.

Our Latin program is something we can be really proud of. In fact, all four UCHS 2013 Valedictorians were Latin students and even incorporated Latin into their commencement speech. 2011 UCHS grad Elliot Wilson (who was president of both Missouri Junior Classical League and the National Junior Classical League while a student at UCHS) loved Latin so much that he is now studying classics at Harvard University! Latin produces top students, and top students love Latin. If you ask them why they study Latin they may well tell you, Ad Vitam Paramus (we are preparing for life), and they truly are!

Many thanks to Brittany Woods Middle School teachers Wu Bakeman and Thomas Riesenberger and UCHS teacher Jennifer Whinney for their help with this post!

UCHS Latin Students Win Awards at State Convention and in National Latin Exam

Congratulations to the students of the University City High School Latin Club on winning numerous awards, recognitions, and elected offices at the 2013 Missouri Junior Classical League (MOJCL) Convention.  They competed against students from across the state (this year St. Louis was represented by SLUH, MICDS, and UCHS) in a selection of Latin/classics-related activities and competitions over the course of a weekend in April.

Costumes and dramatic interpretation are part of the
fun at the annual MOJCL convention. 

Beginning with a spirited “Romecoming” social event, students spent the weekend demonstrating their skills in oral recitations, photography, art, the creation of original “impromptu art” and “modern myths,” chess, costumes, dramatic interpretation,  and the king of all MOJCL events, the Certamen tournament. 

Certamen, Latin for “competition,” is a quiz bowl–style competition between four-student teams from the various schools in which they answer questions related to Latin and classics studies.  In 2011, the UCHS team were the state Certamen champions, and this year’s team fought valiantly to regain the title but unfortunately lost to SLUH (our friendly Latin rivals) in the exciting semi-finals.

The UCHS Certamen team waits for competition to begin. 

Prior to convention, students take a series of written exams for which they can receive awards.  UCHS typically brings home a bounty of these awards, and 2013 was no different: 

Derivatives, Level 4

1st Place - Ethan Farber

2nd Place - Anna Soifer

5th Place - Grace Deitzler

Derivatives, Level 3

5th Place - Henry Braeske

Grammar, Level 4

1st place - Daniel Politte

History and Culture, Level 4

1st Place - Dan Politte

History and Culture, Level 3

4th Place - Walter Deitzler

Mythology, Level 4

1st Place - Anna Soifer

2nd Place - Ethan Farber

Mythology, Level 3

4th Place - Andrew White

Elections are also held each year at convention, and UCHS students have a long tradition of filling officer positions. This year, junior Deanna Pace was elected 2013-14 Historian, and soon-to-be alumna Grace Deitzler was elected Historian for the Missouri Classical League, the university-level counterpart to MOJCL. 

Deanna Pace gives her campaign speech as outgoing
 MOJCL President UCHS senior Ethan Farber looks on.

The accolades don’t end at convention, however.  Three UCHS  AP Latin students, Dan Politte, Anna Soifer, and Ethan Farber, took the prestigious National Latin Exam (NLE) this year as well.  The exam consists of 40 questions covering topics including grammar, comprehension, derivatives, mythology, historical background, classic literature, and literary devices and is administered according to the level of study the student has completed. As top scorers, Dan and Ethan were awarded gold medals and summa cum laude certificates, and Anna received a magna cum laude certificate for her third-place finish. 

Anna, Ethan, and Dan
UCHS 2013 National Latin Exam participants

To all of our talented and energetic Latin students we say a resounding, Macte virtute! Factum optime!

Surprised to learn that UCity offers Latin? Wondering why anyone would even want to study Latin in this modern age?  Curious about what other great Latin-related things our students are doing? Stay tuned - there is more to come!

36

Thirty-six.  XXXVI. 100100.  Six squared.  At first glance, 36 is a somewhat unassuming number.  Nothing special, hardly remarkable.  Ho-hum, who cares.  But pair it with three equally unassuming letters, A C & T, and 36 becomes, well…

perfect.

 And rare. According to DESE, more than 1.6 million students nationwide take the ACT college entrance exam each year, and only around 700 of them earn a perfect score.  That’s about .04%.  A total of just 29 Missouri students scored a perfect 36 in 2012, and one of them, Dan Politte, is a senior at University City High School.

A born and bred UCity boy, Dan began his journey to academic greatness as a kindergartner at Jackson Park Elementary.  He attended Brittany Woods Middle School, and will graduate from University City High School this May.  As you might expect, he carries a challenging course load, heavy on AP (Advanced Placement) classes. In fact, he’s taking five this year, which is roughly equivalent to a full college load.  It’s not all nose-to-the-grindstone academics, though. Dan is a founding member of the UCHS FIRST Robotics Competition team, the Robolions, and active in the UCHS Latin Club.  He is also a member of the UCHS Certamen team (think Quiz Bowl for classics students), which finished first in state at last year’s Missouri Junior Classical League convention.   In January, Dan was one of 26 UCHS students who travelled to Washington, DC to attend the presidential inauguration, an experience he describes as “thrilling.”

 It goes without question that Dan is smart.  Really smart.  But is that all it takes to earn a perfect ACT score? In a recent Huffington Post interview, ACT spokesperson Ed Colby explains that:

“The ACT is a curriculum-based test. It's like a course exam in that way. It's not the kind of test that test prep is going to help you get a 36. You have to learn content in challenging courses that you take in school.”  

Dan would concur.  Although he did attend the ACT prep courses offered by the high school as a sophomore (he got a 35 that year) he attributes his success to the fact that he has had “innumerable great teachers at U City High.”   Dan also has parents who are active and involved in our schools. It’s a winning formula: smart kid + hard work + great teachers + supportive parents = success.

 So what’s next for Dan? He’s applied to Mizzou, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The University of Minnesota, Washington University Saint Louis, The University of Michigan, and Case Western Reserve University. He has acceptance letters from the first three, and I suspect more are on the way. Dan’s hoping to combine his two passions, robotics and Latin, into engineering and classics double major.  When asked what advice he would give his fellow students, Dan says,

“I've found out that it is possible to hold down the workload that comes with multiple AP classes. The important thing is to keep working, and you can indeed get everything done. Other than that, I don't seek to give advice: I'm just as much a beginner at this whole "life" thing as everyone else.” 

A beginner, perhaps, but such a stellar beginning.  Well done, Dan.  You’ve made us all very proud.

UPDATE:  Dan, who will be attending Washington University this fall, is the recipient of the first Alvin Marvin Ostro Class of 1945 Student Achievement Memorial Scholarship.  This $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a graduating University City High School senior who has displayed exceptional performance in one or more of the following areas: academics, citizenship, sportsmanship and community service. 

by Kim Deitzler, guest blogger