On March 27, Alex Lang, Noah Chen, Alexa Yanez, Madeline McSorley (MJ), and Kyla Tavares, students taking Latin at Windermere Preparatory School, took part in the National Junior Classical League State Level Competition. This event took place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.
They were joined by about 500 other students and 40 schools from all over the state of Florida. The high schoolers from WPS stayed from the 27th to the 29th and competed in tests, orations, the arts, and more.
When the students arrived, they had the opening ceremony in which there were the opening remarks, call to order, announcements, candidate speeches for those running for office at the NJCL, closing remarks, and adjournment. The first night was spent acclimating to the event and to the hotel.
The next morning, the students woke up at 5 am to get ready and eat breakfast before testing began at 8 am. Alex Lang took an ancient world geography test, Alexa Yanez and Kyla Tavares took mythology, and Noah Chen and MJ took Derivates.
After testing was concluded, Noah Chen went to compete in an English Oratory competition in which he had written a speech in the style of the ancient world and performed it to judges.
Afterwards, the students had a break for lunch before they could go to the Latin Bazaar. This was a room in the hotel where many schools had set up stalls that sold different goods and crafts that they had made. These included daggers made out of resin, Latin themed shirts, crocheted animals, and books in Latin.
After pursuing and buying some of the items (or trading for them by bartering with cookies), there was Ludi which were different events and games that the students were able to participate in.
For example, some types of games were the Mystery Test, Impromptu Art, Toga Wars, and Four Square. The students had a busy afternoon participating in many of these events.
After the games, there was dinner for the group and from there they went to the art gallery. This was where the Latin students could walk around and see the art that others had made for the forum.
There were a variety of categories for art, some being paintings, photography, scrapbooks, maps, and paintings. Participants were able to walk around and admire a chimera model made by MJ and a painting of the myth of Arachne by Alexa Yanez.
The last day of the event began with the closing ceremony. There was the call to order, opening remarks, the results from the election, and the awards.
Alex Lang got 6th in geography and 3rd in the Audio visual category that she’d written Latin music for, Alexa Yanez got 3rd place for her painting, MJ got 5th for derivatives, Kyla Tavares got 6th for a myth she’d written, and Noah Chen got 3rd for his English Oration. The event ended with the closing remarks and adjournment.
These five students were able to represent Windermere Preparatory School’s academics and, especially, their Latin program with both the awards and memories they were able to bring back with them.
