Last week, the Saint Stephen’s Latin Team spent three days, from April 18 until April 20, in Orlando to participate in the State Latin Forum. Students from both the Middle School and the Upper School went to compete in a variety of contests, such as testing, art, certamen, and even athletic competitions.

As a result of the competition,  we have several students who are literally the best in the state in their areas of expertise!

Our team did very well, as many people won trophies for scoring in the top five for their tests or art. Many earned more than one trophy, and Junior Matthew Thomas won a book for getting first place on both of his tests. Also, our certamen teams performed very well, as our level 1 and level 2 teams each won second place, and our advanced team won third place.

The forum wasn’t all about testing and certamen, however, as many students won awards in the arts. Junior Carter Beckstein got 2nd in dramatic interpretation, which is which is a dramatic recitation of a Latin passage. Several students also won awards for art projects, like 7th grader Sarah Stein, who won first place in paintings for a painting of the Acropolis at night, 7th grader Julia Craig, who got first place in maps for a map of Odysseus’s travels, and Tony Rappold, who got 3rd place in games.

The Saint Stephen’s Latin team tends to be very active in the FJCL (Florida Junior Classical League) and the NJCL (National Junior Classical League), which organize Latin events nationwide. This year, our team included two FJCL officers. Juniors Astrid Culp and Matthew Thomas were the FJCL Vice President and Parliamentarian respectively. 

Furthermore, several students ran for state office. Matthew Thomas ran for President and Freshman Annie Class ran for Parliamentarian. Astrid Culp, who had even higher ambitions, ran to be nominated to run for First Vice President of the NJCL. Unfortunately, only Matthew won his election and was sworn in as the new FJCL President.

Also a major part of the State forum was the more social events. Throughout the weekend, students were able to participate in a community service project, visit the bazaar (basically a huge market where they can buy various Latin paraphernalia), or just hang out around the hotel (which has a pool). 

The hard work of the team members payed off the most, however, when it came to overall sweepstakes. The junior division (Latin 1/2 – Latin 1) won 3rd place and the senior division (Latin 2 and up) won 7th place.

This year was Sophomore Thomas Joyce’s first state forum, and he had a very positive impression of the experience. When asked how he felt about his first forum, he said, “The fact that I did badly on my tests didn’t matter because State forum was fun.”

Finally, the Latin team celebrated its success with a visit to Universal Studios, which has been an annual tradition over the last few years. They arrived at the park at around 3:00 after having attended the closing ceremony for the forum that morning. Hanging around the park have the team a chance to relax and unwind after all their hard work during the forum.