Twelve BVNW students attended the Kansas Junior Classical League Convention April 17 at Shawnee Mission Northwest. The convention contained competitions and activities dealing with the classical Roman and Greek era.

BVNW Latin teacher Caitlin Rose said the convention had around 300 students from Kan. who are interested in the classical Roman and Greek culture. She said they all came together to participate in Latin-themed activities and competitions.

“Area Latin clubs will come together and engage in a variety of activities,” Rose said. “There are a few competitions that they can enter; they can enter an art competition (and) a costume competition that is based off of a mythological figure.”

Latin Club president, senior Priya Jain, attended the convention on Friday. She said the convention covers many different subject matters and has competitions for all the different Latin levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced, based on what Latin class the students are taking.

“It is kind of (a) friendly competition between the schools to get everyone interested in Latin, to compete and to show what we have learned throughout the year and throughout multiple years in Latin,” Jain said.

Rose said one of the main purposes of the competition is to give individuals interested in ancient Rome, mythology and Latin a good environment with other people who share their interests. She said other than competitions, there are activities Latin students can participate in. For example, participants are required to wear togas.

“We have a Roman banquet,” Jain said. “All students have to wear togas that whole evening, and you have to be wearing your toga to get into the banquet and get food.”

Jain said one of her favorite parts of Latin Club, and especially the Latin convention, is the variety of subjects the activities are based on. She said there are activities for lots of people, whether students are interested in mythology or oratory or grammar.

“I love that it is solely based off of Latin, but even that has so much to it,” Jain said. “It is not just translating these old texts, it is also noticing how it still pertains today and all the mythology and the stories they used to write, so even though it is just Latin, it is still extremely broad.”

Sophomore Elie Simon said several of the activities they do in Latin Club are similar to those at the Latin convention.  Simon said one activity they spend a lot of time preparing for is Certamin, a Latin trivia game.

“We spend all year preparing for [the convention], like what are the costumes going to be,” Simon said. “We have to prepare for Certamin, so, pretty much, Latin Club is an extension of Latin Con.”

Sophomore Maddie Kane, said the purpose of the convention is not only to compete in events testing students’ knowledge, it is also to meet other people with similar interests.

“[The purpose is] to be able to basically be nerdy with other Latin students,” Kane said. “And also to be able to talk about [Latin] with a larger group than your team, because in our club there are only 12 people who are going, so it is a really small community.”

Jain agreed with Kane, saying it is fun to be around people who have similar interests. She said that is one of the best things about the Latin Club and the Latin convention.

“There [is] so much Latin around us, and [the convention] shows us how much of a big part Latin plays in our everyday lives,” Jain said. “It’s fun to be around people who have the same interests as you. There are so little people in our school who know about Latin and are interested in Latin. When you go to the convention, everyone is interested in Latin.”

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Latin 1

Mara Roberts- 5^th place for the Derivatives Exam, 4^th place for the Mythology Exam, 2^nd place for the Reading Comprehension Exam

Divya Jain- 2^nd place for the Grammar Exam

Latin 2

Elie Simon- 4^th place for the Mythology Exam

Alyssa Barrett- 1^st place for the Mythology Exam

Art

Adara Bartholome-4^th place for 2D art

Anna Welsh- 1^st place for 3D art

Costumes

Nate Kochuyt- 5^th place for the male costume (Phaethon)

Mara Roberts- 3^rd place for the female costume (Circe)

Tori Dye & Jack Anderson- 3^rd place for the couples costume (Aphrodite & Hephaestus)