Students at Jesuit choose to take one of four languages freshman year: Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Latin. Each course is unique, not only in content but also in how it shapes every student’s experience. Latin class, especially, has a particularly strong effect on its students because of the Junior Classical League, or JCL.
Recently, a number of Jesuit Latin students participated in the JCL’s art competition. One of the competitors, Max Ford ‘19 explained “It is one of the many categories that Latin students can participate in at Junior Classical League competitions at the area, state, and national levels. There are many art categories, such as models, sculpture, monochromatic and polychromatic drawings, paintings, and photography.”
“JCL art is a competition of various mediums where students submit art pieces pertaining to Greco-Roman history or mythology,” summed up Carson Ward ‘18. Carson began work on his Hera statue “the day we came back from winter break.” The results came back the day of the competition, and Carson received first place in the area for his piece. Carson qualified for the Texas State JCL art competition and will be submitting his work again soon.
Overall, Jesuit students won over 60 ribbons at the competition, a pretty impressive number considering the number of JCL artists at Jesuit.
Latin has a profound impact on the students who take it. Whether it be through the art, the language, the competitions, or the fascinating history of it all. Junior Classical League gives Latin students an experience that no other students get from their language courses, a sense of community and inner-school competition over common passions. Both Max and Carson will be competing in JCL art next year, and Carson will be taking Latin 4 next year as an optional senior course.
