Competing at a national level

Latin club members move to the next convention

Seniors Aaron Jackson and Stephen Whitacre place at the Texas State Junior Classical League Convention on the weekend of April 5. Courtesy of Latin Club.

Four Latin club students competed at the Texas State Junior Classical League Convention in Austin, Texas the weekend of April 5. The convention consisted of various contests including both art/media and academic tests. Two students will move on to the National Junior Classical League Convention where they will travel to Fargo, North Dakota on July 25-31.

“The NJCL is the same format only it’s on a national scale,” Latin club sponsor Janet England said. “People from all over the United States are going to meet, [the contests] are up to a national scale, and Texas takes the largest delegation because we have a really strong student classical [team] which is awesome.”

Senior Stephen Whitacre competed in the mythology category and, to his surprise, won second place. With his second place win, he advances to nationals.

“I studied from time to time to understand what to do and I went back to look at what I remembered in the past so I can do well,” Whitacre said.

Senior Aaron Jackson received first place in Roman and Greek history; this will not be his first year competing at the national level.

“There are a few books [I check] out from the library every year that I’ve done [the competition],” Jackson said. “I’ll just read constantly about it [with] internet articles, books and just kept brushing up on things to prepare.”