“ Most of this stuff was going to kids of color so I told my mom ; and that ' s when I got the idea to make a Black Athena drawing and sell it to raise money so that we could buy more Black dolls , so that the kids getting those dolls would be able to connect with them .”
With a letterpress printer and her family ’ s help ,
Claudia made prints of her Black Athena illustration and sold the prints online . With the profits from the sales , Claudia headed to Target .
“ I bought almost all the Black dolls in the store and donated them to Cradles to Crayons ,” she
said .
" Black Athena ," drawing by Claudia Levin-Dorko
In 2017 , Claudia Levin-Dorko was presented with a Student Service Leadership Award from Cradles to Crayons in recognition for her work .
Claudia and her brother Béla have been homeschooled since 2016 , and Claudia ’ s love for classics continues to grow . She earned a perfect score twice on the National Mythology Exam and once on the Exploratory Latin Exam . She takes Latin through Outschool and its British equivalent , Thinker ’ s Meetup
Claudia also participates in the Instagram account ClassicsChallenge , where she has recently made videos of herself reciting two of the Homeric hymns to Athena . Claudia has a strong interest in the role of Black scholars in classics , the whitewashing of classical studies , and the history of Roman Britain , particularly the indigenous people of Britain .
The life of a young scholar is not complete without the arts , and Claudia is no exception . She sings and plays electric bass , and is in the children ’ s troupe of the Afro-Cuban dance company , Kulu Mele .
Claudia Levin-Dorko
The passion Claudia Levin-Dorko has for learning is something we hope to see celebrated and replicated in every classroom . At the heart of Claudia ’ s enthusiasm lies her dedication to service and a vision for a better , more inclusive future of classical studies .
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