Spring 2016
11 Can’t-Miss National Convention Events
Michael Kearney is a guest writer hailing from the state of
Wisconsin. He is the National Junior Classical League 1st
Vice President, and he attended the 2016 OJCL
Convention.
To First-Time Convention Attendees (and everyone reading
this):
1. General
Assembly I
This holds
true for all the
General
Assemblies—
partly because
they are
mandatory—but
trust me when I
say this one is
special. The first GA is the earliest time that all of the
convention’s nearly two thousand participants gather
together, and one is able to ascertain the scale of the whole
thing. For returning delegates, it serves as a reminder of
what they have missed over the past fifty-one weeks while
for new delegates, it is the beginning of a brand new
journey.
3. Olympika Track and Field
A.M.
I’ll preface this with a caveat—track begins at 7:15
If you haven’t already abandoned me, I’ll try to
convince you. The NJCL Convention features both Ludi
(team sports, which I’ll get to later) and Olympika (individual
games). Although Latin Convention would not typically be
thought of as a home for any things athletic, sports play a
large and highly competitive role for many delegates. Come
see world-class as athletes such as OJCL 2015-2016 Editor
Josh Young compete for eternal glory in all the events
typical of a high school track meet.
2. Agora
4. Spirit
Again, you have to be there, but this one’s really
worth it. If you attended States, you might think you know it
all—you ain’t seen nothing yet (seeing a theme?). 2,000
Latin students. IU Auditorium. Cheering, dancing,
screaming. Ohio always seems to fall just short—can you
change that?
You’ll hear this a lot over the course of convention—
but if you’ve never seen a Nationals agora, you don’t know
what you’re missing. Named after the public market space
in ancient Athens, Agora (switched from the less classical
“Bazaar” a few years back) provides an opportunity for
schools and states from around the country to sell
merchandise as a way of raising money for the coming year.
Especially look out for Virginia’s famous “Varsity Latin” tshirts and Wisconsin’s “Ludi” jerseys (shameless plug).
VI