Torch: U.S. LXVIII Spring 2019 | Page 20

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Greetings from the Golden State!

California finished 2018 strong, with two fantastic regional events! In November, St. Ignatius hosted a very successful LUDI regional convention. For an entire day, 640 attendees from all over Northern California gathered in beautiful San Francisco to celebrate the classics. Three weeks later, 858 Southern Californians spent their Saturday attending SCRAM in sunny Irvine, running from event to event at Woodbridge High School. When our delegates weren’t battling for Certamen dominance or the prized title of Best Roman Rapper, they wrote thank-you letters to teachers and gathered cans to donate to those in need.

Many California JCLers couldn’t get enough of SCRAM or LUDI. Two months later, students attended the very first Crossroads Certamen Tournament in the pouring Los Angeles rain. Although the term may seem oxymoronic, someone blessed the rains down in Africa SoCal. Some JCLers, emboldened by their success in Certamen, decided to, quite literally, dance in the downpour during the lunch break. Not even the thunderstorm could dampen our JCLers' spirits!

It’s hard to believe that our school year is halfway over. As the age-old adage goes, time flies while we’re having fun. In these past months, our state competed together, played together, and worked to help those in need together. The term #JCLove has been strengthened again and again, as our state bonded over new experiences and made new friends. It is my honor to deliver such news to our brothers and sisters across the nation, and to say that I am so proud of this community. We wish you all a 2019 full of joy!

Salvete omnes! Greetings from Arizona! Unlike our dry climate, Arizona has been thriving and doing so many exciting activities! In November, we had our annual Fall Forum event at Arizona State University where students from all over Arizona got to participate in numerous Latin activities and listened to interesting Classics-related lectures. In addition, we’ve been having tons of lively certamen events hosted by various schools — Gilbert Classical Academy, Basis Tucson North, Trivium Preparatory Academy, and Seton Catholic Preparatory. Lastly, and most importantly, our state convention is only a couple of weeks away and your AZJCL officers are working diligently to make sure that it’s going to be great! We hope to see lots of new and returning faces at state convention!

by Catherine Xia

CALIFORNIA

by sofia abolfathi

STATE UPDATES

STATE UPDATES

ARIZONA