Maryland has had a very busy few months! The MDJCL executive board held two board meetings over Facetime, where officers presented project and event ideas. Our first competition of the year, the Saturnalia Certamen at Eleanor Roosevelt HS, went off without a hitch. We reenacted various Roman fables, began blood feuds in Open Certamen, and ended the holiday celebration with a Magistrum Certamen, as all state officers quizzed teachers with questions of their design. After lots of hard work and collaboration from schools across Maryland and DC, we were thrilled to bring back our annual tradition of Lupercalia Certamen (at Gilman School) from pre-pandemic times. Attendance is the highest since pre-pandemic, and I’m in awe of the outpouring of love I’ve seen from JCLers at all levels and schools. It’s refreshing for the MDJCL to unite and share our passions and knowledge. Our officers have been dutifully tending to their projects! President Maddie Howell created bi-monthly Latin virtual competitions to increase involvement beyond certamen and began updating our website. Vice President Alondra Moreno-Santana launched her pen-pal program to connect classics students from across the state and started her book drive to benefit the Maryland Book Bank. Parliamentarian William O’Donnell (that’s me!) published Maryland’s first Campaign Corner to help advise future MDJCLcandidates with election guidelines & advice from current officers andstarted to draft amendments to our state constitution. Historian Sloane Wehman created an official MDJCL historian Instagram (@mdjclhistorian) to log our yearly events in depth. Editor Mia Mazzeo, posted her third edition of Maryland’s Torch.
As we look forward, the MDJCL will host two more events preceding NatCon at Emory: Gladiator Day at the Country School in mid-March and a two-day State Convention at Easton High School in late April. At States, we’ll host open certamen, academic testing, agon, art competitions, and the biggest event of the year: officer elections for 2023-2024! We can’t wait to see familiar faces in Atlanta as we
continue to spread the MDJCLove. Be prepared for any stray MDJCLers to ask to take selfies with your delegation for our state selfie competition!
Greetings from Massachusetts!
In December, MassJCL hosted its annual Classics Day event, where Massachusetts classics students from almost twenty schools around the state of Massachusetts gathered together at Boston University to hear from classics scholars on their research. This year’s theme was “A Day in the Life,” which focused on the daily lives of those frequently marginalized in the history of ancient Mediterranean societies. Professor James Uden of Boston University started off our first general assembly with opening remarks describing his earliest memories of studying the classics in his secondary school in Sydney, Australia. Our eleven presenters gave lectures and seminars spread across our morning and afternoon sessions to MassJCL students and teachers on topics ranging from ancient coins to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. MassJCL would like to thank Boston University for allowing us to use their student union to host this event. Our amazing 1st VP, Samhitha Vundi, coordinated this event.