This story was contributed by Lisa Masoni, middle school Latin teacher, and Scott Paterson, upper school Latin teacher.
The California Junior Classical League celebrated its return to in-person events with an epic Ludi Octobres (October Games) hosted by Saint Ignatius High School in San Francisco on Oct. 22. Twenty-three Latin students from the middle and upper schools participated in assemblies and workshops, academic testing, face-painting, Kahoots, naumachia (staged ship battles), a service project and Certamen (a Latin-themed quiz bowl). The best parts of the day included a return to in-person traditions, such as spirit cheers and the chance to interact with more than 600 students from 21 northern California schools.
Harker students brought home the following individual awards:
Middle School 1 (Grade 6)
Ryo Sugaya: Third in Roman Daily Life
Ethan Weyn: First in Derivatives, first in Mythology
Middle School 2 (Grade 7)
Jacob Chung: First in Latin Grammar 1, second in Derivatives
Shreyas Karnam: First in Reading Comprehension Novice, third in Latin Grammar 1, member of the first-place Open Certamen Novice team
Zahra Syed: First in Derivatives
Middle School 3 (Grade 8)
Shamik Khowala: First in Derivatives, first in Reading Comprehension Intermediate
Ameera Ramzan: Second in Latin Vocabulary, second in Reading Comprehension Intermediate
Demi Zheng: First in Latin Vocabulary, second in Derivatives
Upper School, Level 3
Rahul Sundaresan: Second in Derivatives, second in Mythology
Upper School, Advanced Level
Ainslie Chen: First in Vocabulary, second in Reading Comprehension Advanced, member of third-place team in Open Certamen
Felix Chen: Third in Daily Life
Trisha Iyer: First in Daily Life, first in Reading Comprehension Advanced, member of first-place team in Open Certamen
Hannah Levanon: Member of first-place team in Open Certamen, second in Daily Life
Kabir Ramzan: First in Derivatives, second in Vocabulary
In late July, eight Harker students joined the California delegation to the 2022 National Junior Classical League Convention, the first in-person JCL event since 2019. Several more attended remotely as long-distance delegates. The California delegates endured quite an odyssey — overcoming plane delays and cancellations, daily thunderstorms and an alligator swamp in the middle of the University of Louisiana, Lafayette campus — to enjoy a week of competitions, workshops and opportunities to bond with Latin students from the state and all over the country.
“A highlight for many was joining forces with [New Hampshire] and [New Jersey] for a spirit battle against the Texas behemoth,” said Lisa Masoni. “In the opinion of the national second VP, the consortium of small-state delegations was definitely more spirited! “
One of the most important events at the convention is the election of national officers to lead the organization for the 2022-23 school year. Senior Rupert Chen was elected first vice president. Harker’s last national officer, Maya Nandakumar ’15, held the same office in her senior year. Chen, fresh off a stint digging at the archaeological site of Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall, will be responsible for promoting membership and publicity during his term of office.
Below are the top 10 awards earned by Harker delegates:
Harker students had another outstanding year taking the National Latin Exam, with 40 students earning awards and two perfect scores (Trisha Iyer, grade 10, and Jonathan Xue, grade 9). In addition, three students (Iyer, Alec Zhang, grade 10, and Nicholas Wei, grade 11) received special book awards in recognition of earning gold medals on the previous four exams. Iyer received an additional special book award for scoring perfectly on the last three exams, a feat achieved by just 26 of 100,000 test takers worldwide.
The full list of awards won by Harker is below.
Intermediate Latin:
Summa Cum Laude/Gold Medal – Kai Hong and Jeremy Peng, both grade 9
Intermediate Latin, Reading Comprehension:
Perfect Exam: Jonathan Xue, grade 9
Summa Cum Laude/Gold Medal: Omkar Govil-Nail, grade 10; Daniel Chen, Felix Chen, Andy Chung, Hima Thota, Lindsey Tuckey and Ethan Wang, all grade 9
Maxima Cum Laude/Silver Medal: Ford Johnson, grade 10; Audrey Cheng, Jason Li, Varun Thvar, grade 9
Magna Cum Laude: Hannah Levanon, grade 9
Cum Laude: Chase White, grade 10
Advanced Latin, Prose:
Summa Cum Laude/Gold Medal: Ainslie Chen, Isabella Lo, Harriss Miller, Rohan Ramkumar, Agastya Ravuri, Jason Shim, Grant Yang, all grade 9
Maxima Cum Laude/Silver Medal: Eric Zhang, Nelson Gou, both grade 9
Magna Cum Laude: Natalie Chen, grade 10; Caleb Tang, grade 9
Cum Laude: Chloe Lee, grade 10
Advanced Latin, Poetry:
Perfect Exam: Trisha Iyer, grade 10
Summa Cum Laude/Gold Medal: Catherine Li, Michelle Wei, Alec Zhang and all grade 10; Alan Jiang, grade 11
Maxima Cum Laude/Silver Medal: Kabir Ramzan and Edward Huang, both grade 10
This story was submitted by middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni.
A delegation of 19 middle school Latin students kicked off spring break with the Junior Classical League’s second (and hopefully last) Virtual State Latin Convention. Some students chose to attend virtually together, welcoming a group of upper school students to the library to attend assemblies, workshops and competitions over Zoom. It was the first visit to the Union campus for some of the upper school students.
The middle school delegation took third place in Spirit with seventh grader Megha Unny’s poster and song parody, titled “The Twelve Days of Saturnalia.” Other school awards included first place for Scrapbook (Chelsea Xie, historian, grade 7) and third for T-shirt Design (Raeanne Li, grade 7).
The MS1 certamen (quiz bowl) team of sixth graders Avi Gupta, Rory Hu, Zahra Syed and Lucas Yuan placed first in the state. The MS3 team – eighth graders Aidan Okyar, Kairui Sun and Rahul Sundaresan – placed second in their division, and the MS2 team – seventh graders Ameera Ramzan, Sanjith Senthil, Vera Sorotokin and Chelsea Xie – lost a heartbreaking tie breaker for third place and a seat in the final round, but fourth in the state is nothing to sneeze at!
Several upper school students will serve on the California JCL state board for the 2022-23 school year: sophomore Trisha Iyer as historian and junior Tiffany Chang as Nuntius editor. In addition, junior Rupert Chen was approved by the state to run for national first vice president.
Last but not least, Raeanne Li’s opinion piece for The Eagle Gazette on the need for students to respect each other’s choices for language study won Best School-Affiliated Media in the National Junior Classical League Publicity Contest for the month of March, with the following notification from the NJCL:
“Thank you for your submission for the Publicity Contest. This was a wonderful article, and we were moved by the message.”
Individual awards for the middle school delegates are listed below:
MS1/Grade 6:
Avi Gupta: Second in Daily Life, third in Derivatives, second in Pentathlon
Rory Hu: First in Derivatives, first in Reading Comprehension, first in Vocabulary, third in Dramatic Interpretation
Charlene Li: Fourth in Grammar, third in Mythology
Zahra Syed: First in Geography, second in Derivatives, first in Mythology
Lucas Yuan: Second in Geography, first in Grammar, first in Pentathlon, second in Reading Comprehension
MS2/Grade 7:
Shamik Khowala: Second in Daily Life, fourth in Mottoes; third in Reading Comprehension, first in Vocabulary, third in Dramatic Interpretation, second in Sight Reading
Lily Peng: Second in Classical Art, third in Geography, fourth in Daily Life, third in Grammar
Ameera Ramzan: Third in E-lympika Sit-ups, third in Daily Life, second in Grammar, second in Roman History, second in Reading Comprehension, third in Vocabulary, second in Latin Oratory
Vera Sorotokin: First in Vocabulary, first in Mottoes
Abby Wang: First in Daily Life, third in Derivatives, fourth in Reading Comprehension
Chelsea Xie: Third in Derivatives, third in Reading Comprehension, second in Dramatic Interpretation
Demi Zheng: Fourth in Derivatives
MS3/Grade 8:
Marisa Masoni: Third in Mythology, first in Painting, first in Mosaic
Aidan Okyar: First in Classical Art, first in Roman History, first in Mottoes, second in Mythology
Kairui Sun: First in Derivatives, first in Grammar, first in Reading Comprehension
Rahul Sundaresan: Second in Roman History, first in Mythology
Jonathan Szeto: First in Geography, second in Reading Comprehension
Had 2020 gone as planned, a contingent of upper and middle school Latin students would have headed to the University of Richmond in Virginia for the annual National Junior Classical League Convention. The convention was held virtually July 24-29 instead, with 12 Harker students joining the California delegation for games, academic competitions and assemblies.
Rupert Chen, grade 10, kicked off his term as second vice president of the California Junior Classical League by leading the California delegation in nightly organizational meetings and submissions to spirit and service competitions. California placed first in service (letters to representatives) and second overall for large states in spirit and service. Chen and his brother Felix, grade 8, appear at the 35-second mark in a video of one of the spirit themes, “Golden Slumbers/Purple Rain,” named for the JCL colors of purple and gold.
Rupert Chen also served as webmaster for CaJCL for the 2019-20 school year, and the CaJCL website placed first in the website competition. Kabir Ramzan, grade 9, is taking over as webmaster this year.
Students earned the following academic awards, competing at the level of Latin completed in 2019-20.
Level 1/2:
Rahul Sundaresan, grade 7: First in Academic Heptathlon, Ancient Geography, Hellenic History, Roman Life, Mythology, Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations, and Latin Derivatives; Second in Classical Art; Third in Roman History
Sundaresan also competed on the novice open certamen (quiz bowl) team that placed second. Open certamen teams are made up of students from different states.
Level 1:
Felix Chen, grade 8: Fifth in Latin Derivatives, Reading Comprehension and Roman Life
Level 2:
Trisha Iyer, grade 9: Fifth in Reading Comprehension
Kabir Ramzan, grade 9: Third in Latin Vocabulary
Michelle Wei, grade 9: Fifth in Reading Comprehension
Iyer and Ramzan also played on the California intermediate competitive certamen team, which placed eighth.
Level 3:
Tiffany Chang, grade 10: First in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations, fifth in Latin Vocabulary
Rupert Chen, grade 10: Fourth in Reading Comprehension Prose
Michelle Jin, grade 10: Third in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations
Lauren Liu, grade 10: First in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations, first in Latin Literature, second in Reading Comprehension Poetry, second in Classical Art, third in Latin Vocabulary, fifth in Latin Derivatives, fifth in Reading Comprehension Prose
Nicholas Wei, grade 10: First in Reading Comprehension Poetry, second in Latin Grammar, second in Latin Vocabulary, second in Reading Comprehension Prose
Level 4:
Ann Ryan, grade 11: Summa cum laude in Impromptu Art
Level 5+:
Jeffrey Fung ’20: Second in Greek Life and Literature, third in Reading Comprehension Poetry, third in Latin Vocabulary, fourth in Hellenic History, fourth in Roman Life, fifth in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations, fifth in Latin Literature
At the final assembly, Lisa Masoni, middle school Latin teacher, was presented with a Summa Cum Laude Sponsor award. This award recognizes contributions to JCL on the local, state and national level. Her nominators highlighted her service to CaJCL as treasurer for the past 14 years, as well as her work on the national level on the certamen moderator squad.
The theme of the 2019 National Junior Classical League Convention was “apes non sunt solitaria natura” (“Bees are not of a solitary nature”). Harker students participating as members of the California delegation were certainly as busy as bees, attending workshops and contest sessions, assemblies and sporting events. In addition to helping California take the top place in the spirit competition for medium-size delegations, the students brought home the following top 10 places. (Note: Students compete at the grade and Latin level they just completed in June.)
Felix Chen, grade 6, Level 1/2:
2nd in Ancient Geography, Greek Life and Literature, Roman History
3rd in Classical Art, Hellenic History, Latin Literature, Mythology
4th in Latin Derivatives, Reading Comprehension
5th in Academic Heptathlon
6th in Mottoes, Roman Life
7th in Greek Derivatives
8th in Latin Grammar
9th in Latin Vocabulary, Overall Academics
Felix also played on the California Novice Certamen (quiz bowl) team, which placed seventh.
Tiffany Chang, grade 8, Level 2:
4th in Reading Comprehension
5th in Sight Latin Reading
9th in Latin Literature, Mottoes
10th in Classical Greek, Essay
Tiffany played on the third-place Open Certamen Intermediate team.
(Note: Open Certamen teams are made of players from various states.)
Rupert Chen, grade 8, Level 2:
2nd in Sight Latin Reading
3rd in Reading Comprehension
5th in Essay
6th in Greek Life and Literature
Rupert played on the third-place Open Certamen Advanced team.
Michelle Jin, grade 8, Level 2:
2nd in Latin Literature
4th in Mottoes, Sight Latin Reading
6th in Classical Art, Reading Comprehension
8th in Essay
Lauren Liu, grade 8, Level 2:
4th in Reading Comprehension
8th in Essay
Edward Sun, grade 8, Level 2:
6th in Reading Comprehension
Jeffrey Fung, grade 11, Level 5+:
2nd in Reading Comprehension Prose, Sight Latin Reading (Poetry)
3rd in Reading Comprehension Poetry
4th in Ancient Geography, Classical Art, Greek Life and Literature
5th in Latin Literature, Latin Vocabulary, Mottoes, Roman Life, 100 Meters Senior Boys Track
6th in Classical Greek, Hellenic History, Mythology
8th in Latin Grammar
9th in Academic Heptathlon, Roman History
10th in Greek Derivatives
Jeffrey also played on the California Advanced Certamen (quiz bowl) team, which placed eighth.
Kyle Li, grade 11, Level 5+:
2nd in Hellenic History
3rd in Classical Greek
5th in Greek Life and Literature, Mythology
6th in Reading Comprehension Prose
7th in Reading Comprehension Poetry
9th in Greek Derivatives
At the California Junior Classical League Convention, held on April 13 and 14 at Menlo School, Harker upper school Latin students were successful in a large number of events, with Harker taking first place overall in its division.
Two students won awards for the best academic performance at their respective levels. Freshman Akshay Manglik won in level 3, competing against 223 other students, and sophomore Jeffrey Fung was the winner at the advanced level, in which 236 other students competed.
Fung was also the top scorer in the academic pentathlon and grammar II tests. Other top test scorers were senior Edgar Lin in derivatives and Andrew Semenza in reading comprehension III.
Several more Harker students earned top spots in other competitions, including Elliot Kampmeier, grade 9, who placed second in level 1 sight reading.
In the level 3 events, Manglik took first place in pentathlon and dramatic interpretation, second place in grammar II and third in derivatives. Anna Vazhaeparambil, grade 9, placed third in pentathlon, dramatic interpretation and cartoons. Sara Yen, grade 9, took second place in dramatic interpretation and grammar II, and junior Ben Yuan finished in second place for both reading comprehension III and sight reading, with a third place finish in Latin oratory.
At the advanced level, Jai Bahri, grade 10, placed second in sight reading (poetry), and Arohee Bhoja, grade 9, took second in dramatic interpretation. Junior Timothy Chang placed first in essay, third in classical art and third in daily life. In addition to his other wins, Fung also took first place in sight reading (poetry), third place in ancient geography and third place in sight reading (prose). Sophomore Avi Gulati placed first in grammar II, pentathlon and sight reading (poetry), as well as third in ancient geography and sight reading (poetry). Semenza took top spots in three events, placing first in reading comprehension III, second in derivatives and third in vocabulary. Sophomore Kyle Li had third place finishes in both mythology and pentathlon, and Lin took second place in pentathlon in addition to his win in derivatives. Finally, Sara Min, grade 11, placed third in mythology, Ayush Pancholy, also grade 11, finished third in reading comprehension III and sophomore Jack Hansen took third in reading comprehension III.
Earlier this week, Lisa Masoni’s grade 6 Latin students celebrated Rome’s 2,771st birthday (which fell on April 21) by preparing and sampling various foods from ancient Rome, including dates dipped in honey, sesame candy, meatballs and libum (Roman cheesecake). Students also had their first taste of garum, a fish sauce used by ancient Romans as a condiment. Sixth grader Ronald Cartee’s take on garum was that it would be “popular for a taste-test challenge,” Masoni said. Sensing a rare photo opportunity, Masoni had several students make faces that approximated their reactions to tasting garum for the first time, with varied (and very amusing) results.
This story was submitted by middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni.
A group of 24 middle school delegates joined the upper school students to attend Ludi Novembres, the fall Junior Classical League conference, at St. Francis High School in Sacramento on Nov. 18. They learned about Caesar and zombies, Latin demons and Heinrich Schliemann’s connection to Sacramento and the Gold Rush. They tossed grapes, played volleyball and collected seven boxes of books to donate to the Prisoners’ Literacy Project. They also earned many awards in their academic competitions.
At the MS1 level, four sixth graders earned top placings. Trisha Iyer and Arjun Moogimane took first and second place in mythology, respectively. Chloe Lee placed first in reading comprehension and third in grammar, and Akshat Mehrotra earned first place in daily life.
Several grade 7 students were winners at the MS2 level. Katelyn Abellera took second in reading comprehension; Rupert Chen placed first in reading comprehension and second in vocabulary; Michelle Jin won first in both grammar and reading comprehension; Jeremy Ko earned first in vocabulary, second in reading comprehension and third in mythology; Andrew Pluzhnikov earned second in daily life; Edward Sun took second in grammar; Hita Thota placed first in mythology; and Nicholas Wei took second in mythology and first in derivatives.
Eighth graders participated in the MS3 level of competition, where Akhilesh Chegu took first in vocabulary and grammar; Arjun Dixit placed third in derivatives; Maddie Jin took second in derivatives and first in mythology; Aaron Lo took third in mythology and second in daily life; Brandon Park placed second in mythology, third in vocabulary and first in derivatives; and Thresia Vazhaeparambil placed second in vocabulary, third in reading comprehension and third in daily life.
Students also participated in open certamen, a quiz bowl game where students play on mixed teams. Aaron Lo, Maddie Jin and Arjun Dixit played on the second place team and Akhilesh Mehrotra’s team placed first. This bodes well for the state convention in the spring, where students will put together a school team to play against other schools.
This story was submitted by upper school Latin teacher Scott Paterson.
On Nov. 18, 23 Harker upper school students headed to St. Francis School in Sacramento to attend Ludi Novembres, a California Junior Classical League event. Nearly 400 students from 18 schools attended this event. Harker students earned 16 individual awards. Additionally, seven students won team awards for Certamen (Latin quiz bowl).
Individual awards in Level 3 were won by grade 9 students Katie Li (tying for second place in grammar), Jason Lin (second place in mythology), Akshay Manglik (second place ties in derivatives and grammar), Maria Vazhaeparambil (first place in vocabulary) and Sara Yen (second place in vocabulary, tied for second place in grammar and derivatives).
Receiving individual awards at the advanced level were Timmy Chang, grade 11 (first place in daily life); Jeffrey Fung, grade 10 (first place in grammar, third place in reading comprehension); Kyle Li, grade 10 (first place in mythology, second place in vocabulary); Edgar Lin, grade 12 (first place in reading comprehension); and Kalyan Narayana, grade 10 (first place in vocabulary, third place in grammar).
In the Advanced Certamen Team Awards, Jeffrey Fung, Saloni Shah, grade 9, and Alex Young, grade 11, took first place, while grade 9 students Akshay Manglik, Sidra Xu and Sara Yen, along with senior Andrew Semenza, received second place awards.