Trigon Championship

Congratulations to Will Schuessler, Caleb Littlejohn, and Jack Jabbour for advancing to the finals of the Lower School Trigon competition. The championship round will take place during Lower School assembly on Tuesday, May 9 in Thomas Amphitheatre (weather permitting).

Mr. Suddarth with 2014 champion Bays Webb

Lower School Trigon

The first round of the annual Lower School trigon competition will begin Wednesday, April 26 at 2:30 PM. We will meet in LS 106. This is open to any Lower School students who joined the Latin Club this year.

The trigon instructional video is posted here.

Bernice Fox Classics Writing Contest

Congratulations to Advanced Readings in Latin student Chris Kerkhof for placing in the 2017 Bernice Fox Classics Writing Contest, an annual creative writing competition sponsored by Monmouth College (IL). The contest this year featured the following topic: “A Figure from Classical History, Literature, or Mythology as the Next President of the United States.” Chris wrote about Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon, a novel written by the Roman author Petronius.

Contest information and the full list of winners is posted here.

A Game of World Conquest

Since January, MUS Latin students have been involved in an epic tournament of Imperium, an ancient Roman version of the board game Risk. Congratulations to the winners of this semester's tournament:

Upper School:

1st Place - Ev Nichol
2nd Place - Loyd Templeton
3rd Place - Brooks Eikner

Lower School:

1st Place - Will Schuessler
2nd Place - Edwin Shy
3rd Place - Stefan Smith

National Latin Exam Report

We have received the results of the 2017 National Latin Exam:

85  Summa Cum Laude Gold Medals
32  Maxima Cum Laude Silver Medals
18  Magna Cum Laude
14  Cum Laude

Generally speaking, the top 10 to 15% of students nationwide earn Summa Cum Laude, the next 10 to 15% receive Maxima, and so forth. Everyone who scores above the national average qualifies for one of the four awards.

Special recognition goes to the students who earned perfect scores this year:

Latin One: Edwin Shy, Warren Barry, Fisher Marks, Ryan Peng
Latin Two: Kyle Koester, Rob McFadden, Charlie Eason, Vijdan Gill, Reid Chandler
Latin Four Poetry: Chang Yu

Congratulations to all of the students who placed in the contest this year!

TJCL Convention Report

Is this a picture of 44 MUS Latin students making the "U" sign? Or are they holding up 10 fingers? The answer is yes.

This weekend, 37 schools across the state attended the Tennessee Junior Classical League State Convention at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville. MUS finished in 1st place overall for the 10th consecutive year.

This was an impressive team effort, and all of the students on the trip contributed in some way to the 1510 points that MUS scored in a wide variety of Latin-related competitions. Our top performers were Rob McFadden, Brooks Eikner, Kyle Koester, and Ethan Hurst, all of whom finished in the individual top ten at the convention.

All three MUS Certamen teams advanced to the finals, with the Latin One and Latin Two teams winning their respective tournaments. (The Advanced team finished in third place, behind two very strong Certamen teams from middle Tennessee.) Also, the MUS chariot team finished in first place, bouncing back after last year's devastating loss by a mere fraction of a second.

Congratulations to all of the students who were a part of this outstanding group achievement!

Latin Language Appreciation Month

MUS Latin Club Co-Consuls Aneesh Ram and Brooks Eikner proudly display a proclamation from Governor Bill Haslam establishing April of 2017 as Latin Language Appreciation Month in the state of Tennessee.

The MUS Latin program has secured this proclamation from the governor every year since 2014.

CAMWS Translation Contest

We have received the results of the 2017 Classical Association of the Middle West and South Latin Translation Contest. 985 students in 53 schools in 19 states (and one European country) participated this year.

Top students are recognized with cash awards (top 2-3% of all students), book awards (top 3-8%), and certificates of commendation (top 20%).

  

MUS winners:

Latin Two: Rob McFadden, Reid Chandler, Cameron Evans, Vijdan Gill, Ben Cramer, Will Portera, Arnab Das, Charlie Eason, Kyle Koester, Gregory Guo

Latin Three: Loyd Templeton, Ty Williams, Ethan Hurst, Philip Wunderlich, Ethan Lam, Bailey Keel, James Blatchford

Latin Four: Chang Yu, Charlie Evans, Jason Wang, Jon Staffel, Jacob Webb, Brad Kerkhof, Matthew Temple, Jackson Howell, Josh Tyler

Latin Five: Brooks Eikner, Rahul Mehra

There were a total of 40 winners in Tennessee. MUS had 28 of them.

Convention Announcements

Final instructions and reminders for the students who are going to next week's TJCL State Convention are posted here.

Comprehensive information about specific convention events is posted here.

Latin Honor Society

Congratulations to the students who have qualified for the Latin Honor Society this year!

Requirements:

1. Be a JCL member.

2. Have an A average in Latin class through the first three quarters of the year. (qualifying average = 1Q + 2Q + EX1 + 3Q ÷ 4)

3. Participate in the Latin Fall Festivus and / or TJCL State Convention.

4. Teacher approval is required (acceptable behavior, no honor violations in Latin class, etc.)

Latin One: Cooper Grinspun, Holden Pate, Will Schuessler, Edwin Shy, Carrigan Sulcer

Latin Three: Louis Allen, James Blatchford, Ethan Hurst, Ethan Lam, Ev Nichol, Brandan Roachell, Sellers Shy, Zuhair Somjee, Jet Tan, Warren Turner, Loyd Templeton, Ty Williams, Henry Wood, Philip Wunderlich

Advanced Readings: Brooks Eikner, Aneesh Ram

(This is just the list for my classes this semester, not the comprehensive MUS list.)

Upper School students will be recognized at the evening awards ceremony on April 12. Lower School students will be recognized at the Order of the Owl ceremony on May 12.

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

A video from the Bubones Theatre.

Sure to be an instant classic.

Upcoming Convention Tryouts

Mythology Spelling Bee
Tuesday, March 7
OP
Room SCI 2

Chariot Race / Olympika
Wednesday, March 22
immediately after school
Coach Torrey's office

National Latin Exam

The National Latin Exam is coming up soon. It will be administered from 2:15 to 3:15 PM on Wednesday, March 8 in Hyde Chapel. This is a requirement for all MUS Upper School and Lower School Latin students. The NLE does not allow a provision for make-ups.

In addition to the review and practice students are working on in class, we recommend that they take advantage of the NLE Practice App.

Convention Registration

The list of students who have registered for the TJCL State Convention is posted here. If there are any mistakes or omissions, please let Mr. Sellers know as soon as possible.

A total of 44 MUS students (Latin One through Five) have signed up.

Convention Reminder

Convention paperwork is due this Friday, February 10. More information is posted here.