volume viii, issue i fall mmxix
E H T
C S
E B I R
newsletter of the thomas jefferson latin honor society
officer profiles page ii
certamen page vi
njcl page v
myth pumpkins page vi
Samuel Gwon, Daphne Feigin, Iris Guo, and Harsha Ravella pose in their Roman garb
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incipiāmus! Welcome to a New Year of TJ Latin! Salvete, omnes! On behalf of the TJ Latin Honor Society Executive Board, I would Consuls Justin Han & Jungmin Shin like to warmly welcome you to the 2019-20 school year! Whether you are a nascent LatPraetores Magni J.W. Strassberg & in learner reading about the Cornelians or a seasoned Latin student studying Catullus, we Thomas Donohue all hope that you are as excited for a new year Praetores Maximae Jing Liu & of TJ Latin as we are.
LHS Officers 2019-2020
Miranda Xiong
Censor
Yullee Moon
Tribune
Joy Chung
Reges Certaminis Joseph Amsbary,
David Chen, Andrew
Hadikusumo, & Ayush
This year’s NJCL convention theme is “Omnes...summa ope niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant”, from Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae, which in essence means “It befits all to strive with the greatest effort, lest they pass their lives in silence.” I challenge all of you to pursue your dreams with the same vigor Catiline had while trying to overthrow the Roman Republic.
Viswanathan
Dominus Telae Artifices
I’ll leave you with these parting words - littera scripta manet. It’s my goal this year to Joshua Mutterperl document all the triumphs and adventures Reva Hirave, Jamie that us Latin students experience. I hope you’ll be a part of all the fun!
Lee, & Janice Li
Auctor
Karen Song
Proconsuls
Jonathan Daniel,
Charlie Dobson, Aimee Feng,
Magistrae
& Emily Ye
Christine Conklin & Patricia Lister
-Karen Song, 2019-20 LHS Editor
SCRIBE Code
The Scribe is TJ’s bimonthly Latin newsletter. If you would like to submit to The Scribe, please contact Auctor Karen Song at 2021ksong@ tjhsst.edu or through Facebook. For more information on the TJ Latin program, please visit our award-winning website at https://activities.tjhsst.edu/latin/
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meet the officers! Consuls Justin “Augustus” Han 12th Grade, Latin V Favorite Latin Phrase: acta non verba Favorite LHS Event: “The Ides of March, since we really get to embrace our inner cult and the skit for caesar’s death is always fun to watch.”
Praetores Magni Thomas “Titus” Donohue 11th Grade, Latin III Favorite Latin Phrase: satis bene Favorite LHS Event: “Myth pumpkins; I love seeing how each partnership takes a completely different approach. Some plan it out on a sheet of paper and some people just go for it and throw a bunch of random stuff on their pumpkin.”
Jungmin “Orpheus” Shin
J.W. “Aeolus” Strassberg
12th Grade, Latin V
11th Grade, AP Latin
Favorite Latin Phrase: aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Favorite Latin Phrase: audere est facere
Favorite LHS Event: “TJ Certamen, because preparing for certamen was one of the most fun I’ve had with LHS.”
Favorite LHS Event: “Convention; it’s always so much fun to participate in spirit, compete in the oratory contests, and apply everything you’ve learned over the past few years in an exciting and meaningful way.”
Censor Yullee “Hortensia” Moon 11th grade, Latin III Favorite Latin Phrase: ad astra per aspera Favorite LHS Event: “Myth pumpkins, because I like seeing the art of other Latin students!”
Tribune Joy “Laelia” Chung 12th Grade, Latin V Favorite Latin Phrase: ad meliora Favorite LHS Event: “Rome’s birthday, because it’s fun to watch everyone try all sorts of cool and crazy tricks to jump over the wall as it gets higher.”
Praetores Maximae Jing “Iulia” Liu 11th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: apes non sunt solitaria natura Favorite LHS Event: “I enjoy Latin iNite because the working process is a great bonding experience and its cool to see everything come together.” Miranda “Psyche” Xiong 11th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: crescit eundo Favorite LHS Event: “Rome’s birthday; It’s just a lot of fun stuff to do with your friends and you can basically just do very cult-ish things for 45 minutes. Very enjoyable.”
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officer profiles Artifices Reva “Pallas” Hirave 11th Grade, Latin III Favorite Latin Phrase: festina lente Favorite LHS Event: “Myth pumpkins, because it’s a lot of fun and really cool to see how creative people are!”
Reges Certaminis
Joseph “Phoenix” Amsbary 12th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: docendo discimus Favorite LHS Event: “I think anyone who truly considers themself to be a part of the TJ Latin cult has to attend Lupercalia at least once. It really embodies some of the most ancient, cultish aspects of Rome.”
Jamie “Iris” Lee
David “Sulla” Chen
12th Grade, AP Latin
12th Grade, Latin V
Favorite Latin Phrase: ad meliora
Favorite Latin Phrase: aequam mementō rēbus in arduīs servāre mentem
Favorite LHS Event: “Myth Pumpkins - People get really creative and it’s fun to see what turns out.”
Janice “Chloe” Li 12th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: carpe diem Favorite LHS Event: “Convention is my favorite LHS event because I love how festive and fun it is!”
Dominus Telae Name: Joshua “Tiberius” Mutterperl 12th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Favorite LHS Event: “Ice Cream Social: you’ve got Latin, socializing, and ICE CREAM!! Need I say more?”
Favorite LHS Event: “NJCL Convention; it’s the perfect combination of walking around in nice summer weather, meeting and re-meeting people from other states, and, of course, playing certāmen.” Andrew “Cornelius” Hadikusumo 11th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: crescat scientia vita excolatur Favorite LHS Event: “Rome’s birthday is my favorite event because its so fun and cool to get together with friends and celebrate through various activities and competitions!” Ayush “Aegeus” Viswanathan 12th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: audentes fortuna iuvat Favorite LHS Event: “TJ Certamen, because it is probably the biggest event LHS hosts every year and it’s fun to see your hundred-ish hours of hard work come into fruition.”
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officer profiles Auctor
Proconsuls
Karen “Pallas” Song
Jonathan “Augustus” Daniel
11th Grade, AP Latin
12th Grade, AP Latin
Favorite Latin Phrase: ālīs volat propriīs
Favorite Latin Phrase: festina lente
Favorite LHS Event: “Latin iNite, because we get to tell the stories of legendary mythological figures through words and movements.”
Favorite LHS Event: “Lupercalia, it’s one of the most interactive events, since you get to play with the whole group.”
Charlie “Romulus” Dobson 12th Grade, AP Latin Favorite Latin Phrase: carthago delenda est! Favorite LHS Event: “Convention, because it’s awesome to see a huge group of people that all care about Latin come together.”
Aimee “Caelia” Feng The 2019-2020 Latin Honor Society Officers
12th Grade, Latin V Favorite Latin Phrase: alea iacta est Favorite LHS Event: “Convention, because I get to chill with my friends and be nerdy.”
Emily “Lucia” Ye 12th Grade, Latin V Favorite Latin Phrase: nōn est ad astra mollis ē terrīs via
Joseph Amsbary, Magistra Lister, and Daniel Zeng “triple” in their varsity Latin shirts
Favorite LHS Event: “TJ Certamen - We start preparing for it more than three months in advance every year, and it’s always amazing to see our hard work pay off on the day of the event!”
v national convention spotlight TJHSST, VJCL Excel at NJCL Convention From July 26th to July 31st, a legion of 22 TJ students from all levels spent a week packed with Latin fun at the 66th annual National Junior Classical League Convention. This year’s convention took place at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, where the 2010 and 1997 NJCL conventions were also held. This year’s theme was “apes non sunt solitaria natura” from Varro’s De Agri Cultura, which means “bees are not of a solitary nature.” At convention, TJ students launched into Latin spirit, competing in academic contents, creative and graphic arts, and World Series Certamen. “Compared to state convention, there’s a much wider variety of activities. We made lots of friends with students who weren’t even Virginians; we hung out with a lot of people from Texas, Georgia, and Florida.” said senior Laney Moy. “You have a much longer period of time to interact and have fun with others. It’s hard to get really close to somebody from another school at [VA convention] because there’s only
two days. But at Nats, we had a whole week and the schedule was a little more spread out.” said senior Rayna Schoenberger. Virginia won spirit on two separate days, as well as overall spirit. VA spirit was led by VJCL
2nd VP Savannah Thompson. “[VA spirit] was fantastic. Savvy did a great job; every day we had a new set of shirts and headbands and a new cheer.” said Moy. VJCL president Joce-
lyn Robertson was elected to the office of NJCL president, and TJ’s very own Emily Ye moved up to fill her position. TJ’s Joseph Amsbary was also appointed to the position of 1st VP, following the VJCL constitution. Highlights from convention also included a Latin rendition of the current popular song “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, as well as an impromptu fire alarm mishap. In addition, TJ’s scrapbook, curated by Janice Li, Jamie Lee, and Reva Hirave, won best in show! The 2020 NJCL convention will take place right in our backyard of Richmond, Virginia at the University of Richmond! Go to www.njcl.org for more information. Illuc esto et esto quadratus! Photo Credits: Lizzie Clark, Laney Moy
certamen & induction vi Certamen Season Kicks Off at SSSAS The 2019-2020 certamen season is off to a good start! TJ Certamen performed spectacularly at the annual kick-off certamen at the St. Stephens and St. Agnes School on October 26th, 2019. The Advanced A Team (consisting of Justin Choi, Yullee Moon, Jing Liu, and David Zhao)
Mythological Over 80 Latin students participated in this year’s Mythological Pumpkins - an annual eighth period activity where students form groups and decorate a pumpkin to be characters such as Medusa, Arachne, and Polyphemus. This event would not be successful without the hard work of our Latin Honor Society
placed 1st, the Intermediate A Team (consisting of Ryan Dwyer, Alex Zhou, Rhea Goswami, Ellie Chen, and Prthvi Seri) placed 2nd, and the Novice Team (consisting of Matthew Kim and Shriya Muthukumar) placed 3rd in in the final round. In total, seven TJ teams participated in this certamen. The next few certamina coming up include the Basis DC Certamen on December 19th, 2019, and the Flint Hill Cer-
tamen on January 11th, 2020. If you’re interested in playing certamen, contact Reges Joseph Amsbary, David Chen, Andrew Hadikusumo, or Ayush Viswanathan. Be sure to also join the TJ Certamen Facebook group and check out virginiajcl.org for more information. Photo Credits: Jing Liu
officers. Each officer brought in pumpkins for students to decorate, and the Artifices and the Magistrae prepared copious amounts of paint, pipecleaners, pom poms, and other craft supplies. “I liked how it was really open-ended there were a lot of people who put a lot of effort into their pumpkin, so it was interesting to see their final product,” said junior Aakanksha Bharadwaj. Awards were given to the “Cutest”, “Best in Show”,
“Scariest”, “Most Mythological”, and “Most Creative Pumpkin”. The pumpkins were displayed both inside and outside the Latin classrooms, and some time afterwards students could choose to either take the pumpkins home with them or abandon them to the tragic fate of rotting in a trash can somewhere. Photo Credits: Janice Li
Pumpkin
Showdown
vii quid novi?
WHICH ROMAN EMPEROR ARE YOU?
Poll of the Month
Who is your favorite Ecce Romani character?
Fossa (49%) Uncle Titus (32%) Raeda (9.5%)
Take the quiz to find out!
Other (9.5%)
START!
My best friend, Petronius Inaugural concert! *attendance required*
You’re the new leader of a country. What’s your first order of business?
Change your name to something that sounds cooler
You’re being held hostage. What would you do to save yourself?
Build a wall!
I would pragmatically argue for my release (and then send someone to kill you)
You’re hosting a dinner party. Who would you invite?
What economic policy would you enact?
Circle of Maecenas Getting rid of debts!
Uh, I would be the kidnapper, not the hostage! I would enthrall them with my dazzling charisma!
Taxing Urine (vectigal urinae!)
What’s your favorite pastime?
Working on my funerary inscription about how awesome I am!
Committing arson
You’re HADRIAN!
You’re AUGUSTUS!
You’re NERO!
People generally think you’re a good person. You’re enigmatic, generous, but also ruthless and driven.
You’re probably the guy who settles all the arguments in class. Very ambitious, but overall a solid dude.
There’s a good chance that you’ll randomly start singing during class. Your classmates probably think you’re insane.
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