Though a language club, Winchester’s Latin Club (or Junior Classics League) remains relatively small compared to some of the others. Run by Mrs. DeCamp, the Latin teacher of WHS, Latin Club’s membership is mostly comprised of Latin students who want to expand their knowledge of ancient history and the Latin language.
The WHS Latin Club is a member of the Junior Classical League, an organization dedicated to creating a community and opportunities for middle and high schoolers interested in the classics. There are both state and national levels of JCL, both following a similar format of opportunities for schools to get points. NJCL (National Junior Classical League) decides the theme for the year based on a Latin quote. This year’s was: “Many things which are naturally difficult are solved by ingenuity.”
JCL is a lot like a sport. For one, there are “seasons”. JCL first gets active with Kickoff in October. This year, Massachusetts’s JCL was at Winchester High School! There are two big “tournaments” at the end of the year, called conventions. MassJCL’s is in April, typically in Barnstable, and this year’s National Convention, held at the end of July, is taking place at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville.
Even though the conventions are at the end of the year, there is a lot that Latin Club has to do to prepare: earn points! There are many contests/events where points can be gained: community service; publicity, including chapter website and social media; merch, including state T-shirt design; and certamen, a sort of Latin and history trivia. Certamen matches take place throughout the year at different schools. This year, we went to certamen at Yale in November, Brookline in December, Boston Latin School in February, and Harvard in March. We also went on a field trip to Classics Day at Boston University, where we participated in workshops and performed skits, for which we won first place. (More points!)
Still, the beginning of the year was a bit more relaxed compared to convention prepping in March and April. The winter months were full of community service, like gift-wrapping at Book Ends and many meetings of crafting holiday-related cards for Cards for Hospitalized Kids, as well as fundraising for the club.
Towards March, we started preparing for this year’s convention, an overnight trip from April 26 to 27. This involved submitting Constitution amendments and t-shirt designs and creating a scrapbook for points towards our school. We also prepared for certamen, made a chariot for the chariot races, and selected chants for the toga parade. Additionally, personal contests (both pre-convention and at the convention) were available for individual points. Contests included classics-related tests, art submissions, creative writing submissions, dramatic interpretation of a Latin passage, and English oratory related to this year’s theme.
There was, admittedly, a lot of drama at the convention. Winchester was neck-to-neck with Boston Latin, which generally dominates JCL, hence its name. (But hey, we have a pretty good relationship with them. We went on their bus to Yale and Barnstable). Our chariot broke during the second run--and yes, it was caught on camera; it’s hilarious. Officer Bowen Peng also ran for MassJCL parliamentarian and lost.
And, despite winning a lot of contests, Winchester placed in second place by two points. Needless to say, we were skeptical, but our points were reevaluated, so we ultimately tied in first with BLS.
After MassJCL convention, we held officer elections for the 2024-2025 school year. Additionally, many members are going to the NJCL convention in the summer as delegates. The format is pretty similar to the state convention, but it’s spread out over five days instead of two. With national convention comes more studying for certamen and some JCL merch-making as well. We have lots of summer activities to do besides convention: possibly volunteering in an ancient history program for students at McCall, organizing the first-ever Winchester Certamen, and more.
I’m so glad I found Latin Club, it’s truly a wonderful community. But let’s turn that passion into work and prepare for a 2024-2025 season full of more victories!
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