(Left to right) Baton Rouge Magnet High School Latin Club students Hyungie Sung, Harsha Sirigireddy, Lindsey Miller and Michael Toler acted as horses with Oanh Truong as charioteer in the state Latin competition’s Chariot event, in which they placed first
The Baton Rouge Magnet High School Latin Club walked away with the 2010 Louisiana Junior Classical League Club Sweepstakes title March 7. The club’s team placed first place overall and in eight other categories. The event was held at the Holiday Inn South in Baton Rouge.
Now eleven of the Baton Rouge High students will attend the National Junior Classical League convention competition in Fargo, N.D., this July. The club advisor is Yuri Weydling, the school’s Latin instructor.
The Louisiana Junior Classical League (LJCL) is an organization of middle and high school students of Latin, Greek and the Classics. Throughout the year, individual schools celebrate the Classics as they create awareness in the community by wearing togas to various outings such as restaurants, movie theaters or festivals. LJCL also sponsors an annual Fall Forum, where Classic students from all over the state can come together and experience the thrill of JCL. The highlight of the LJCL year is the annual state convention, during which students gather for three days to participate in academic competitions, creative and graphic arts contests, sports, dances and fellowship.
In the Overall Sweepstakes event, events include group Olympika events, drama, scrapbook, banner, T-shirt, publicity, spirit, publications, certamen, teacher-student certamen, submissions to the state scrapbook, community service and percentage of chapter placing in academic tests.
Other first place wins for the Baton Rouge High club were for:
Chariot – Students Oanh Truong, Michael Toler, Harsha Sirigireddy, Hyungie Sung, Lindsey Miller
Catapult – Lindsey Miller, Michael Toler, Harsha Sirigireddy
Upper Certamen (quiz bowl) – Chris Cochran, Trey Duplantis, Oanh Truong, Josh Allbright
Novice Certamen – Tony Licata, Bill Ingram, Jordan Hume, M’Elise Salomon
Creative Drama – Oanh Truong, M’Elise Salomon, Tony Licata, Hyungie Sung, Kalle Liimatta, Mary Caffery, Emily Townsend, Michael Toler, Lindsey Miller, Jeremiah Rogers
Publicity - Club event
T-Shirt – Kalle Liimatta, Hyungie Sung and Oanh Truong (design)
Community Service – Club event (volunteered in Children’s Village of the Balloon Festival in August 2009)
The club also won second place for the categories of Spirit, Classical Drama, Chapter Publications and Girls Relay, as well as third place for Scrapbook and Girls Tug-of-War.
In addition, student Chris Cochran won the LJCL scholarship award ($500), and Lindsey Miller was elected the state’s second vice-president. Upper awards among students in individual sweepstakes awards categories went to Cochran: Academic, second place; Creative Arts, second place; Overall Sweepstakes, second place.
For more information, contact Weydling at (225) 383-0520 or log on to louisianajcl.com.
