Prince William students continue winning Latin tradition

Latin is flourishing in Prince William County Schools.

As evidenced by student performance and participation in this year’s National Latin Exam, Virginia Junior Classical League, and the Medusa Mythology Exam, the language shows no signs of extinction.

There are almost 900 students studying Latin in Prince William County Public Schools at seven high schools and at Pennington Traditional School.

“The study of Latin offers all students the opportunity to understand word parts, through learning about derivations and cognates, facilitating vocabulary development in English, which leads to better achievement on the SAT and other verbal tests, according to research studies,” said Carol Bass, supervisor of World Languages.

“Latin also serves as a strong foundation in facilitating the study of other Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese; research continues to support these positive outcomes and benefits of studying Latin for all learners for life,” Bass added.

Thirteen students from Brentsville District High School came home with awards after facing more than 2,000 other talented Latin students at the annual Virginia Junior Classical League Convention.

Awards in art, mythology, history, and grammar were won by Sarah Andrews, Ashley Dimino, Rebecca Flores, Anna Kharko, Campbell Miles, Leah Stumpf, and Sarah Teodoro.

These Stonewall Jackson High School students took up the challenge of the Medusa Mythology Exam and were rewarded with a “Corona Olivae” award for their efforts: Hernan Arias Cubias, Matthew Ashtiani, Myka Byers, Logan Carter, Maddie Carter, Kelvin Castro, Aimee Coreas, Keren Cubas, Bryan Eagle, Tariq Ellis, Jason Farrell, Juliet Lenor, Brady Maradiaga-Portillo, Alana Mitchell, Jessica Smith, Sean Sorensen, Michael Ulery, and Jasmin Zelaya.

PWCS students also did well in the 38th annual National Latin Exam taken by 140,745 students in 21 countries.

Attaining a Silver Medal and maxima cum laude certificate for their performance on the test are Pennington Traditional School students Ish Sethi, and Jim Dapaah; Campbell Miles and Yekaterina Kharko from Brentsville District High School; Hylton High School students Bailey Allen and Arianna Lawrence; and Stonewall Jackson High School students Bryan Eagle, Jason Farrell, Kaileaa Ford, and Brady Maradiaga-Portillo.

Magna cum laude certificates were earned by Jack Lynam and Gavin Saul from Pennington Traditional School; and Sarah Andrews, Anna Kharko, Ruth Rivas, and Katherine Vaughn from Brentsville District High School.

Achieving cum laude certificates were Battlefield High School student Alex Hollinger; Ashley Dimino, Robert Mangum from Brentsville District High School; Hylton High School students Tyler West-Loiseau, Arlene Hartl, and Amy Guzulaitis; and Angelica Gutierrez and Darien Franklin from Stonewall Jackson High School.

Pennington Traditional students Preethi Chidambaram, Anthony Crupi, Jeremy Dapaah, Mallorie Fouser, and Spogmai Anwar received recognition for their performance on the Introduction to Latin Exam. Dapaah attained the Outstanding Achievement award.