(Courtesy/Christy Bening)
Three hundred people from 24 schools gathered together for the annual Ohio Junior Classical League’s (OJCL) annual convention held in Columbus on Saturday, March 9. Seniors Akshaj J. and Adi S. kicked off the weekend with a win at Roll Call, a 30-second skit to introduce each participating school/group.
Junior Christina L. filled an OJCL leadership vacancy by running for the Office of Secretary. These types of leadership roles are selective and play a big role in the convention with management and judging. Christina had to prepare many speeches and campaigned for herself to take on this responsibility, and Adi S. made the introductions at the General Assembly where she delivered a clever speech to more than 300 people.
For the group contests, Adi, Akshaj, and junior Carolina M. tried out for the OJCL’s Got Talent show, performing the song, Country Roads. In addition, all Academy participants took part in an engaging, reenactment of the assassination scene in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Akshaj was Caesar, and Adi was Brutus. The CA Certamen team (freshman Max B., Carolina, Akshaj, Christina, Elliott and Adi) made it to semi-finals. Certamen is a quiz-bowl style game that involves trivia of Latin, Greek, and classical topics. The Latin III commercial, featuring Eros F., Rowen L., Aubree M., and Katie Z. also received high praise.
At the convention, there are a vast number of individual contests, ranging from speech, debate, tests, graphic arts, etc. Academy history teacher Ms. Gurshaney chairs the judging committee.
Out of the performances, Christina got 1st place in recitation (prose), Akshaj got 1st place in sight reading, Carolina got 2nd place in dramatic interpretation, and Max got 9th in recitation (poetry).
In the testing round, Max got 1st in Grammar Level III, Carolina got 8th and Akshaj got 9th in Grammar Level IV, Akshaj placed 7th and Christina placed 10th in Derivatives, Max earned 3rd in Reading Comprehension Level III, and Akshaj got 3rd while Carolina got 7th in Reading Comprehension Level IV. The Pentathlon test covers history, culture, grammar, derivatives, and literature, and Max won 2nd while Akshaj and senior Elliott S. tied for 6th. In Roman Life Level IV, Akshaj got 3rd, and Elliott got 7th in Vocabulary Level IV.
Congratulations to all of the Latin students who participated at the OJCL convention!
