September 2007 (PDF) - Classical & Near Eastern Studies ...

—photo by Kelly Macwilliams
Latin and Greek
Undergraduate
News
by Stephen Smith
17
The undergraduate Latin and Greek programs at the
beginning and intermediate levels continue to prosper. Although
Latin enrollments have dropped somewhat from their peak of a
few years ago, this year we have over 120 students starting Latin
and over 40 starting Greek, with nearly 70 in intermediate Latin
and 12 in intermediate Greek.
Our off-campus sections, taught through the College in
the Schools program in five local high schools and the Post-
Secondary Enrollment Option at UM-Rochester, also continue to
grow—we estimate that there will be nearly 100 high school students
taking intermediate Latin in 2007-08. Students last year
came to campus for field days in October and February; highlights
included visits to Greek, Hebrew, and Coptic classes, as well as an
undergraduate major forum (October) and a cuneiform “show
and tell” by Eva von Dassow (February). The cohors Latina of
Alicia Pease, Deborah Sugarbaker, Stacie Thyrion, Jessica
Waldron, and Elizabeth Warner (2006), and Hector Amaya, Jessica
Donaldson, Josh Freyholtz, Mitchell Hanley, Kailin Hatlestad,
Patrick Jewison, Alyssa Johnson-Wells, Emily Ladick, Kevin
Malmquist, Nathan Marks, Abigail Massey, Katie Mead, Erica
Niemiec, Daniel Schindler, and Andrew Seeley (2007). Pictured
below are members, old and new, at the initiation on April 20,
2007 (appropriately, the eve of Rome’s birthday).
Each year, beginning Greek and Latin students are nominated
by their instructors as students of the year. The 2005-06
recipients were Katherine Mead (Latin), Andrew Seeley (Latin),
and Emily Ladick (Greek); all three received copies of the first
Harry Potter book—in the appropriate language, of course. The
2006-07 recipients were Anil Chandiramani, Diana Schempp, and
Jennifer Smith in Latin (who all received A Natural History of Latin)
College in the Schools is made up of Johanna Beck (Minnehaha), and Andrew Gerstenberger in Greek (who received The
Judith Kavanaugh (Cretin-Derham Hall), Emese Pilgram (Edina),
Mitch Taraschi (St. Thomas), and Mike Tiffany (Providence); Ellen
Sassenberg, who teaches the PSEO students in Rochester, will officially
be joining the CIS program in 2008-09.
Students who perform at a high level through the first
Archaeology of Athens).
And finally, a word of thanks to our 2007-08 tutors, Billy
Blessing, Alex Kocar, Mike Lund, Stacie Thyrion, and Betsy
Warner, who contributed their time and energy to help students
succeed in the beginning and intermediate classes.
two years of either
Greek or Latin are
invited to join the Zeta
Sigma chapter of Eta
Sigma Phi, the national
Greek and Latin honorary
society. Over the
past two years we have
inducted 23 new members
into our chapter,
including Mark
Hvizdak, Alexander
Kocar, Sara Marsh,
Joseph McDonald,
Left to Right: Elizabeth (Betsy) Warner, Stacy Thyrion, Hector Amaya, Alex Kocar, Mike Lund, Dan Schindler, Kailin
Hatlestad, Katie Mead, Alyssa Johnson-Wells, Kevin Malmquist, Mitch Hanley, Billy Blessing.