Ms. Cross
Desmond McCue, Oliver Crumrine, and Jackson Harker march down the hallway of Ridgewood High School on their homemade chariot.
On the 5th of April, Gateway’s Latin Club attended the NJ-JCL State Convention. It was a long two hours, all the way up to Ridgewood in northern New Jersey. Four seventh graders, six sophomores, one junior, one senior, and two teachers went on this trip and oh boy was it interesting.
Ridgewood High School was humongous. It had everything, even a dance studio with mirrors! After arriving everyone went to the campus center to attend the first general assembly. That is where they announced the winners for each prejudged submission category. Gateway ended up with a few awards as usual.
At the convention they offered many fun forms of entertainment. The seventh graders played basketball while the other group, which included the high schoolers, were doing the Latin academic tests offered. There were many things to buy, like stress columns and shorts with Latin text on them, and the seventh graders got to make small notebooks with an actual author to take home! During the earlier part of the day Mrs. Cross was judging the art competition.
This year the chariot race was different. Normally the schools would race their chariots across a field but this year it rained, so instead it was a precession, meaning that the chariots were judged off of appearance and not speed. Gateway’s chariot was made by Jackson Harker and Oliver Crumrine.
When asked if they had fun Jackson explained, “It was fun but stressful,” to which Oliver agreed.
They were also asked if they were happy with their end result to which Jackson responded, “For the limited amount of time I’d say so, yeah.”
Oliver also had a similar response, “It didn’t fall apart, so definitely.”
Many people won awards, either for the pre-judged competitions or the ones that happened at the convention. During the bus ride home, Mrs. Cross shared some amazing news that Oliver Crumrine was elected to be on the NJ-JCL board next year as the Recording Scriba! This is a state executive board position so it is big news!
When asked what he was most excited to do now that he was going to be on the board, Oliver responded, “I campaigned on the premise of making board minutes public, so I’d say ensuring free access to information.” This just shows the type of person Oliver is and why he was elected.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the convention. Many of the students who went had gone in past years as well. It is amazing how fun and lively the celebration is, considering Latin is notorious for being dismissed as a dead language. Overall the convention was a success and next year Gateway may even have the honor of being the ones to host it! Be sure to check it out!