This story was submitted by middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni.
In late July, 12 Harker upper and middle school students attended the National Junior Classical League Convention, held this year at Emory University in Atlanta. Harker was the largest contingent in the California delegation, providing more than a third of the delegates. Students spent the week participating in contests, attending assemblies and colloquia, making new friends from all over the country, and sharing the love of all things classical.
Rupert Chen ’23 spent his time zipping from meeting to meeting or presiding on stage in his role as national first vice president. Rising senior Trisha Iyer will follow in his footsteps and build on her experience as California state historian, as she won her election to serve as national historian for the next school year. She is charged with recording the events of the year, creating the national scrapbook and helping plan and run next summer’s convention.
Hongkang Zhao, rising eighth grader, auditioned for the talent show and was chosen to perform his piano piece. He gave a virtuoso performance on stage in front of the entire convention.
The California novice certamen (quiz bowl) team consisted of three Harker middle school students (rising eighth grader Shreyas Karnam, rising frosh Heidi Wang and rising eighth grader Hongkang Zhao) and a new friend from Southern California. They placed seventh in the tournament. In their semifinal round they faced Florida, a perennial certamen powerhouse and the eventual winner of the tournament. Getting any points off Florida is always a victory worth celebrating; the score of the round was 155, 80 and 80 for Florida, California and New Hampshire, respectively. The team should be commended for its strong performance throughout the event.
Shreyas Karnam, rising eighth grader, was called to the stage twice during the final assembly: for the high score on the Latin Grammar 1 test and for placing eighth in the overall academic sweepstakes. The sweepstakes are for all students at the convention, not just those at his level, meaning Karnam earned more points for top-five finishes than all but seven of the students in attendance, from all grade levels and all over the country. His individual awards are below.
Rising senior Trisha Iyer earned recognition for a fifth place finish in the overall creative arts sweepstakes. Her state scrapbook placed fourth in the digital scrapbook category.
Individual top-ten results are as follows:
Level ½ (all rising 7th graders)
Yehong Fan: (Academics) Mythology 10th; (Olympika) 50-yard Backstroke Jr. Boys 6th, and 50-yard Breaststroke Jr. Boys 8th
Chelsea Jin: (Academics) Classical Greek 4th, Mottoes 4th, Greek Life and Literature 5th, Hellenic History 5th, Reading Comprehension 8th, Classical Art 9th
Heidi Wang: (Academics) Mythology 8th; (Creative Arts) Latin Oratory 8th
Level 1 (all rising 8th graders)
Shreyas Karnam: (Academics) Latin Grammar I High Score 1st, Classical Art 1st, Greek Life and Literature 1st, Hellenic History 1st, Reading Comprehension I 3rd, Roman Life 3rd, Academic Triathlon 4th, Latin Vocabulary I 4th, Mottoes 5th, Latin Literature 7th, Latin Derivatives 8th, Ancient Geography 10th; (Creative Arts) Essay – 6th-9th Grade 3rd, Sight Latin 4th; Dramatic Interpretation 6th, Modern Myth – Lower Division 6th; (Graphic Arts) Illustrated Quotes 6-9 1st, Digital Art or Poster 5th
Hongkang Zhao: Ludi Chess 4th
Level 2 (all rising 9th graders)
Finley Ho: (Creative Arts) Essay – 6th-9th Grade 5th; (Olympika) played on the 3rd place CA soccer team
Abby Wang (a LDD/remote delegate): (Academics) LDD Heptathlon 1st, LDD Roman History 1st
Level 4
Felix Chen, grade 9: (Academics) Classical Art 4th, Classical Greek 8th; (Creative Arts) Essay – 10-12th Grade 1st; (Overall) Creative Arts 8th
Level 5
Chloe Lee, grade 12: (Academics) Classical Greek 4th, Greek Derivatives 9th, Academic Heptathlon 10th; (Creative Arts) Essay – 10-12th Grade 1st; (Overall) Creative Arts 8th
Trisha Iyer, grade 12: (Academics) Reading Comprehension: Prose 4th, Academic Heptathlon 8th, Latin Vocabulary 2+ 8th, Roman Life 8th; Mythology 9th, Latin Derivatives 2+ 10th, Latin Literature 10th; (Creative Arts) Modern Myth – Upper Division 2nd Sight Latin – Prose 2nd
Rupert Chen ’23: (Academics) Reading Comprehension: Prose 7th; (Olympika) Mara thon Sr. Boys 4th
Michelle Jin ’23: (Academics) Classical Greek 5th, Mottoes 5th, Classical Art 8th, Latin Vocabulary 2+ 9th, Reading Comprehension: Poetry 9th; (Creative Arts) Essay – 10-12th Grade 6th, Slogan – Upper Division 9th