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Kelly McArdle | Supporting Young Learners Grant
Kelly McArdle | Supporting Young Learners Grant
Kelly McArdle, Durham, North Carolina
Kelly is establishing a new Latin reading section in the school Media Center for all-school Sustained Reading time!
Kelly McArdle, Latin teacher at Excelsior Classical Academy in Durham, NC is another 2025 NCLG Supporting Young Learners Grant recipient! She has been developing a strong program at this new school and there is strong administrative support to grow the Latin program through the grade levels! To augment her redesigned curriculum and many self-authored supplementary reading stories, she will use the NCLG grant funds to build a large Latin novella library in their media center for Voluntary and Sustained Silent Reading, an all-school curricular element. Next year, Latin will be a graduation requirement in Grades 8-10. Latin and Greek roots as well as ancient history will be taught in grades 5-7 as part of CK Language Arts and CK History & Geography. Therefore, this Latin library will enrich the curriculum for all 270 students in Grades 8-10 and for 300 more in Grades 5-7 who will also have full access to it.
Kelly explained, "To build more interest in language through literature, I began teaching with a more comprehension-based approach and writing my own short Latin stories to build their vocabulary, achieve a better understanding of Latin grammar, and expand their knowledge of the ancient world all at the same time. ...Overall, both engagement and enjoyment were way up! ...I have now begun to rewrite the curricula for our Latin courses to incorporate both novella reading as a class and novella reading as an independent activity to be recorded in a reading log. Building the novella library in our media center would give students a wide range of texts to choose from so that they can find enjoyment in reading and continue to build confidence in their ability to comprehend Latin."
Kelly McArdle creates a Latin novella and reader section in her Media Center for almost 600 students!
Judy Holtzman and James Bloom | Community Outreach Grant
Judy Holtzman and James Bloom | Community Outreach Grant
JUDY HOLTZMAN and JAMES BLOOM, Harlem, New York
High school Latin student will expand his new “Mythic Makers” program at East Harlem Community Center!
Congratulations to Judy Holtzman, the Director of Special Projects at the Association to Benefit Children, and James Bloom, a 10th grade volunteer student instructor in the after-school program at the Washington Heights Y Community Center, who were awarded an NCLG DEI Outreach Grant in April 2025!
After 3 years of Latin, James Bloom became so enthused by his studies that he started his school’s first Classics Club and then went on to get involved with community activities. One of his dreams was to start a “Greek-Roman Mythic Makers” class serving under-resourced students in Grades 3-5 at the Washington Heights Y. Each class begins with a story from Greek, Roman, or African mythology, followed by a hands-on art project inspired by that myth. For example, they read or watch stories and then create projects like Medusa Masks, Pandora's Boxes, Persephone’s Pomegranate Bracelets, the Belt of Hippolyte, Greek Hoplite Shields, and more.
These children have faced daily challenges of poverty with little opportunity to learn the stories of Greece or Rome, but James’ enthusiasm was contagious and he soon discovered that students were eager to attend and participate. This summer, James will expand his classes to the Association to Benefit Children’s 2025 Camp Calvin. With the grant funds from NCLG, James will be able to purchase the supplies for these various projects for future classes.
Students showing off just one of their Mythic Makers projects.
Leigh Ann Johnson | S.Y.L. Grant
Leigh Ann Johnson | S.Y.L. Grant
Leigh Ann Johnson, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
North Carolina Latin teacher uses novellas to expand program for gifted middle schoolers!
We extend our congratulations to Leigh Ann Johnson who has been awarded a 2025 NCLG Supporting Young Learners Grant! She has been teaching Latin as part of the Highly Academically Gifted curriculum at Hanes Magnet Middle School in Winston-Salem, NC, in the Forsyth County School District. With the grant funds from NCLG, she will be able to purchase several sets of novellas and readers that align with her Suburani Latin program by Hands-Up Education. She will be able to bring her students more cultural content and interesting authentic stories, as well as expand their exposure to more natural reading and communication models. Each grade will be reading various novellas to maximize each student’s exposure to different source readings over the course of the middle school curriculum. And, as Johnson remarks, “These novellas make Latin come alive for students…and can spark a lifelong interest in Classical Studies....”
Leigh Ann Johnson uses new novellas
Anika T. Prather | Community Outreach Grant
Anika T. Prather | Community Outreach Grant
Dr. Anika T. Prather, the founder and director of The Living Water School, who has been a faculty member of Howard University and Johns Hopkins University, has organized a new conference for all those inspired and influenced by Classical Studies. Her conference is entitled ‘Redefining Classics: Celebrating Diversity in the Classical Tradition.’ The 2024 NCLG grant funds will be used to bring a special exhibit to the conference, “14 Black Classicists; A Photographic Installation,” which was created by Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick and has been shown widely in the U.S. and U.K. The grant also will cover printed exhibit brochures and promotional posters.
This inaugural conference will be an in-person event, hosted by Catholic University in Washington, D.C. on June 15, 2024. It is a free gathering with a dozen speakers and an evening of music and jazz performance. Dr. Prather invites scholars, teachers, educational leaders, parents, and other community members to come celebrate how the classical tradition has inspired diverse populations. She hopes to reach a broad audience of those who feel rooted in ancient Greece, Rome, and all of those world cultures that have intersected with them. It is her goal to embrace ways to make the Classics accessible and to demonstrate that the classical tradition is for everyone. A 2025 Conference is also on the calendar for May 24 at Catholic University of America, D.C.
This conference was so successful that a second conference was held on May 24, 2025 at Catholic University in Washington - Redefining Classics: All Stories Belong Here.
Prather launches new conference!
Joshua Conger-Kallas | L.I.F.T. Grant
Joshua Conger-Kallas | L.I.F.T. Grant
Joshua Conger-Kallas, Asheville, North Carolina
Carpe diem, pro humanitate!
Joshua Conger-Kallas describes his emerging program situated in Asheville, North Carolina, “We are building a growing Latin and JCL program at A.C. Reynolds High School to offer full classes of Levels I-III, Mythology Honors and potentially IV H and AP in the future. Our principal, Mr. Ben Alexander, a former NC Latin Teacher Of the Year, is supportive of World Languages and wants our programs to succeed and carry on many years, inspiring students to take continuing higher education Latin & Greek courses or pursue licensure and skills in Classics and Humanities. As a first year, full-time Latin teacher, I benefited significantly from attending the 2023 Institute sessions and workshops. I enjoyed and gained a lot of insights from the American Classical League speakers which we use for literary, diverse perspectives & hands-on projects, sources, and activities; furthermore I look forward to returning to Institute again this year as well as to other NCLG, NCCA, university department, and professional educator conferences.”
“Last year,” he continues, “We started partnering with local programs so our students could begin attending Latin events and conventions. This Spring will be students’ first experience with Junior Classical League as a larger group, joining in more of the Certamen, multimedia arts, skits, academic tests, spirit, Olympika, costumes, performances and collaborative celebrations and meeting peers from across the state. We also plan to host a 2024 Classics Day with speakers and activities. We are excited to offer these opportunities, especially as I am myself a former JCL Latin student who was inspired by Magistra Sheila Vanderhoff, Magister Chris Semper, educators, classmates & professors, having received the NJCL Rhea Miller scholarship award to pursue teaching. For me, the memories of traveling to conventions and participating in a variety of activities at universities while learning with friends were the best parts of high school, introducing me to interdisciplinary interests and a versatile service career of mentoring students. We hope to impart similar travel, club involvements, leadership, and scholarship opportunities for our kids alongside the tenets of JCL’s Knowledge, Truth and Fellowship! This grant will provide enrichment, books and needed resources for our students to craft and build their creative competencies. Through these experiences we want to encourage students to be future Greco-Roman scholars, World Language teachers, or Ancient Civilization specialists."
Conger-Kallas leads local events and activities to inspire students to future involvement in Classics!
Tyler Tolman | SYL Grant
Tyler Tolman | SYL Grant
Tyler Tolman, Franklin, Tennessee
Tyler Tolman is a 2023 recipient of the NCLG Supporting Young Learners grant! He currently teaches middle school French and Spanish and is also skilled in Italian and Thai. Due to student enrollment patterns and staffing needs, his school has asked him to pursue an intensive study of Latin throughout the summer to achieve an acceptable proficiency to facilitate an Exploratory Latin course next fall. As a language educator, he focuses on creating content-based lessons and an immersive learning environment. To teach this new course successfully, he also will be studying Roman and Greek history, culture, and mythology to fuel his curriculum design. He’s excited about building his Latin proficiency and hopes to stimulate student interest in Latin and grow a strong future program. Tyler also looks forward to connecting with a wide network of classical language educators within the NCLG and the ACL.
We look forward to meeting Tyler! Let’s reach out to support a new colleague!
Tolman adds Latin to his multilingual skills to build his school language offerings!
Amy White | Community Outreach Grant
Amy White | Community Outreach Grant
Amy White, Ellington, Connecticut
Amy White is a 2023 recipient of NCLG's new DEI Outreach Grant! She has been accepted as a participant at The Forte Academy's Women Latinists program in Florence, Italy, this summer. She plans to use the NCLG grant funds to help offset costs to travel and attend. Although she has been teaching Latin for 28 years, her experience reading women Latinists is extremely limited. This program will offer her the opportunity to hone her reading skills while also discovering new female authors. “My students will benefit, because finally female authors will be a part of our curriculum!” Amy is excited to join other participants who, as the course description states, “will study women’s writing in Latin, bringing language to life in the real spaces where women wrote Latin, through hands-on workshops and in situ readings at sites of special importance.” There will also be a wide range of authors from antiquity up to the early modern period which will enable her to offer more extensive texts in her curriculum.
At the NCLG, we support her efforts and wish her every success!
ASU Tempe | L.I.F.T. Grant
ASU Tempe | L.I.F.T. Grant
Dr. Barbara Weinlich of ASU Tempe reports how the NCLG LIFT Grant supported their 2022 Fall Forum.
On Friday, November 18, about 320 high school students and their teachers (from 7 different institutions and/or groups) from the larger region of Phoenix attended Fall Forum, a half-day event hosted by the Classics program at ASU in conjunction with the AZJCL and the ASU Classics Club Solis Diaboli. This Fall Forum was generously sponsored by grants from both the Excellence Through Classics and the National Committee for Latin and Greek. The program, curated by Dr. Almira Poudrier (ASU, Classics, School of International Languages and Cultures) and Sarah Palumbo (AZJCL chair and Latin instructor at Rio Salado), focused on introducing career paths for undergraduate majors in Classics – first and foremost that of the Latin teacher – and included various Classics-related contests, lectures on topics in Classics, a tour of ASU’s Hayden Library and the Wurzburger Reading Room, opportunities to sit in on classes taught by ASU-faculty, and a service project.
Balancing the lectures and teaching presentations by ASU faculty, the active participation of two three high school teachers in this Year’s Fall Forum offered a first-hand experience of what their profession may look like in and beyond the classroom: Magister Yaggy’s presentation entitled “So you want to be a Latin teacher!” was complemented by Magistra Reveceur’s workshop on Greek Theater Masks as well as by Magistra Palumbo’s involvement in and tireless work during the organized event as chair of AZJCL.
An all-together new experience for the 320 participants were the prizes that the ASU Classics program was able to hand out thanks to the generous L.I.F.T. grant from the NCLG: Copies of the Oxford University Press Short Introduction-series for the winners of the certamina, ‘I Love Latin’- buttons for the winners of the scavenger hunt, a stuffed Pegasus and Doric squeeze columns (Kudos for the ETC-store!) for the winners of the impromptu-art contest. Evidently, these prizes will not end up in a box at home; rather they will be lasting memories of the visit of Fall Forum 2022 and hopefully also inspirations for taking Latin (and, of course, Greek and Classical civ-courses) as a future undergraduate.
Sam Salcedo | SYL Grant
Sam Salcedo | SYL Grant
Sam Salcedo with the support of her high school Latin teacher, Lyla Cerulli, at Dominican Academy in New York City, has launched a new outreach program! Her project has also been inspired by Lupercal, for whom she is a high school intern. Sam writes, “Many students would benefit from my activity book that would be enhanced with the help of the ACL books I plan to buy [with the SYL grant funds]. Inspired by the lack of Latinx Latinists in the United States, I hope to foster interest in Classics and Latin from an early age, and my main goal is to share my unique experience and knowledge as a Latina Latinist. My activity book uses themes and derivatives pertinent to Spanish and Latin and is available in the National Humanities Center ‘Humanities in Class’ Digital Library! My hope is that my book will help Latinx children gain a greater understanding of their vernacular language and other languages derived from Latin. My main audience will be children of Latin American immigrants who, like me, grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school. My idea to get the word out about my project is to make and send “PR Boxes of materials and use social media.” Let’s stay tuned for future news on Sam's project! (2020)
Robin Schneider | SYL Grant
Robin Schneider | SYL Grant
Robin Schneider is a principal at St. Peter Catholic School, in Monument, CO, and she herself will be teaching a NEW Latin class at her school this year! She contacted our SYL Chair, Zee Poerio, since she had heard that Zee had been using elementary and middle level materials to bring Latin into her Catholic school in Pittsburgh. She was looking for the best suggestion for age-appropriate texts for her students and for additional ideas for creating her new Latin program. She is very excited to begin this journey into Classics and JOINED ACL immediately and is looking forward to networking with other members! Robins remarks, “We are just starting a new Classical Curriculum [at St. Peter] and due to its story-based approach, we really liked the Cambridge Latin series. We are going to teach 6-8th grade starting with Unit 1 this year and then in consecutive years, 6th grade will be Unit 1, 7th grade - Unit 2, and 8th grade Unit 3. Approximately sixty students will benefit from the grant funds we used to purchase the books [in the first phase of the program].”
We wish Robin every success! (2020)
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