Novak

Scholars Academy students expand their knowledge of the Classics, celebrate Roman festivals, compete in academic competitions, and travel internationally in Charles Gammel’s Latin Club.

Latin Club is an extracurricular school program that has grown from 27 to 41 members in the past year for Latin and Greek students at Scholars Academy. Gammel’s Latin Club, now it in its sixth year, provides students with profound language study that allows students to excel beyond their normal Latin class coursework. 

Gammel said the purpose of the club is to appreciate the bigger picture of Roman culture, more than what is done in the classroom on a regular basis. 

“I think that the students at all levels of Latin study can appreciate a general classical light, which is the goal of the whole outside-of-school program,” said Gammel. 

“Classical society is the foundation for our culture and English today, and so I thought that would be interesting to learn,” said Latin Club Co-President Braxton Sizemore.

To Emily Dixon, also Latin Club co-president, the appeal of taking Latin is to have the opportunity to meet new people, make friends, inspire younger kids, and to be able to relate to people from 2,000 years ago. 

Latin Club provides many opportunities to learn about Roman culture.  

Last fall, members traveled to Atlanta to visit the Carlos Museum at Emory University and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple. Seventeen of Gammel’s students are taking a seven-day trip to Rome, Italy in November. 

They also travel to other places in Georgia to compete in academic competitions.

“We go to Fall Forum every year, which is hosted by the Georgia Junior Classical League, and that is a day of testing, cool workshops, and Certamen, which is competitive Latin quiz bowl,” said Dixon.

The Latin Club also hosts many events for the Thomasville community and surrounding schools with Latin programs. 

“We host a mini-convention in the fall where we invite other schools in south Georgia who have Classics programs to come and compete and participate in fun workshops,” said Sizemore.

The Latin Club has a Classical Fair every spring, which is an event for elementary kids. It’s all Classics-themed and it helps them learn about Latin and Greek. Children walk through an Egyptian pyramid to find activities like chariot rides, games like “Don’t Wake the Mummy!,” and competitions like gladiator fights (with pool noodles) or block moving reminiscent of the ingenuity used by Egyptians who built enormous structures without modern tools or machinery. 

“If they decide to come to Scholars, they can become interested and take the course,” said Dixon. 

This complicated language and interactive club has provided a future for students. Dixon plans to be a Classics major and go to Yale or Oxford. 

Said Sizemore, “I will definitely take Latin courses in college. I don’t know how far that will take me, but I know it will help me in my other fields of study.”