Latin Day
Cari magistrae magistrique,
We are excited to invite you to Baylor Latin Day 2025!
To avoid conflicts with JCL events in DFW, Austin, and San Antonio, we have chosen March 7, 2025 as our date! We will begin around 8:30 am and continue until around 3:00 pm. All schools are welcome, whether you've come before or not. As in previous years, we will have a day full of events for Latin students of all levels (though events are geared towards grades 8-12). We will have:
- a certamen tournament
- a declamation contest
- a probatio competition
- a humorous adaptation of a Plautus play
- a graphic arts contest
- a presentation on Roman history
- lunch at campus cafeterias
- a campus tour
- t-shirts
The fee will again be $15/person this year to offset meal and t shirt costs. We plan to have an online registration and an online payment system (coming soon) for this year's event. *UPDATE: All payment done by check this year! Online system did not pan out.
*A note on some events: the probatio is designed for even very beginning students. It is a group competition with low stakes. Our certamen is a little less formal than JCL certamen. All levels are again invited to participate. Your students will be surprised by how much they know, how much others know, and how much there still is to learn! A longer description of the events can be found below.
Please feel free to let your colleagues at other schools know, too.
I hope to see many of you in March!
If you have any questions, you can email me at Dan_Hanchey@baylor.edu.
Sincerely,
Dan Hanchey
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director of Classics, Baylor University
Events
The day will begin with a short and entertaining lecture on Roman history from one of our faculty.
Following that we will welcome submissions for our Graphic Arts contest. Students are invited to submit creative projects in the graphic arts, in line with the contest run by the Junior Classical League (a list of types can be found here: http://www.njcl.org/pages/njcl-graphic-arts). These projects should promote the study of Latin or some aspect of Classical culture. I am consistently impressed by what your students do, and I am looking forward to some great ideas again this year. These will be out for display throughout the day. Each school may submit up to four projects. Entries can be submitted on Latin Day itself, but we ask that they be pre-screened by teachers. Winners will be announced at the end of the day.
We will follow the project competition with the first rounds of certamen and our probatio competition. Probatio is a group-based competition using certamen-style questions. Those who are not involved with certamen will still have the chance to show off their knowledge and compete. The competition will last throughout the day with each team assured of participating in at least two rounds. As in recent years we have instituted a certamen style consistent with the JCL competitions.
We will also hold a sight declamation contest. Participating students will have the opportunity to read and perform a Latin passage out loud in a competition format. They will be judged on quality of pronunciation (using a traditional Classical pronunciation) and delivery. The passage will not be available before Latin Day. Instead, students will receive the passage on Latin Day and be given a few minutes to prepare. The contest will be preceded by a short discussion of ancient rhetorical techniques and delivery strategies. Students who can incorporate any of these techniques, even just a little, will receive extra credit in the judging of the performances.
As in years past we will have lunch in campus cafeterias and offer an optional campus tour, after which our own Dr. David White will direct some current Baylor students in an English performance of a Plautine play. Dr. White has extensive experience in theater, and always puts on a high-quality, highly-entertaining play. We will conclude the day with the final rounds of certamen, wrapping up with some awards at around 3:15 pm.
Schools arriving on Thursday night can contact our office manager, Donna Leggott (Donna_Leggott@baylor.edu; 254-710-1399), for hotel recommendations and phone numbers. Hotel costs are not included in the registration fee. The registration fee for all participants is $15/person, which can be paid by check. The fee goes toward covering lunch and a Latin Day t-shirt.
Steps to Prepare for Latin Day:
- submit registration form online (with certamen team if applicable)
- prepare creative projects
- payment