Florida High Latin Club has been hosting the Florida Junior Classical League (FJCL) Regional Forum for three years, including this year’s Regional Forum on Jan. 31.
“When hosting the Regional Latin Forum, we have to start with a facilities reservation request, then coordinate with admins, facilities, maintenance, technology and also notify and coordinate with teachers whose classrooms we are using on the day of the event,” Latin teacher Joanna Piris said.
It is an honor to host this event, but it can be challenging at times. Students get the opportunity to test their knowledge in a friendly environment while also getting into the competitive spirit.
“The atmosphere at Latin regionals always feels like a tight-knit community where we can challenge ourselves to not only do better each year, but also see us and our peers’ growth in our classical studies,” freshman Leyla Olgar, who is in Latin 2, said.
Many schools put in the work to make this one day out of the year happen. This year, there are 13 schools participating.
“While we usually have the largest school district students-wise, this year we have an equal number of students attending Latin regionals [as] our biggest competitor. At first, this frightened my fellow peers and me, but looking back on it, I am filled with excitement to be witnessing our FJCL community growing larger each year,” Olgar said.
This year, Florida High was hoping to take the first-place trophy home for the fifth time in a row, but the competition brought the best of the best. Despite the tough competition, the team placed third in overall sweepstakes and fourth in Olympika.
