On Friday and Saturday, March 13-14, forty-four members of the Crown Point Latin Club joined students from ten other schools at the 62nd Annual Indiana Junior Classical League State Convention at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In addition to fun activities such as a “Minute to Win It” contest and a pizza party, the convention included a variety of competitions at the individual, team, and club levels. Individual events included Academic Tests, Graphic Arts projects, and Creative Arts performances.
Individually, our students performed extremely well in these events, receiving sixty first-place awards and bringing home over 500 individual certificates! Additionally, three of our students received Individual Achievement Trophies in Academic Testing (Claire Dosen, Emily Fender, and Emma Werkowski), three received Individual Achievement Trophies in Graphic Arts (Simone Siew, Erin Sizemore, and Anna Werkowski), and three received Individual Achievement Trophies in Creative Arts (Emily Fender, Joshua Mazur, and Ryan Sizemore). There are only five trophies available in each category! In addition, Anna Werkowski was also awarded a $500 IJCL Scholarship to continue her study of the Classics. Mrs. Deb Werkowski and Mr. Duff Werkowski also received the Distinguished Service Award for their years of service to the CPHS Latin Club and IJCL.
In the much-anticipated Certamen competition (a Jeopardy-style quiz game), all three teams advanced to the final rounds of their respective levels. In the final competition, our novice team (1st year students) placed 3rd while the intermediate team (2nd year students) and advanced team (3rd and 4th year students) returned home with 1st place trophies. By virtue of their state championships, members of the intermediate and advanced teams have earned automatic spots on the state team competing at the NJCL National Convention this summer; advanced team members included Brennen Chaussey, Joshua Mazur, Ryan Sizemore, Anna Werkowski, Alex Baloski, Emily Fender, Tyler Jeremiah, and Susie Szymanski. Intermediate team members were Casey Akers, Ben Depta, Claire Dosen, Taylen Hovanec, Cameron Rachford, Skyler Sheck, and Emma Werkowski; Novice team members were Maddie Edwards, Taylor Richards, Erin Sizemore, and Meagan VanDrunen.
We had three students elected as state officers at this year’s convention! August Dailey, the 2014-2015 IJCL Webmaster, was elected as the 2015-2016 IJCL President. He will be responsible for leading the state delegation at this summer’s NJCL National Convention, as well as planning Fall Latin Day, running all state board meetings, and managing the annual membership campaign. Claire Dosen was elected as the 2015-2016 IJCL Secretary. She will be responsible for sending meeting reminders and publishing the minutes from all meetings. Ben Depta was elected as the 2015-2016 IJCL Parliamentarian. As Parliamentarian, he will be responsible for recruiting candidates for office, maintaining the constitution and suggesting needed amendments, and running all election related events at next year’s state convention.
At the club level, Crown Point once again performed extremely well. In addition to winning the overall sweepstakes trophy for large chapters, we earned the 1st place trophy in the publicity contest (entry compiled by Callista Christ, Praetor). We placed 1st with our local chapter publication, Tempus Canis (edited by Tyler Jeremiah), 1st in Delegate Spirit (led by Samantha Fargo & Becca Burke), 2nd in the Helen Wampler Spirit Award (entry compiled by Anna Werkowski, Consul), 3rd with our Chapter T-shirt (designed by Erin Sizemore) and 3rd in Scrapbooks (created by Alexandra Baloski). We also placed 2nd for the Sharon Gibson Community Service Award, which is based on one of our many service activities that we do throughout the year (entry compiled by Anna Werkowski, Consul).
As a result of our high placings in all of these individual, team, and club events, the Crown Point Latin Club was once again named overall state champion and awarded the sweepstakes trophy. As a club, we earned a total of nearly 3,000 points - over 1,000 points more than the second place team. We are extremely proud of all of our students for their dedication and enthusiasm for the study of Latin, and look forward to their competing at next year’s convention!
The next level of competition for these young people will be the National Junior Classical League Convention from July 26th to August 1st at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. For more information on this event, see www.njcl.org. Crown Point already has 30 students registered for this year’s National Convention.
For a full description of all these events, please see the state chapter handbook on-line at http://ijcl.org/download/rules_and_regulations/IJCLHandbook2014-15.rev120114.pdf