Sophomores Joe Along, Ashleigh Rabel, Chris Peterson and Noah Moletteire are among 70 West Shore students preparing to showcase their projects, talents and knowledge at the Regional Latin Forum on Saturday at Holy Trinity High School.

The Forum is a large gathering of Latin classes from throughout the district. Students compete in the best overall project about classical Greek or Roman history, highest test scores in a variety of assessment categories and other games including Certamen (Latin Jeopardy).

“I am doing a model of the Pompeian city along with Mount Vesuvius,” Rabel said. “I did this because this year I did not have a much time to compete more complicated projects as in the past, such as my bow and arrow and model of a Roman ship.”

“I am doing a dramatic interpretation (speech),” Along  said. “Mainly because art is just not my thing.”

“My task for this year’s forum is a scale model of the Parthenon, which was tough, but I enjoyed it because I appreciate models,” Peterson said.

As far as tests go, Along is taking advanced geography and vocabulary, which is a good fit because of his four years of experience in Latin and his knack for locating cities and countries on a globe.

“I believe that since the students have been studying and working for some time now that they will represent us very well,” Latin teacher Virginia Wills said.

A day in the Latin Forum includes an early morning registration and doughnuts at 8 followed by the opening assembly, where hundreds of Latin students recite the pledge in Latin. The students will then file into the gymnasium for the testing session. After all students finish, there are various activities — such as movies, volleyball and basketball in the gym and lunch in the courtyard — to pass the time until the tests and projects are scored.

“I mainly like to ball on the other Latin students and compete in the certamen after I finish my test,” said Along.

The Latin Forum ends an awards ceremony.

“Learning more about history and the Latin language by making your project, depending on what you did, are the winnings of the Latin Forum,” Rabel said. “You can also win an award for how you scored on the test or on the project, which you can in turn put on your resume and win extra credit for the class.”

By Steven Tenbusch