Program Description
July 1 - July 14, 2013
The Living Latin in Rome high-school program is a two-week version of Living Latin in Rome specially designed for high-school students. It gives the country's best and most motivated Latin students the opportunity to work together with outstanding instructors to learn to speak Latin in the memorable setting of Rome. Each morning, students meet together in classroom sessions taught by two experienced Latin-speaking instructors, Scott Ettinger and Bryan Whitchurch. The curriculum includes texts students would rarely read in the typical high-school classroom. In the afternoon session, Scott and Bryan lead students to the important monuments in the city mentioned in the texts they have read. Working in small groups of students and teachers, Scott and Bryan facilitate collaborative, spoken-Latin activities that integrate the Latin language and its literature with the monuments of Rome.
Learning to speak Latin, students immerse themselves in antiquity in a way that is unique and fun. In addition to providing a period of intensive immersion in the Latin language, however, Living Latin in Rome aims to encourage students' interest in and appreciation for culture and the classical humanities. The Latin curriculum is supplemented by group discussions about the purpose of the liberal arts and the value of a humanistic education. On the middle weekend of the course, students take a day trip to Sperlonga, where they can swim, relax, and visit the emperor Tiberius' infamous villa.
Accommodation
The Living High School Latin in Rome program is organized in collaboration with the Foyer Unitas' Lay Centre. Accommodation, meals and classroom space are provided by the Lay Center. The Lay Center is housed in one wing of a working monastery tucked away in a beautiful park on the Caelian Hill near the Colosseum amidst ruins of a Roman aqueduct.
Each student will have a single room with access to shared bathrooms in the hall. The instructors, the coordinators, and one intern, will also be housed in the Lay Center. Students are under supervision for the duration of the trip.
Tuition and Fees
Students: Tuition, Room, and Board: $2950
The price of tuition includes all site visits, transportation on day trips, a welcome and farewell dinner, transportation to and from Rome's Fiumicino airport, and all course materials. Students also receive three meals a day at the Lay Center. Airfare is not included.
Getting to Rome
Paideia Institute Instructors will leave from New York's JFK airport on Sunday, June 30th 2013. Students wishing to travel with the group may meet them at JFK. Students traveling independently will be met by a Paideia Institute staff member at Rome's Fiumicino Airport upon their arrival.
Apply
Juniors and seniors with at least two years of high school Latin are encouraged to apply. Sophomores may be admitted by special permission. High School teachers who wish to accompany their students are encouraged to apply. For more information or to request an application e-mail: summerlatin@paideia-institute.org.
Testimonials
"Arma virumque cano..." Everyone knows these famous words of Virgil, but what about the equally profound ideas of Seneca? of Vitruvius? of Poggio Bracciolini? This program not only introduced me to a plethora of surviving Latin authors across two millennia, but also brought alive the spoken language that filled the many day-to-day gaps in between. After our short time of studying the Romans in Rome itself, I feel I better understand their language, their culture, and their modern influences on Western society. To revise the classic adage, you don't really know someone until you've talked a mile in their shoes, and we sure did a lot of talking (and walking) in the language and locality of the Romans. And perhaps the best part was the people I met, from our doctissimi instructores to my fellow interesting individuals and classy Classicists who are equally as passionate about the lingua latina as I am myself. For the rest of my life, I will never forget the summer I became a Roman.
-Frederick Muth '12-
At the Vatican Museum I saw a statue of Laocoon and his sons being attacked by serpents. I remember hearing about this in my freshman year Art History class, and then, there I was, seeing the statue for real. While at the Capitoline Museum, I saw a bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, whom I studied in Latin class. This entire trip and the experiences that came with it are really something to be grateful for, and I am. While here, I was able to get a deeper look into the world of Latin. I got to meet and talk to people with much more Classics experience than me. Not only that, but I also received much more exposure to various Latin texts. In school, we read Cicero and Catullus, but here, we were exposed to famous writers, such as Virgil, Ovid, Plautus, Tacitus and more. Some of the writers whose works we read, I had not even known about. There was so much I learned while here in Italy. This was just a huge learning experience for me and I am truly grateful.
-Sabiya Ahemed '12-
I will never forget all the moments on this trip when I really felt Classical texts come to life, whether it was through imagining the magnificent works of architecture that stood on the sites of Roman ruins or actually viewing the same landscapes that inspired so many Classical authors hundreds of years ago. I will never forget standing in the cave at Sperlonga, reading my favorite passage from Virgil's Aeneid and truly experiencing the poetry in an entirely new way. I envisioned how the Romans might have listened to a reading during a dinner in the cave, surrounded by beautiful statues depicting scenes from the Aeneid. The texts I had pored over during the school year for the AP Latin exam came alive, and I was no longer restricted to an exclusively "classroom" understanding of the readings. It is moments like these, I now believe, that Classics scholars reflect on when they are asked the question, "Why do you study the Classics?" We study Classical literature and culture to be immersed into a world where art, philosophy, and even politics can all be combined, to discover just how different or similar things are in our world today.
-Elodi Healy '12-
At the Lay Center, the windows of my bedroom opened to the east. Every morning, my roommate and I woke up to the rays of the Roman sun and the sound of the desktop fan that would become our best friend by the end of two weeks of summer in Italy. Every night, the sounds of the dance hall on the other side of the wall float in on the evening breeze. Though I did not know it at the time, the view out that window would become my visualization of Rome. Not the tourist infested awe of the Colosseum, but the more subtle juxtaposition of the fresh gardens against the ruins, the Catholic monastery against our devoted study of the pagan language.
-Savannah Marquandt '12-
When I describe my summer as a “Latin boot-camp,” many cringe. But the Paideia program provided me with an intellectual setting that was a joy, and not a grind, a counterpoint to the incredibly structured academic setting of high school. Both students and teachers wanted to be there, making the atmosphere electric. This exceptional group transformed my outlook on learning. In fact, I left Rome wanting to study ancient Greek.
-Caroline Joost '12-
