Latin Club is revving up again for the first time in two years to try to bring Latin speakers together while in quarantine. Usually students at Mayo have the opportunity to join a club for meeting about language learning and diving deeper into the culture; however, for many years Latin hasn’t had such a club. Now, they are welcoming you to join.

The student supervisor is Mr. Hamel, the Latin teacher at Mayo. He started working at Mayo last year after the previous teacher left to teach in Michigan, and has been teaching Latin for 25 years in New York, New Hampshire, and Minnesota. He is very passionate about “literary works and in how Roman history and culture is very similar and vastly different from American history and culture.” 

Mr. Hamel has always been a fun teacher who tries to use games and drawing competitions in class to keep it entertaining. Hamel says to anyone who might be interested in Latin Club “It’s all of the joy of Latin without any of the work, no tests, no nothing, just a chance to soak in the rays of the ancient times, along with some interesting and beautiful people!  Games, virtual food,  movies, friends, plus crazy Romans doing their thing. What more could you possibly want?”

Kennedy Josephs is one of the people who wanted to restart Latin Club again this year. She says “I had always wanted to do Latin because my older sister took it in high school and found it interesting and fun,” but the club isn’t just about schoolwork, “I hope people will come not only because there’s more to learn than just the school criteria but also because it’s a different experience. We are able to talk with Doc (Mr. Hamel) on a more personal level and get to know each other better.” 

Especially with the pandemic it makes it hard for everyone, particularly freshman at Mayo to stay connected with other students. Kennedy says “I wanted to start Latin Club because I remember participating in Latin Club as a Freshman, and I really, really enjoyed it. I thought the younger classes should be able to experience what I experienced.” It’s good for all the grades to get together and work on learning something they all enjoy.

Latin Club meetings happen from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. every Wednesday because of distance learning, but you can expect longer meetings when Mayo goes back to in-person school. There is more information on the Mayo Club Hub website about how to join the google classroom and the meet link. So far there have been three Latin Club virtual meetings this school year. They have done Kahoot trivia about Roman culture, watched videos on Roman history, and talked about the National Latin Exam. In the past Romans and Spartans didn’t get along, hopefully things go better this time.