Menlo JCL Brings Home the Gold!
by Kelly Buck ’16

This spring 25 Menlo School JCLers traveled to Miramonte High School in Orinda for the CJCL State Convention. There were 1,528 Latin students from 45 different schools, including public and private, middle and upper schools plus their sponsors and chaperones, and about 10 SCLers (college students who had been in JCL) as well. In spite of some horrendous traffic on the way to Orinda, everyone had arrived by the time the convention actually started.

On Friday night, after the first general assembly of the convention, all of the students took academic tests. Hwai-Liang Tung ’18 won second place in Pentathlon test, and Jeff Frenkel?Popell ’18 won first place in Reading Comprehension. Later that night there were numerous other competitions, including Dodge ball, Volleyball, Essay, Instrumental, Dance, That’s Entertainment auditions, Certamen Semifinals, and Latin Oratory. There were also non?competitive events, including Roman Speed Dating, an SCL mixer, and a dance. Dani Wong ’18 won first place in Instrumental Performance.

On Saturday morning the second general assembly opened with the cheering competition between all the schools. Menlo Upper School won first place for medium?sized high schools! Then, during the assembly, the candidates running for the state JCL board gave speeches. Voting took place later that day, and our own Grace Costello ’16 was elected Northern Representative. That means that Menlo will be running Ludi Octobres on October 31, but this time it will be on the Stanford Campus.

After the assembly, there were chariot races and catapult contests on the fields. Menlo’s girls came in second and the boys third. There were also more sporting events throughout the day, including Soccer, Swimming, Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, Tennis, Track, Capture the Flag, and Quidditch. Jason Li ’18 won third place in both the 50m Butterfly and 200m Individual swim events. Menlo’s basketball team won first place, defeating Miramonte High School with its 165 students in attendance. In addition to sports, there were other activities in the morning, including Competitive Certamen Finals, Latin Sight Reading, Impromptu Art, Project Runway, Graphic Arts Viewing, That’s Entertainment callbacks, and the Selfie Game. In the arts contests, Jeff Frenkel?Popell ’18 won first place in the chalk/pastel category, Hwai?Liang Tung ’18 won third in the cartoons category, and Grace Hammarskjold ’17 won third place for charts. In Open Certamen, Justin Cardozo ’16 won third place, and Menlo Middle School sixth graders won third place in the state.

After lunch, local college and high school faculty offered workshops such as Art of the Roman Republic; Cicero: Eloquence Personified Then and Now; Romans Rest in Peace; Cybele and her Eunuch Priests; Miraculous Medicine: Galen’s Public Dissections; The Beats of Roman Poetry; The Wrath of the Saints: Medieval Vengeance Miracles and Liturgical Curses in Monastic Latin; and Roman Insults. There were also various art workshops, including Mosaics, Finger Puppets, and Edible Art. In addition, Aphrodite’s Love and Advice Booth, the Costume Contest, Dramatic Interpretation, Open Certamen (run by Menlo’s Dobbie Vasquez), and an Art Sketch Contest were available. In the late afternoon we had our third and final general assembly, followed by dinner from 10 different food trucks. After dinner, the winners of the competitions were announced. The rest of the banquet included the That’s Entertainment performances, a carnival, a movie, a magician, a hypnotist, human hamster balls, laser tag, a dance, a Smash Bros tournament, a casino, jump houses, a bazaar, and a caricature artist.

In addition to the awards won at the convention, Menlo students also won some pre?convention contests. Claire Wilson ’16, Jason Li ’18, and Grace Hammarskjold ’17 won first, second, and third place for their respective slogans, and Grace Costello ’16 wrote a modern myth that came in second. Menlo students returned home tired, but happy. We had placed second in the state in scrapbook, third in banner, third in t?shirt, first in spirit and, most important, Menlo won 1st overall in the medium?sized high school category. Congratulations to every one who won ribbons for our school. Go Menlo!