This school year, The Latin Club hopes to build its membership and offer opportunities to students to explore Roman language and culture.
Several students are excited about Latin Club, especially the Roman Gardens project. This project allows students to cultivate crops using the same techniques Ancient Romans applied.
“Latin Club was an extremely interesting club; from the building of a greenhouse to just hanging out with fellow Latin club members is what drew me to join the club.” Donavan Sherry (12) said excitedly. “The greenhouse project was my favorite thing we did; it was a cool idea, and it was fun working on it with my friends.”
Dr. Spence (Latin Teacher) first arrived at Hidden Valley, only five years after it opened its doors. “I’ve been the Latin club sponsor since I started teaching at Hidden Valley, back in 2007-08.”
Dr. Spence has a love of the language and believes it is one of the best classes to teach at a high school. He often uses Latin as a way to expand a student’s knowledge of what English grammar.
“I prefer teaching Latin over English to high school students because of the variety of information I get to cover in Latin.” Dr. Spence went on to say, “I really get to drill deep into grammar through Latin in a way that high school English curricula doesn’t,” said Dr. Spence.
Dr. Spence is thrilled about Latin Club’s work on their Roman garden and is proud of the way the students have used it as a launching pad for service in the community.
“I certainly like working on the Hortus Romanus, a garden that is focused on growing ancient greens (spinach, arugula, etc.) for the RAM house, a homeless shelter and kitchen in Roanoke City. However, we’ve been able to provide much more food to the RAM house since we started gleaning day old bread from Panera every Tuesday night.”
Last year the Latin Club delivered over 1,000 pounds of food to the RAM house, a very thoughtful and helpful act in the Roanoke community. As such, Latin Club offers students an opportunity to not only learn about a language, but it also provides chances for students to complete charitable work.