As a part of the Emma Willard School Signature program, students have the opportunity to deeply explore their personal passions. Recently during Morning Reports, Beatrice G.C. ’22 shared her journey of self-discovery in a Signature Spotlight presentation. 

 

I decorate my room with Roman and Greek stuff; I play the oboe, and I play pieces based off of Roman texts; my tote bags are covered with ancient statues. 

 

Also, this isn’t 100% related to my Signature project, but I’m also working on a Practicum with [Latin Instructor] Dr. Matera in which I’ve started to learn Ancient Greek, which has been REALLY REALLY FUN. 

 

Last year, I finished up every single Latin class that Emma Willard had to offer, and I was left at a loss for what to do. I brainstormed, had a lot of meetings, and happened to end up talking to [Director of Signature] Mr. Calos. It turns out that he was launching a new branch of Signature, our capstone project program, called Signature Language. It’s specially designed for students who, like me, have run out of classes to take in their language and are looking to go further. It seemed like a great opportunity, so I jumped at the chance. My Signature project involves translating queer Latin texts into English, then transforming those into short English stories to make those classics more accessible to queer teenagers. 

 

Working on a Signature project is very different from working in classes. I don’t have anyone to keep me accountable, and I don’t have grades or tests to tell me how well I’m doing. This turned out to be a little bit of a problem, as I can—surprise surprise—be pretty hard on myself. 

 

The way that I work is that I translate on Google docs, then my teachers go on and leave comments on any mistakes or corrections to be made. I would log on after a day of classes and find dozens of comments waiting for me. I would stare at all these comments and think—if this is everything that I’m doing wrong in a few lines of poetry, how the heck can I be good at Latin? I thought that I had somehow deceived everyone into thinking that I was much better than I actually am. 

 

My dad always says that one of the biggest reasons that he supports me in going to boarding school is so that I can learn to be independent, and that one of the biggest parts of being independent is knowing when to ask for help. So I walked into Dr. Matera’s office, sat down, and told him that I was a complete fraud. I’ve learned about gerunds and gerundives about seven different times, yet I still don’t understand them and have to google them every time I come across one.

 

I had somehow fooled everyone into thinking I was good at Latin when in fact I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I know the grammar rules, I just never seem to be able to identify them in original texts. Everyone says I’m great at Latin, but I feel like I’m crawling through the texts at a snail’s pace. 

 

He told me that Roman authors—and especially the poets—love to break the rules. I learned the grammar constructs, and I’m now trying to play a game where they’ve all been turned on their heads. The transition from textbooks to original texts is a process that takes years, and most Classicists don’t really get to the point where they’re comfortable with original texts until graduate school. 

 

I’m eighteen. I’m still in high school. Just because I’m good at Latin, just because I’ve been taking it for six years, doesn’t mean that I should—or even could—be perfect. And that’s probably the biggest thing my Signature project has taught me so far.

 

Thanks, Beatrice, for sharing your Signature story! We can’t wait to see the final result and celebrate your growth.