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RESERVE – Eighth grader Carson Campbell enjoys the history and mythology tied to the Latin language. He was one of four St. John the Baptist Parish students to earn accolades for an excellent score on this year’s National Latin Exam.

The National Latin Exam was administered on March 6, shortly before schools statewide shut their doors for coronavirus concerns.

According to the official testing website, the purposes of the National Latin Exam are to promote the study of Latin and to encourage the individual student. Rather than competing with other students on a comparative basis, students who take the exam are evaluated solely on individual performance.

Carson Campell of Reserve and Julian St. Pierre of LaPlace each scored a 35 and earned silver medals for their high achievement on the Latin I exam. Another high achiever was Jacob Lewis of LaPlace, who earned a cum laude achievement on the Latin I exam with a score of 30.

The highest possible score is a 40, and the average score among students was 29.

Carson, Julian and Jacob all attend Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie.

Morgan Espenan of LaPlace, a student at Archbishop Chapelle High School, earned a cum laude achievement on the Latin IV exam for an above-average score.

 

Jacob, an eighth grader, said translating unfamiliar words was the hardest part of the National Latin Exam.

“I felt like I did pretty well on the (practice) packets. My teacher, Mr. LeBoeuf, had faith in me that I was going to place,” Jacob said. “It was a bit of pressure, so I was kind of nervous while taking it, but I’m glad that I got an award. I made my teacher proud because he believed in me.”

When faced with a challenge, Jacob’s advice to others is to never give up.

“Strive to do your best and keep on going,” he said. “Even if you think something is hard, like when you’re taking the National Latin Exam, just try to use your context clues to help you out.”

Jacob enjoyed reading “Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of The Iliad,” and he was especially intrigued by the story of the Trojan Horse. While the coronavirus has changed daily routines, Jacob said his teachers have been very helpful in the transition to virtual school.

Carson was proud to complete an ambitious Latin I project that was initially due at the end of April. He constructed a three-foot tall 3D model of a caduceus, a symbolic staff with two entwined snakes and two wings at the top.

The caduceus is a well-known emblem of the medical field with roots tracing back to the Greek God Hermes. Carson’s project involved using a saw to shape the staff out of wood. To form the snakes, he used a heat gun to bend PVC pipes into a spiral.

“Our teacher has us do one project a year, so he wants it to be a good, thought-out project. It could be anything Greek or Roman,” Carson said. “I wanted to accomplish a challenge. No one has built a 3D model that’s big like that because it’s hard to get sturdy material to curl and bend like that.”

Carson was pleased with his achievement on the National Latin Exam, which involved reading a story in Latin and answering the accompanying questions. He said learning Latin this year has helped sharpen his English skills.

“It’s like seeing English from another perspective,” Carson said. “When you translate something to English, you understand it better.”