Teaching Literacy with Latin

Aminata Hughes has a B.A. in History with minors in Classical Civilization and Secondary Education from Saint Peter’s University. Her love of the classics was nurtured at The Brooklyn Latin School, where she earned a perfect paper on The National Latin Exam during her freshman year. As an undergraduate, she played Jocasta in Oedipus Rex as part of her university’s Greek Theater Project. Outside of the classics, she enjoys camping, Japanese comics and winning at trivia.

Ann Patty is the author of LIVING WITH A DEAD LANGUAGE; My Romance with Latin (Viking/Penguin,2016) . Her essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Lingua Franca, Society for Classical Studies, Oprah.com, The Bucket, Publishers’ Weekly, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes and The Toast.

 Before she became a writer, she worked in New York trade publishing for more than thirty years. She was the founder and publisher of The Poseidon Press and an executive editor at Crown Publishers and Harcourt. She currently rusticates in the Hudson Valley, with her husband and dog, where she gardens, teaches Latin to elders, practices yoga and obsesses about things both profound and banal.

Wait Harrod is a sophomore at The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Having studied Latin for 5 years, he is adept student of Ancient languages. Wait also participated in the Paideia Institute’s Living Greek in Greece program which has inspired him to study Greek. Wait co-founded and hosts two Aequora sites in his area. Having flourished in his classical studies, Wait uses programs like Aequora to help promote the pursuit of classics in his community and inspire young students to pay homage to the diverse history of Antiquity. Through his non-profit organization, Red Stick Youth Classics, Wait aspires to help standardize classics in his community and share the joy he has found in Latin with other students.

Abigail Monasebian is a sophomore at a public high school in Great Neck, New York. She has been self-taught in Latin for four years, as well as Ancient Greek language and classical literature. She hosts an Aequora site at her local library, and writes monthly articles detailing the classical endeavors she teaches the students every other week. She attended The Paideia Institute’s Living Greek in Greece High School program, where she learned Ancient Greek knowledge on the very grounds that it occurred. She also co-founded an online journal publication, The Politeia Review, dedicated to publishing student-led research on bridging the classical world with that of modern-day politics. Outside of classics, Abigail enjoys interning on political campaigns, collecting and donating books to the underprivileged youth of Iran through her non-profit organization Books Defy Borders, and more!