Students will gather for our annual beginning of the year Convocation Ceremony on Friday September 7th at 10am. This annual event starts the year off with enthusiasm and excitement as the whole school gathers in the gymnasium to mark the beginning of the year with student and teacher speeches and performances of the school choir. The event encourages communication and connection between the various grades and also helps develop student public speaking skills and students in the middle and upper school practice addressing the entire student body about a topic that is meaningful. Monthly assemblies will continue throughout the school year, in which individual or paired grades will meet to honor student performance, hard work, or civility and kindness. Each of these events will also include student speeches, poetry recitation, or other types of performances.
Next Wednesday September 5 college counselors will meet with seniors and their parents in the MPR to talk about the application schedule and expectations for the year. The following week juniors will also meet with college advisors to discuss the first steps of the college application process, including visiting schools and creating a junior portfolio. Many students have already attended Ms. Latham and Ms. Richardson’s Application Boot Camp in August. Students will also have the chance to work with English teachers throughout the fall semester to perfect their college essays, and students should already be reaching out to teachers about recommendations. Many seniors this week also took the chance to interview for the Posse Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship offered by several colleges. Previously, Washington Latin students have won Posse Scholarships to Pepperdine, Bucknell, University of Wisconsin, Lehigh, and Rochester.
Many Washington Latin students traveled abroad this summer to learn language skills or volunteer. Rising junior Owen Fox-Whelpton studied Arabic in Morocco, traveling with his teacher Mr. Hamd. Sophomores Ketan Mampara and Alicia Campbell participated in the MMLA Arabic program. Seniors DJ Okuleye and Jania Clare and Tate Wright took part in the Living Latin in Rome program, and junior Kim Montpelier studied Greek in Greece. Senior Dyllan Cole travelled to Jordan and senior Chandler Brossard visited China through the NSLI-Y program. Meanwhile, sophomore Lydia Moore visited Tanzania to volunteer in an orphanage, and senior Kyle Wood went to Zambia with a church group working in an orphanage. Studying language domestically were sophomores Li Qian Shoag, Jia Fleming, and Catherine Sherman, who attended Concordia Summer Language Camp in Chinese and sophomore Theo Greiff, who attended the camp in Japanese.
Rising junior Luke Tewalt competed in June at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor. Tewalt attended the national track competition for the second year in the row, with the help of his coach Mr. Callum. Tewalt, who runs both distances and relays, has previously set a record for the 3000 meter race at track meets, and earned accolades in the 1500 meter national race last summer.
At this summer’s All Star Game at Nationals Stadium, the Washington Latin Honors Choir and the arts department chair Melissa VerCammen took part in singing the National Anthem. The event was broadcast nationally on Fox News, and Mr. Anderson was so excited to see Washington Latin singers he took photos of his television screen! In June these talented singers were also featured in a choir performance at LincolnCenter. The choir included 2018 graduates Nate Crystal, Alim Wilkins, Anna Krebs and Noah Logan, rising seniors Shelby Griffith, Sebastian Smith, Isaiah Mays, Steven D’Alessandro, Ava Tiller, and Rodney Goldring, rising juniors Nona Douglas, Nora Butler, Justin Burgon, and Will Geist, and rising sophomores Lydia Moore and Helena Ikenberry.
