It has been a full three years since Alpha Theta was revived, and our chapter is experiencing its most eventful year yet. In the fall, our chapter elected its new officers, initiating Indira Abiskaroon, former Chrysophylax, as Prytanis, Emmanuel Aprilakis as Hyparchos, Guadalupe Terrones as Grammateus, and Albert Han as Chrysophylax. We also welcomed the biggest group of initiates since our chapter re-chartered, inducting Julia Dunn Stern, Carlos Espinal, Meral Kerim, Eric Kramer, Michelle Lee, Min Lu, Lenny Rostomian, Margo Sinclair. The event proved to be a great opportunity for faculty, current students, and alumni to get to know each other.
In November, Alpha Theta hosted its first “Life After a Classics B.A.” panel, an event we hope will occur annually henceforth. As this year’s topic addressed Classics graduate programs in New York City, we invited speakers to discuss the application process and their postgraduate experiences with our undergraduate members. This panel featured former Hyparchos Harrison Troyano, a first year doctoral student at Fordham University, former Grammateus Noah Davies-Mason, a second year doctoral student at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Jody Kass, who is soon to receive an M.A. in Adolescent Education in Latin from Hunter College. The Classics department’s newest addition, Professor David Petrain, also attended and provided insight into life after graduate school. The event had a great turnout and we’re already looking forward to next year’s panel!
At our spring initiation, we welcomed four enthusiastic new initiates to Alpha Theta: Will Chan, Karen Ebenezer, Christine Elmo, and Kesar Yorn. The event boasted the largest crowd we’ve ever had at an event! The boost in attendance allowed us to better understand the group’s interests and to plan for the rest of the year. For instance, we have begun to plan spoken Latin meetings for next year, which we hope will allow our members, some of whom attended the two-day Living Latin in New York City conference, hosted by the Paideia Institute and the New York Classical Club, to explore and practice spoken Latin techniques.
We’re also happy to say Hunter was well represented at this year’s national convention, with five students, one alumna, and our advisor, Professor Ronnie Ancona, in attendance, a tradition we hope will continue. During the convention, it was announced that our Grammateus, Guadalupe, was awarded the 3rd place prize for Advanced Greek in the 66th Annual Greek Translation Contest, leaving our chapter proud to boast recognition in this contest every year since we rechartered. Our representatives had a spectacular time at the convention, returning with ideas for organizing Classics outreach social service projects next semester. We’re even hoping to try our hand at a certamen at our last event of the year!
All in all, it has been quite an eventful year, and next year promises to be even more exciting.
You must be logged in to post a comment.