Do you remember fondly that wonderful woman who introduced you to the Latin language in middle school or high school? Do you perhaps instead think back to an experience of learning beginning Latin that was not so pleasant, and wish you had had the ideal instructor? One of this year’s honorees, Susan Marquis, is either your wonderful memory or the teacher of your wishful thinking. ΗΣΦ values such persons who work in pre-collegiate Classics education, and we are pleased when we can honor an instructor who has been outstanding in that group for a significant number of years.
Ms. Marquis currently teaches at St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, where she has classes in four levels of Latin, sponsors the Junior Classical League, and takes students abroad to Greece and Italy to further their learning experiences. Previously, she taught at the Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences and at Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas.
Her own education was as a major in Education, first concentrating on Latin and German in her Bachelor of Science degree at Emporia State University, then on Classics in her Master of Arts program at the University of Kansas.
As an undergraduate she received the Lillian B. Dudley Latin Scholarship, and was elected to membership in Kappa Delta Pi, the honor society in Education. Since she became a teacher, she has received the Employee award from the Kansas City, Kansas Board of Education—that was in 1987—and the Award of Excellence of KSPA from 1993 to 1997 for the Excalibur yearbook. We are glad to list among her honors recent initiation into Eta Zeta Chapter of ΗΣΦ at Truman State!
Ms. Marquis has been a consultant for the Ancient Greece and Rome Encyclopedia, but it is not certain when she has had time to do that, as she has served both the teaching profession and the Junior Classical League in too many capacities to list tonight! I’d like to mention her membership on committees in her education district which cover territory from Accreditation, to Textbook Adoption, to Curriculum. She has sponsored
students in the Junior Classical League of both Missouri and Kansas, for which she also planned and hosted conventions. She served on so many committees for the National Junior Classical League, some of which she chaired, that they honored her with the Summa Cum Laude Sponsor Award in 2007 and the Mildred Sterling Award in 2008.
One of the things of which she is most proud, and by which the Board of Trustees of ΗΣΦ has been very impressed is the fact that Susan Marquis has attended and sponsored students to National Latin Convention for thirty-seven consecutive years! Her students have found their way not only to JCL and NJCL, but into ΗΣΦ. One who has worked with her began this nomination. Former Prytanis David Giovagnoli, come forward! We invite you to make your way forward, too, Susan, as we applaud you heartily for your contribution to the Classics, and present you with the ΗΣΦ Lifetime Achievement Award!