Flint Hill Latin Program Continues to Shine

continues to prove itself within the Virginia Junior Classical League, winning four more competitions Oct. 15.

Some of Flint Hill's teams will advance to a higher level of play after winning competitions at the VJCL's Kick-Off Certamen at St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School in Alexandria.

The program has sustained success over the decades, having won the coveted Beta Prize, which honors the highest-performing private or home school program in Virginia as measured by student success on the Classical Association of Virginia (CAV) Latin Tournament, 20 times in the last 21 years.

Flint Hill students are notching individual honors. Last summer, seniors Nizar Zahed of Falls Church and Nora Okoth of Herndon were elected to state offices at the NJCL convention at Eastern Kentucky University, Nizar as VJCL editor and Nora as historian.

"It’s very rare that a school has two officers on the executive board at the same time," said Howard Chang, chairman of the Classics Department.

Forty-three students — 29 Upper School students and 14 Middle School students — recently earned NJCL Latin Honor Society status for their efforts.

"Our program is so strong that we actually had to create a Classics Department, making the study of Latin separate from our normal Foreign Language offerings," said John Thomas, headmaster. "Along with Latin at all levels, students can also attend classes in Greek, Etymology, and Roman and Greek History."