Dear Cindy, I’m just writing to let you know that I’m a senior now, and my first college acceptance came out this December– I’m going to Harvard!!! Thank you so much for hosting such an amazing trip during my junior year. Getting to study Latin in Rome was truly an invaluable experience, and I even got to speak about some of the things I learned there (like Mussolini’s adaptation of Augustan imagery during Italy’s fascist period) in my college interviews. I also really appreciate that Calder Classics provides scholarships…
Workshopping with a small group of people in one of the most inspirational cities in the world was truly a great experience. Our reading selection consisted of fantastic stories and excerpts by writers ranging from Dante to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I especially loved seeing the themes we read about appear in our art trips (e.g. the theme of an underdog and then seeing Michelangelo’s David).
My time in Florence was an intellectually and culturally enriching experience. Exploring the city every morning (a trip to the Palazzo Strozzi to see works by Verrcocchio and da Vinci was particularly exciting) and returning in the afternoon to a structured academic environment afforded us both intellectual rigor and an immersive travel experience. I had a fantastic time writing, reading, making friends, and becoming familiar with the Florentine world.
I had taken one year of Greek, so for me the purpose of this trip was really to reinforce the existing foundations in grammar. But unexpectedly, with all due credit to our professors, Calder Classics has given me so much more: it has given me the tools to be able to read Greek fluently. So thanks, teachers. You will both prove to be influential in my progress as a student and a classicist, and my words do no justice to the gratitude welling…
Calder Classics was not just your typical high school summer program. On this trip, not only did my Latin improve immensely but we were immersed in a new culture. We had the chance to visit Etruscan tombs, talk to real life Italians and try new foods such as cinghiale (wild boar). It was especially interesting to see Charon depicted on the tomb walls whom we had just read about in the Aeneid. We got through a lot of lines everyday in Latin and…
The Greek summer program [in Tuscany] with Calder Classics was an incredible combination of studying and sight seeing. Having personally never been to Europe before this program, to see the legacies and reception of the Roman, Greek and Etruscan cultures firsthand in both the countryside and cities of Italy breathed an illuminating force upon the texts we were translating and discussing daily. In this way, the ancient words on the pages of our books came to life for me and have now left…
Translating the Aeneid Book 6, Eclogue 4 and other esteemed texts, while visiting historic sites and towns and examining artistic masterpieces on the Tuscany Program, has entirely changed my approach to Latin studies and miraculously animated a dead language.
I have such a strong passion for Classics and I honestly owe it to you and your program. I still follow the Calder Classics Instagram and I love seeing the fun things the kids are doing. I have such fond memories of my time with you in Florence. I am reminded every day of the texts that we read in our little villa in Florence.
I’m an alum of Calder’s Latin & Greek programs. I returned as a chaperone/assistant teacher. Attending my first Calder Classics class “Latin and Volcanoes” was such a wonderful dive into the overlap between Science and Classics. Calder Classics inspired me to continue studying both disciplines in college! After graduating with degrees in Ancient Greek and Biology I am now a science researcher, but I owe so much to the skills I learned through Classics for building me up as a researcher.