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The 2022-23 school year has seen the foundation of a new Academic Team at Pacifica — our very own chapter of the California Junior Classical League! The Junior Classical League (JCL) is a national organization founded in 1936 in order to foster interest, appreciation, and understanding of ancient Greek and Roman culture, history, literature, and language among secondary students. As an organization, it combines rigorous academics (e.g. testing, academic lectures, and competitive trivia games) with a large dose of fun, excitement, and camaraderie. 

Pacifica's founding JCL members have brought an amazing level of enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work to the new team, which has made for a fantastic first year. We sent a team to the regional southern California conference in October, as well as the California state convention at the beginning of April, held this year in Orinda, CA. In addition to preparing for and attending these events, our students designed team logos, planned fundraisers, and collaborated on other projects together — all in the JCL's spirit of student leadership and citizenship.

We're very proud of our team this year and celebrate their achievement as founders. We are also happy to report that at the regional southern California convention Evan Hong placed 5th on the Mythology & Latin Vocabulary Exams; Parker Phillips placed 5th on the Phrases/Mottoes & Derivatives exams and 3rd on the Latin Vocabulary exam; and Savannah Morwood placed 1st on the Latin Vocabulary exam. At the state convention, Parker Phillips placed 3rd in the state on the Latin Vocabulary exam and Pacifica's JCL chapter earned the 2nd place spirit award for small schools!

Both Parker Phillips and Evan Hong have also been accepted into the 2023 Getty Villa Latin Summer Program (Academia Aestiva). It is a great, competitive program — spoken Latin in the mornings, and then collection-based historical and cultural lessons in the afternoons for a week at the Getty Villa and Getty Center! Congratulations Parker and Evan!