Bill Bryce

My experiences with Kentucky Classics and the Institute for Latin Studies have rewarded me personally and professionally.  My professors there challenged me to be thoughtful in my study of Latin and Greek, to place texts in the context of the cultures that write them, and to heed the nuances afforded by the authors' dialects.  From active practice of spoken Latin, I became more attuned than ever to the structure and patterns in an otherwise "free" word order, and my confidence in translating Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin grew exponentially.  In speaking Latin, I also developed personally, experiencing the fear, then the growth, then the satisfaction in communicating with my fellow students and professors - not to mention with the worldwide active Latin community - in a language which none of us could call our native tongue.  I met a native Italian speaker around town who spoke no English, and I no Italian, so we communicated in Latin!  So cool.  Similar experiences happen to those who participate in the Conventicula Latina, when Classics enthusiasts from all over the world come to Kentucky to speak Latin with one another.

For five years I was an Instructor of Classics at Virginia Tech, where I fostered a love of ancient languages and their active use among my students.  Currently I am working on my PhD in Computational Linguistics at the University of Illinois, where I pursue new ways to find the structure of the languages found in various corpora.  I have continued to work as a teacher of Latin as well as of English as a Second Language, both positions I earned because of my experiences speaking Latin actively in Kentucky.  I remember fondly the people of Kentucky Classics and my experiences there, and they continue to shape my life today.

Reed DeMarco

Upon graduating with an MA in Classics from the University of Kentucky, Reed DeMarco has been teaching Latin and Ancient Greek at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, MI, since 2010. He studied both Latin and Ancient Greek during his graduate work as a Teaching Assistant from 2007-2009, where at least one of his students even went on to become a Latin teacher also. In addition, Reed earned a certificate in Active Latin from the UK Institute for Latin Studies. This meaningful venture allowed him to gain oral Latin proficiency, not only to enrich his relationship with the language, but also to adopt pedagogy not dissimilar to other World Languages. Reed enjoys the life-long learning opportunities to which he has gained access since his time at UK, as well as joining such a flourishing community of learners and educators through his graduate work and Conventicula Latina.

Since December 2013, Reed has been the proud husband to wife Jamie, and since May 2015, proud father to daughter Emily Monica. Aside from enjoying his time raising a family, Reed enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and all things outdoors, especially golfing, fishing and hunting.

Tyler Denton

Tyler Denton, a native of Tennessee, got his bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee. While he was pursuing a course of study in history, he met with and fell in love with the Latin language, and the rest, so to speak, is history. He eventually graduated with concentrations in Latin, Classical Civilizations, Medieval Studies, and History and a minor in Greek. There he studied a wide, perhaps even dizzying, range of time periods and genres both in Latin and Greek, ranging from the archaic Lesbian poets to the late Medieval scholastics, but he was particularly drawn to the works and afterlife of Rome's vates summus, Virgil. He capped his time at UT with an unofficial senior thesis as part of a year long graduate-level course on Medieval paleography in which he wrote about the Italian Renaissance reception of Tiberius Claudius Donatus, a Late Antique Vergilian commentator.

Tyler then continued his education at the University of Kentucky, where he continued to expand his knowledge of Greek and Latin. He also began the extremely challenging but equally rewarding mission of learning Latin as a living language in UK's Institutum Studiis Latinis Provehendis. During this course of study, he came in contact with even more Latin and Greek authors, especially some of Virgil's later admirers, including Petrarch, Poliziano, and Girolamo Fracastoro. He also developed an active interest in the interplay between history and poetry, a focus that greatly impacts his current studies, especially between Livy and contemporary Augustan poets. Outside of his personal reading and research, Tyler witnessed the nascence of his love for teaching when he taught a pair of Latin courses at UK. From this experience, he certainly recognizes the importance of being both a scholar and a teacher.

After he graduated with an MA in Classics from UK, Tyler began working towards his PhD at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where, amidst gazing at the Rocky Mountains sitting imposingly on the outskirts of town, he is working on finishing coursework and passing his final preliminary exams before starting on the dissertation. He looks forward to teaching Greek for the first time in an online format in the Summer of 2016 and is currently enjoying teaching Latin.

Nathan Freeman

In the past bit of time, Nathan Freeman (MA Classics, 2010; MA German 2011) has had quite the honor of being able to teach Latin seminars and classes on three continents:  the two Americas, and Europe.  Remaining true to the active method has allowed him to teach in locations where he did not have complete mastery of the national language (Brazil and France, for example).   At the seminary “Bon Pastor” in France, in addition to active Latin, he also taught a beginning Hebrew course in Latin,  which perhaps has not happened in that past century or two on the European continent.  Addionally, within a year or two, and with help from other Latinists (commilitones), he hopes to co-found Latin Academies, where the natural method will be used, both in Europe and in South America.  In the midst of this he has authored three books, availiable at Amazon:  Tractatus de Societate, The Third Book of Aphorisms and The Winter Poems (available soon).

Tim Griffith

Tim Griffith has been a Fellow of Classical Languages at New Saint Andrews College in Idaho since 2007. In the spirit of his teachers at The Institute for Latin Studies, he employs a mixed Latin pedagogy, making use of Latin as a real living language while maintaining a heavy emphasis on grammar, readings, and composition. He is proud to have had two of his own students go on to complete the Institute and an M. A. in Classics at UK. He is the founder and director of the Phaedrus Latin Contest, an annual National competition in writing Latin fables for high school students.

One of his greatest research interests is Latin pedagogy, where he has developed various visual aids to make teaching Latin grammar and vocabulary more effective. In 2012 he published Orbis Pictus, a systematic visual introduction to vocabulary of the natural world. In 2016 he plans to publish Vocabula Picta, an online Latin vocabulary tool designed to aid students of Latin and keyed to popular Latin textbooks. Also, he is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Classics at the University of Florida and expects to complete his dissertation on Lactantius’ De Ira Dei in 2017.

Lisa Jagoda

Lisa Jagoda began her undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky in 2008 with majors in classics and anthropology, and immediately began studying Greek under the instruction of Dr. Amy Clark. After a few semesters, she began studying Latin in an intensive accelerated course taught by Dr. Jane Phillips. By her third year of study, Lisa was taking reading courses in both Latin and Greek every semester and thoroughly enjoying delving deeper into the grammar, syntax, and literary interpretation of authors such as Cicero, Plato, Ovid, and Virgil. During an advising appointment, Dr. Hubert Martin recommended that she apply to the University Scholars Program, which allows qualified undergraduate students to begin graduate-level studies during their senior year while earning credits that count toward both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Lisa applied to this program and was accepted, thus completing her bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and classics (and also managing to complete a Spanish minor) in 2012 and her master’s degree in classics in 2013. Highlights from her time as a student at the University of Kentucky include presenting a paper at an undergraduate classics conference, winning both the departmental Latin and Greek undergraduate awards, and getting to know her professors and classmates in small and highly participatory class settings.

After graduation, Lisa moved to Athens (the college town in Georgia, not the capital of Greece, unfortunately) and after several months, began working at the University of Georgia as an academic advisor. She currently advises math students, and although she doesn’t use Latin or Greek on a daily basis, the skills she learned and developed as a classics student, namely, organization, high attention to detail, and patience, are beneficial to both her and her students.  She loves working with students in an academic environment and helping them to plan their futures and achieve their goals. Since beginning this career in 2014, Lisa has earned the Certificate in Academic Advising and the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from the University of Georgia, and continues her professional and personal growth by attending conferences and workshops and by getting involved on campus and in the community.

Miller Krause

Miller Krause earned his B.A. in Latin and Greek at the University of Virginia. He then taught at the secondary level for several years before he learned of the spoken Latin program at the University of Kentucky. Eager for the challenge of moving beyond the narrow confines of the traditional approach to classical languages, he left his old life behind and eagerly threw himself into graduate studies at Kentucky. Drs. Minkova and Tunberg showed him that a different kind of Latin than what he had encountered before: not a fossilized logic puzzle or codebook of the dead, but an eternally living conversation that intelligent men and women had been having for thousands of years, from antiquity to the present day.

With his M.A. in hand, he then undertook Ph.D. work at the University of Florida. There he began working on everything from ancient declamations to sixteenth and seventeenth century Latin histories of Virginia and Florida. His other research interests run the gamut from prose rhythm to paradoxical encomia, from Plato to Propertius to Plutacrius.

Miller now teaches at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. He also researches innovative teaching methods for classical languages, including those in use in Africa in the 1970’s. He feels deeply committed to treating Latin as a language, and thus as something that must be spoken and written as well as read in the classroom. Furthermore, he believes in teaching the entire patrimony of Latin and Greek letters, including Byzantine literature on the one hand and medieval and Neo-Latin works on the other.

Kelly Lawyer

After graduating with an MA in Classical Studies and a graduate certificate the Institute of Latin Studies, I received a full scholarship to attend the Classical Summer School through the American Academy in Rome.  This six-week program is designed to provide qualified graduate students, mature undergraduates, and middle school, high school, and two-year college teachers with a well-founded understanding of the growth and development of the city of Rome through a careful study of material remains and literary sources.  My six weeks spent in Rome this past summer were some of the best, most exciting, and enriching of my life; the lectures, site visits, and conversations with my classmates and fellows at the academy deepened my knowledge in ways I never thought possible. 

Through the program, I gained a better understanding of the Roman sites themselves, greater experience and knowledge handling ancient artifacts, how to excavate dig sites, and the opportunity to see parts of Rome that would not have been possible outside of this program.  Currently, I am teaching an immersive Latin class to second and third graders, a Latin one class, an advanced Latin honors class, two English grammar classes, and two art history classes at Oak Hill Christian School in Reston, Virginia.  My job affords me the opportunity to work with students of all ages and introduce them to Latin texts from ancient and modern sources and use the skills I gained as a teacher assistant, all thanks to the education I received through UK’s Classics program.  

William Little

William Little (B.A. Classics, Harvard University, M.A. Medieval Studies, Fordham University) graduated from the UK M.A. Program in Classics and the Institute of Latin Studies in 2013, and since then has been at work on his doctorate in the Ohio State University department of Greek and Latin.   His interests center on the reception of the Latin classics in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and in this vein he is currently working on projects pertaining to the rich medieval Latin commentary tradition on Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  Over the summers he has had the opportunity to broaden his knowledge of the manuscripts and early printed books through which such commentaries have been transmitted through programs hosted by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto and the California Rare Book School, though he still credits above all the curriculum at the University of Kentucky with lending him a facility with Latin that is indispensable in such research.

Sean McGrath

I currently teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Latin at Cicero Preparatory Academy in Scottsdale, AZ, which is a new school within the network of Great Hearts Academies.  We strive to provide a rigorous education in Latin grammar and literature using the textbook “Latin for the New Millennium.”  Our approach, in addition to the traditional grammar method, involves using Latin orally in class, whether describing pictures in a powerpoint to review vocabulary, or to summarize and discuss readings.  We also greatly emphasize the importance of English to Latin translation from the very beginning of the curriculum.

My studies at the University of Kentucky’s Living Latin Institute have given me an excellent formation to perform the duties of a Latin teacher at Cicero Prep.  The unique scope of the program and the great support of the professors made my time in the Classics M.A. program thoroughly enjoyable and intellectually stimulating.  As an avid Latinist, the ability to converse daily in Latin with Dr. Minkova and Dr. Tunberg was of immeasurable benefit both professionally and personally.  I greatly enjoyed my time there and know that the two-year investment enabled me to develop a level of mastery of the Latin language which would be difficult to acquire anywhere else but in Europe.

Jonathan Meyer

Jonathan Meyer (B.A., Calvin College; M.A.R. Bible, Yale University; M.A. Classics University of Kentucky) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Classics at Johns Hopkins University. After earning a Master's degree from the University of Kentucky in 2012, Jonathan spent a year as a regular member at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, where he studied the Latin travel diaries of Cyriac of Ancona. He also spent six months as a fellow at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in Innsbruck, Austria, where he worked on neo-Latin novels written in the Habsburg empire. In the summer of 2015, he presented a paper as part of a panel on the neo-Latin "Habsburg novels" at the Sixteenth International Congress of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies (IANLS) in Vienna, Austria. He has also been an instructor for the Paideia Institute's "Living Latin in Rome," a five-week summer Latin immersion experience for college and graduate students in Rome and its environs.

Jennifer Nelson

After completing concurrent master’s degrees in Classics and Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky, I landed my dream job at the Robbins Collection, a research center for medieval and early modern religious and civil law located at the UC Berkeley School of Law. The best part about my job is that I am surrounded by rare books and manuscripts written primarily in Latin. I have learned—and continue to learn—a great deal about legal history, history of legal education, manuscripts, early printing, and paleography. I continue to be involved in Latin not just by being around our wonderful books, but also by teaching instruction sessions on cataloging rare Latin materials. In addition, I am currently working towards my doctoral degree through the University of Florida Classics department’s Distance Learning Program.

Patrick Owens

After earning his Master’s degree from the University of Kentucky’s Institute of Neo-Latin Studies in 2009, Patrick M. Owens was offered a permanent position at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY teaching Latin. After several years of teaching the upper-level and honors track of undergraduate courses in Latin and Latin literature, he decided to return to graduate school for his terminal degree. In 2015, Dr. Owens took his Ph.D. in Classical and Early Christian Literature from the Institute of Higher Latin Studies at the Salesianum (Università Pontificia Salesiana). Under the direction of Dr. Luigi Miraglia, Dr. Owens wrote his doctoral dissertation on the reception of Classical philosophical diction in Cardinal Poliniac’s Anti-Lucretius (1747). 

Dr. Owens attributes much of his success to his time as a graduate student at UK, during which time he composed his Master’s thesis under Dr. Terence Tunberg on the Classical and Patristic sources in Thomas More’s Utopia. Since leaving UK Dr. Owens has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in philosophy and humanities at Touro University and courses in Latin and Latin literature at the Vivarium Novum in Rome. Dr. Owens’ recent work has focused on Latin literature and diction from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. This research particularly fuels one of his projects, the Lexicon Morganianum, of which he is the editor-and-chief. Dr. Owens is also interested in Latin pedagogy and has edited many of the texts in the Lingua Latina per se Illustrata series, as well as published on trends in active Latin methodologies. He is on the board for the American Association for Neo-Latin Studies, and the National Association for the Promotion of Latin and Greek. He currently resides in Lander, Wyoming with his wife and children, where he teaches Latin, Roman Art History and Humanities at Wyoming Catholic College. Dr. Owens is a regular participant in the annual Conventiculum Lexintoniense.

RJ Parsons

I am currently a Latin teacher at Saint Louis University High School in St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving my Master’s degree from the University of Kentucky, I was eager to use the knowledge and skills that I had acquired and to take them into my own classroom. I wanted then—as I do now—to share my passion for ancient authors like Cicero, Catullus, and Demosthenes as well as my love for the writings of such greats as Pontano, Petrarch and Erasmus. The unique course offerings at UK had allowed me to explore Latin literature from the Roman republic to the Renaissance. I feel equipped to bring that depth and passion into my classes because of my studies at the Institute for Latin Studies. In fact, I find that when I bring in the resources that I had gotten to know during my Master’s, my students can often relate better to the texts we explore. They even see many of these more recent authors as a bridge to understanding and enjoying ancient works.

In every class that I teach, I urge my students not merely to translate passages, but to ask questions of the authors. Why does s/he use this word or construction rather than that? What authors influenced the composition of these passages? How might you reword this selection? These were all skills I learned at UK, where students are encouraged to approach the languages and literature from a variety of angles and to form much more active—and therefore fulfilling—connections with the texts and language they study. Indeed, what I learned during my studies in the Institute for Latin Studies has completely transformed the way I teach and the enjoyment of it.

Rachel Philbrick

I am currently a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Classics at Brown University. I completed UK's MA program in Classics in 2011, and the work I did there allowed me to hit the ground running at Brown as a Javits Fellow. I completed my degree requirements in my third year and, since passing my comprehensive exams in May 2014, I have been working on my dissertation entitled Truth and Exaggeration: The Theme of Hyperbole in Ovid's Exile Poetry. In this project, I am examining Ovid's frequent use of hyperbole in the first-person poetic narrative of his exile in Tomis on the Black Sea coast and reading his exaggerations, not as falsehoods that compromise their author's credibility, but as expressions of the major themes of the exile poems, especially the poet's geographical remoteness and isolation from Rome. This ties into ideas I began exploring in my MA thesis at UK, which examined the Argo's journey to the edges of the world in Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautica. During my fourth year, I spent time developing my dissertation project at the American Academy in Rome. At Brown, I have had the opportunity to teach a variety of classes, including Greek mythology, Hellenistic history, and an introduction to Latin literature. I am currently pursuing a career as a professor of Classics, where I plan to continue my teaching and research.

Rebecca Sausville

Rebecca Sausville began the MA program in Classics at UK in the fall of 2013. As an undergraduate student at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus, Rebecca majored in Classical Languages, earning her BA in 2011. After a stimulating session with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in the summer of 2011, Rebecca took two years off from academia to explore various career paths, from corporate finance to "vintnering." A love of classics, particularly of Latin poetry, stuck with her and soon she found it hard to resist the urge to delve more deeply into the historical and cultural settings that shaped the literature she found so enthralling. UK offered an ideal environment for Rebecca to dust off her Latin skills, to enrich her knowledge of Greek, and to gain valuable experience teaching introductory and intermediate Latin and introductory Greek. 

During her two years at UK, Rebecca had the opportunity to read a diverse selection of authors and to participate in a variety of enriching seminars (two stand-outs were Prof. Jane Phillips' seminar on Lucretius in Fall 2013 and Prof. Robert Rabel's Greek Composition course in Spring 2014). Rebecca's participation in the Institute for Latin Studies helped to broaden her notions of what modern classical scholarship could and should be. Some academically formative moments at UK include an independent study on Epictetus (Spring 2015) with Prof. Rabel, paper workshops in Prof. Jackie Murray's graduate seminars on Valerius Flaccus (Fall 2014) and Apollonius of Rhodes (Spring 2015), and presenting (in Latin) at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Spring 2014 with fellow students from Prof. Milena Minkova's Neo-Latin course. 

In the fall of 2015, Rebecca began a Ph.D. at New York University in Classics. In the early stages of her graduate career, she intends to expand her knowledge of the cultural, political and historical trends of the ancient world. Her initial interests lie in pursuing Epicurus and the Stoic sage (at alternating turns) from Greece into the early modern world, and in exploring the cultural role of Hellenistic philosophy in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. An interest in Latin poetry, as always, abides. 

Anthony Thomas

Anthony Thomas is currently pursuing his PhD in Classics in the Classical and Near Eastern Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. He is currently taking courses in Lactantius, the Book in Egypt, and Coptic. He continues to pursue his interest in Augustine by working on a paper investigating the influence of Lactantius’ Divine Institutes on Augustine’s De Vera Religione. He is also investigating Manichaean manuscripts, especially the Cologne Mani-Codex and may write a paper on the interplay of tradition and personal revelation in that text. He is also teaching discussion sections of a course in Classical Mythology and working through the PhD reading lists.

Joseph Tipton

Joseph Tipton teaches Greek and Latin in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. He earned his PhD in 2013 with his dissertation An Aristocracy of Virtue: The Protagorean Background to the Periclean Funeral Speech in Thucydides, in which he explores the influence of relativism in Athenian politics. Besides fifth- and fourth-century Athenian texts, Joseph also conducts research in the Greek, Latin and Hebrew writings of the early modern period, especially those that relate to the Protestant Reformation. His most recent paper examines the commentary which the famous Lutheran pedagogue, Joachim Camerarius, composed in Attic Greek on an early collection of Greek Archaic poets.

A graduate of UK’s Classics program and the Institutum Litteris Latinis Provehendis, Joseph continues to pursue his interest in spoken Latin and Greek. He regularly attends the Conventicula Aestiva held each summer in Lexington, KY where, besides the enjoyment of speaking Latin, he brainstorms with many colleagues on the best ways to incorporate a spoken dimension in Greek and Latin classes. UK’s Classics Department has had an enormous and enduring influence on his professional development as the place par excellence where one can receive instruction in spoken Latin and, what is more, pursue research in the growing field of Neo-Latin studies both through its unique graduate curriculum and in the innovative Neo-Latin panels it plays host to yearly in the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. Truly sui generis, UK’s Classics program set Joseph’s life on a trajectory he deeply appreciates.

Sarah Landolt

I graduated with a French Masters from UK in 2013, and I can easily say that my decision to get a Masters in this MCL department was one of the most influential of my life thus far. Due to the  intense, dual-nature set-up of the graduate program (full-time instructor of elementary French coupled with being a full-time student in analytical, literary grad courses),  I noticed the following in my life and among my peers by the end of the Masters in French and Francophone studies:

1. maturation and increased confidence
2. a vast improvement in written and spoken French
3. a  deeper knowledge of French and Francophone literature that is a secret/ essential window into the culture & history
4. a mastery of organizational, communication and critical thinking skills that spill into ever area of life (social, professional and academic).

I experienced all of the above during my two years as a graduate student while being among excellent faculty and bright, diverse peers who shared my interests and supported me through the stress and the successes.

Jonny Porter

The MA program in French at UK was an excellent experience which allowed me to further my knowledge while aiding me in my professional goals. While completing my studies in the program I was able to concurrently complete a graduation certificate in International Education. I also presented and attended several conferences within both fields.  Professors were very supportive while also giving me the intellectual challenge I was seeking. I completed both my MA in French and my graduate certificate in International Education within two years while also completing 2 internships, teaching every semester, and being a representative for the graduate students in the department. Currently I am teaching for a year in France to better hone my teaching and language skills. At the end of this year I plan on pursuing a career in Education Abroad principally as a student advisor. I feel that the knowledge and experience I gained while completing my masters degree makes me an ideal candidate for this position.

Alyse Treesh

My name is Alyse Treesh and I graduated from the French MA Program in 2012.  From 2012-2015, I served as an Adjunct French Instructor at Eastern Kentucky University.  In 2015, I decided to return to UK to do the 1-year MATWL program in order to teach French in the public school system.  The French MA program was beneficial for several reasons.  My content knowledge and speaking ability skyrocketed, and I was given several resources for professional development.  Serving as a TA gave me valuable teaching experience which helped inform my current career goals.  The connections made with professors combined with my growth both professionally and in my speaking ability made this program invaluable to my career.

Nathan Freeman

Since completing the M.A. in German at UKY (2011), Nathan Freeman has continued to teach languages world-wide, including the occasional German course, in Canada, Argentina and the like. The most helpful experience concerning German, however, was neither strictly literary nor even academic. In 2014, Nathan “Freiherr” Freeman, as he is known to his German friends, made a research journey through the western and southern parts of Germany, visiting various organic farms. Through this experience, with excellent preparation in German due to studies at UKY, Herr Freeman was able to adopt techniques and knowledge from cutting-edge German farms to found his own organic-beef cattle farm in northern Ohio in 2015. He is currently preparing for a “Lehramt” in Germany for 2016, simultaneous with doctoral studies at Leiden University.

Antonio Losavio

TESL MA Graduate, 2014

I feel incredibly prepared. I find that I constantly apply my knowledge from this program to my internship teaching, and it constantly astonishes the staff there. I feel incredibly confident when I deliver and prepare lessons. Even designing a curriculum is no longer intimidating!!!!

Karen Papp

TESL MA Graduate, 2014

The most important strength of the MA TESL program is the well-balanced instruction in theory and practice. While enrolled in this program, I was in the enviable position of being in an ESL classroom daily. I can say that every TESL course was relevant. I was able to make immediate connections and improvements in my teaching practice. I especially appreciate how MA TESL faculty demonstrated best practices in second language instruction. They modeled effective teaching methods, gathered student feedback, and encouraged group cohesiveness.

Rosanna Willhite

TESL MA Graduate, 2014

From the very beginning, you are not only in class, but you are also teaching classes. It was incredibly challenging and even difficult; however, the time teaching [ESL] at Carnegie Center served as a constant reminder of what the program was about and what I was getting into. This served not only to terrify me at times and question whether or not I had what it took, it also reminded me that I loved what I was doing and was going to meet the challenge.

Lucianne Junker

In 2010, Lucianne Junker received her MA in Teaching World Languages along with her certificate from the Institute of Latin Studies. Currently in her sixth year of teaching Latin at the high school level, Lucianne has developed her own curriculum and utilizes total immersion in her classroom. By engaging the Latin language in an active mode, Professors Minkova and Tunberg have greatly shaped Lucianne as a language learner. The Institute for Latin Studies classes have instilled the discipline of interpreting and paraphrasing Latin literature, through which Lucianne has developed her own curriculum based on the ancient authors her students read. In addition, Professors Minkova and Tunberg serve as models for Lucianne’s teaching. She strives to provide students a non-threatening space to practice active language use.

Simultaneously with the Institute for Latin Studies classes, Lucianne is indebted to Dr. DuBravac for the pedagogy in the MATWL program for teaching the target language in an engaging, active, total immersion environment. Dr. DuBravac challenged her to engage both interested and disinterested students using meaningful activities exclusively in the target language. As a participant in the active Latin community in Lexington both during the school year and summer conventiculua, Lucianne continues to develop active language use by reading Latin literature and conversing in Latin both in and outside of the classroom. Now teaching at Madison Central High School in Richmond, Kentucky, Lucianne credits her professors of the MATWL and Institute for Latin Studies programs at the University of Kentucky for her active Latin capabilities and pedagogy.

Jillian Lykens

Jillian Lykens is in her 8th year of teaching German at Beaumont Middle School in Lexington, with over 130 7th and 8th graders in her program (a considerably large program for middle school German). She has taken the opportunity to present annually on numerous topics at the Kentucky World Language Association’s (KWLA) Conference and will present at the Southern Conference on Language Teaching. She serves as a Regional Representative on the board of KWLA and works with the Professional Development Committee of KWLA to spearhead the creation of Professional Development sessions used across the state. She is also the Vice President/President Elect of the KY chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Beyond this, she was named a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar last year, which afforded her the opportunity to study in Berlin for the summer.

Ben McMaine

Ben McMaine has presented at Kentucky World Language Association state conference, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages national conference, at district and at school level. He was awarded the Embassy of Spain's scholarship to learn about technology in the classroom in Salamanca, Spain, has been on the team to develop Student Growth Goals for Fayette County Public Schools and co-created professional development opportunities for language teachers throughout the state of Kentucky to learn about proficiency. He is a certified ACTFL OPI rater. He serves as a co-representative for Fayette County Public Schools on the KWLA board. He has been either technology coordinator or coordinator of FCPS STARTALK Chinese program for the previous 3 years and have presented Professional Development seminars to Chinese teachers on technology in the classroom.

Jordan Sharpe

Jordan Sharpe is a French teacher at Tates Creek High School. She spent her first three years teaching at Carter G. Woodson Academy, an all male college preparatory middle and high school program. She is a member of American Association of Teachers of French- Kentucky chapter and Kentucky World Language Association. Jordan was a co-presenter at the KWLA fall conference in 2015 where she presented on classroom management and promoting student target language use.