A delegation of 16 students from the Bolles Upper School San Jose Campus traveled to Orlando to compete in the 77th Annual State Latin Forum April 9-11. The group carried on the Bolles Latin Program's long-standing tradition of success by bringing home 24 unique awards and sweeping the floor in the Derivatives and Classical Costumes competitions in particular.

Once again, Bolles placed among the top 20 schools in Florida for Overall Sweepstakes, an impressive fete considering they were competing against delegations with twice as many participants. The School even earned the top spot for the FJCL Chapter t-shirt design competition, a first in Bolles history. The group was led by upper school Latin teachers Elizabeth Gentry and Mary Caroline Berg ’17. 

This year, nearly 1,000 students from 43 different schools across the state attended the highly competitive event, which is hosted annually by the Florida Junior Classical League. Contests include academic, artistic and athletic events, all centered around the language, history and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome. Between their individual competitions, attendees showed their enthusiasm for the study and preservation of the Classics through additional activities, such as trivia competitions, the Day-In-Old-Rome bazaar and the Instagrammata challenge on social media.

Bolles State Forum Participants:

• Riley Bradshaw ’29, 9th place in Roman Customs
• Eamon Cantor ’28, 4th place in Solo Costumes,  8th place in Greek Derivatives
• Mei Ning Chen ’29, 8th place in Phrases, Mottos & Quotations, 6^th place in the Duo Costume competition
• Skyler Dacus ’28, 4th place in the Toga War, 8th place in Games, 10th place in Mythology
• Troy Davis ’28, 6th on the Mystery Test, 9th overall in Latin Derivatives
• Teryn Johnson ’29, 6th place in the Duo Costume competition
• Imaan Khawaja ’29, 1st place in the Open Certamen, 9th place in History of the Monarchy & Republic, 9th place in the Academic Decathlon, 10th place in Mythology (Level 2)
• Raphael Park ’28, 8th place in Mythology, 9th place for his Illustrated Booklet
• Sydney Shagam ’27, 2nd place in Maps
• Blake Sheftall ’27, 4th place in the Toga War, 4th place in Advanced Derivatives, 7th place in Sculpture 
• Bartlett Smith ’29, accepted the school award for placing in the Top 20 Schools, Overall Sweepstakes
• Jack Truog ’29, 6th place in Geography (Level 2)
• Tudor Vlad ’27, 7th place in History of the Monarchy & Republic (Advanced Level)
• Ellie Weidlich ’29, 2nd place in Solo Costumes
• Julia Zhao ’27, 6th place in Advanced Reading Comprehension
• Ellsa Zinn ’27, 5th place in Textiles, 2nd place in Geography (Advanced)