Our students are curious, ask questions, and want to learn. That is something that I already knew, but it’s something that became even more clear to me when the pandemic broke out, and we had to take all of our teaching and co-curricular activities online. It has not always been easy, but what I am heartened and amazed by is the fact that our students show up, all of them, to our Zoom classes, where they enthusiastically participate in the course material.

Here is a round-up of our major accomplishments since September 2019:

In September 2019, with the launch of the revised Grade 9/10 curriculum, the Classics Department launched the Classical Languages Program (CLP), an initiative offering a choice of Arabic, Classical Greek, or Latin to Grade 9 students—many of whom will take their language of choice into Grade 10 or even all the way through their IB program. These languages not only reflect our location in the Mediterranean Basin, more importantly, as highly organized and logical (much like math), these languages sharpen the mind, cultivate mental alertness, create keener attention to detail, develop critical thinking, and enhance problem-solving abilities, making studying other languages and subjects much easier as students progress through their academic careers.

The majority of our freshmen take Latin, and they find our methodology of teaching Latin as an “active language” engaging and even fun. Students read, write, and listen to Latin and do short Latin composition exercises. As they are developing their reading skills, they are also learning about etymology and Roman culture.

The students who chose Classical Greek are drawn to the course because of the different alphabet and the importance of the Greek language in fields like science, medicine, and philosophy.

Arabic is growing in popularity, a testimony to the fact that our students like to be challenged and are curious to learn about Arabic culture, which they understand is largely responsible for transmitting knowledge from antiquity through the Middle Ages to our own times.

In February 2020, the Lyceum partnered with Creative Writing teacher Moira Egan and the English department to bring UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and young poet Ella Duffy to campus as Writers in Residence. Many of our students study the work of these two poets, and it was a unique experience for them to be able to meet and interact with such special guests. It certainly brought their studies to life. Carol Ann and Ella visited classes, spoke to the whole student body at Morning Meeting, and met with the Embrace Club, the school’s student-led LGBTQ+ organization. During their poetry reading event in the final evening of their residence, the auditorium was packed with students, teachers, parents, and community members for what proved to be a very engaging reading of their works.

Also, in February 2020, Dr. Abby Jaques (Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at Stanford University's Center for Ethics in Society) took up the David N. Redden Lyceum Fellow in Residence. As a philosopher working on ethics and artificial intelligence, Dr. Jaques was the perfect visiting scholar for our 2019-20 school-wide theme, artificial intelligence. Dr. Jaques led workshops in the grade 9 Core classes and grade 11 TOK classes, met with the Biology 2 and 3 classes, and worked with the students in the iLab. She also met with all of our students for a Q&A session at Morning Meeting and held a public lecture for parents and the wider community on the final evening of her residency.

As classes went online again in early March 2020, we found many creative ways for our students to do co-curricular activities learning. For example, in the Sustainable Cultural Heritage unit for our City of Rome 1 classes, the students are tasked with researching lesser-known or forgotten Roman sites across Rome and making a video about their history. During lockdown, they had to stay close to home and find sites in their immediate neighborhood, which in some cases, have nothing of historical importance; however, being the creative, tenacious St. Stephen’s students they are, they managed to produce informative and entertaining videos, including interviews with their neighbours and submitted proposals for repurposing dilapidated or underused buildings or sites to offer the local community something that they felt was missing. Among some of the more creative proposals was the suggestion to add a skateboard ramp next to a piazza where the fountain is used by skateboarders, thus causing damage to the monument. Another proposal was creating a farmers market next to the Ostia Castle in a disused parcel of land.

Earlier this year, we were fortunate to resume our Parent Tour program with small groups. Parent and alumni participants appreciated the opportunity to learn from our faculty about the two Jesuit churches Sant'Ignazio and il Gésu, the Keats and Shelley House, Campus Martius (Field of Mars), Fori Imperiali, Rome’s ancient theatres, street art, and industrial heritage in Testaccio and Ostiense, the Banksy exhibition at the Chiostro del Bramante and the Capitoline Hill. Many of the participants describe these outings with fellow community members as a beacon of hope in challenging times.

This academic year, our collaboration with the American University of Rome (AUR) expanded into an extraordinary partnership between the Lyceum and the archaeology and classics department at AUR: the Aventinus Minor Project (AMP). This partnership between St Stephen’s, AUR and the Istituto Santa Margherita home for the elderly (the AMP site, right above the SSS sports courts) is designed as a community archaeology project for the benefit of all of our students, AUR undergraduates in archaeology and classics, people living on the Aventine (including the elderly at the Istituto Santa Margherita) and anyone who would like to be part of it (parents, alumni, etc.).

Exploring the Aventine Hill right next to St Stephen’s, something that has not ever been attempted systematically, will engage students in classics, history, science, math, technology, art, and modern languages to gain critical knowledge of archaeology, including the methodology of excavating and archaeological drawing, hard sciences, including archaeobotany and other interdisciplinary fields such as zooarchaeology, 3D laser scanning, and printing, archival studies, record keeping, iconography, cartography, topography, and photography. In short, it is a pathbreaking, state-of-the-art archaeological excavation.

The excitement generated by this project is clear, judging from the high number of participants in the Aventinus Minor Project summer course that was held online in July 2020 and the number of donors and volunteers supporting the project.

This spring, students in their City of Rome 1 classes were the first to participate, as they studied the history and archaeology of the Aventine Hill with an AUR intern who was involved in the first phase of the AMP, bibliographical and topographical research, last summer.

We are looking forward to the end of the pandemic when we will continue to expand all of the Lyceum program offerings and really kick the Aventinus Minor Project into high gear. In the meantime, I look forward to sharing with you again very soon.

Thank you for your continued interest and support.

A presto!

Before you turn the page, the Lyceum is entirely donor-funded. We are truly grateful to the Lyceum Founding Donors and all of our donors and volunteers for their continued generosity. To date, we’ve raised $313,000 toward our goal of $650,000 to endow the Lyceum Programs Fund permanently. To renew your support, make a new gift or participate in our community programs, please contact Allison Kemmis-Price at allison.kemmis-price@sssrome.it.