The Notre Dame Aequora Program, headed by Prof. L. Grillo and Prof. T. Mazurek, has been awarded a grant from the Center for Social Concerns that will help support our students as they bring the study of Latin to the students of Clay International Academy. Specifically, this grant will be used to cover the cost of materials from the Paideia Institute, transportation costs, and help sponsor an event for our elementary school students on Notre Dame's campus.
The Paideia Institute, which created the Aequora Program, seeks to expand accessibility to the study of Latin and make Classics a more diverse, inclusive, and socially conscious field. The Aequora Program is designed to affect this change by teaching literacy through Latin, particularly in schools of less privileged communities. The Classics Department of Notre Dame is excited to be joining this program and to be able to support one of our local schools in offering Latin to its students for the first time.
The Notre Dame Aequora Program currently contains about twenty undergraduate and graduate students who will start teaching in January. These students will work in pairs to teach classes of four or five students, allowing these students to receive as much help and attention as possible as they begin studying Latin. While the program is currently volunteers only, the Classics Department hopes to develop it into a three-credit course that will combine the tutoring aspect of the program with a course in Latin pedagogy.
For more information about the Notre Dame Aequora Program, please contact Prof. L. Grillo (lgrillo@nd.edu) or Prof. T. Mazurek (tmazurek@nd.edu).