Ella Siepel and Kyle Colleluori are two of Huntington High School’s top Latin students. The duo has been studying the language for many years and both of them see the value in it.
“I definitely found taking Latin a valuable experience,” Mr. Colleluori said. “Mrs. [Kristin] Fortunato is an excellent teacher and truly cares about her students. The whole class was always so much fun because you don’t just learn about the language, but ancient Roman culture and mythology as well. It is full of fun projects and your classmates become like your family through the years. I would definitely recommend taking it.”
Ms. Siepel is the president of Huntington’s Latin Honor Society chapter. Mr. Colleluori serves as the organization’s treasurer.
“I found studying Latin to be one of the best experiences of my middle and high school careers,” Ms. Siepel said. “Mrs. Fortunato is an amazing teacher and did such a good job of both teaching us a wide variety of information about the language itself as well as ancient Roman culture. She also turned our class into a family. I made some of my best friends through Latin class and it helped influence my desire to study history and classics in college. I would absolutely recommend Latin to anyone still trying to decide on a language because it’s a unique class that you’ll be able to both learn a lot and have fun in!”
Mr. Colleluori is headed to Boston College where he is interested in pursuing a degree in finance. Ms. Siepel will be attending the University of Rochester.
Besides being top students academically, the two seniors are also Blue Devil athletes with Mr. Colleluori starring on the golf and baseball teams and Ms. Siepel running on the cross country and track teams.