College Partners with Worcester Public Schools to Introduce Classics to Young Students

Holy Cross students brought ancient Greek civilization to a Worcester middle school spring semester, in an effort to introduce young students to the field of classics.

“We want to bring Latin, Greek and ancient culture and history into the lower grades and make it more engaging,” said Isabelle Jenkins ’10, director of the College’s Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning. 

Students in the College’s Greek 102 class taught a section of the state’s Greek civilization curriculum to 25 sections of seventh graders at Worcester East Middle School.

To prepare, students met with Colleen Kelly ’94, Worcester Public Schools academic liaison for history and social sciences, to learn more about the middle school students and discuss how to incorporate state academic standards into their lessons. They then worked with Marybeth Cashman ’05, director of the Holy Cross Teacher Education Program (TEP), and her TEP students to create classroom plans and workshop how to engage with different types of learners.

As an added bonus, the middle school students also got the opportunity to ask their Holy Cross counterparts about their college experience: how they got to college and what they could do with a degree in classics.

“For them to hear it from students closer to their age was incredibly impactful,” Kelly said.

For the Holy Cross students, according to Jenkins and Mary Ebbott, professor of classics, teaching the lesson deepened their own knowledge of the Athenian legal system, as well as created a feeling of community with the Worcester East Middle School students.

“They are citizens of Worcester. We want our students to be connected to the city, to understand what community means and that it’s reciprocal and mutual,” Jenkins said.

Greek 102 student Alexandra Berardelli ’25 said she was unsure of the process at first; however, like the Worcester middle school students, she kept an open mind: “You’re learning something even if it’s not in the way you thought you would,” she said.