Saugus High sophomore receives writing award

SAUGUS – Saugus High School sophomore Venere Salzillo was recently awarded a medal for a short story she wrote entirely in Latin.Students in Deirdre Turilli?s Latin 2 class participated in Scribo: An International Latin Composition Contest conducted by Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute.Turilli said students wrote creative stories entirely in Latin and submitted them along with 214 students from 31 other schools. In all, 12 entries were submitted from Turilli?s class, and students were scored on grammatical and syntactical accuracy, choice of vocabulary, quality of work and audience appeal.?This was the first year we participated, and I am extremely proud of all of my students,” said Turilli. “They worked very hard and had fun doing it.”Salzillo was the top scorer out of all the Saugus High School applicants for her story “Leo et Clara.” Salzillo received a “Fabula Optima Tuae Scholae” ribbon, which translates to “Your School?s Best Story.”?I was actually really surprised,” she said. “There are other kids in my class who do really well in Latin and I?m kind of average, but I worked really hard on the story.”Salzillo said her story is partly based on her own experiences in Italy, where she has been nearly 20 times and goes sometimes up to twice a year.?When I was little I had this friend in Italy that started as a crush and grew into a friendship,” said Salzillo, who has family in the southern city of Marcianise. “But then I decided to turn it into a love story because that would be more interesting. Over several years Clara would go to Italy and meet up with him and then come back to America. A few years later she?d go back and they?d still have the same feelings for each other and he?d give her gifts. Then eventually they get married.”Salzillo also received a medal for scoring in the top 20 percent while all the students who participated received certificates.Salzillo, who also speaks Italian, said she loves Latin even though it?s “really hard.”You have to stay with it from the beginning or else it gets really difficult. I like that it?s the base root of every language. It?s easy to understand other languages, even English. There are some words you can get the main idea from Latin.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].