The award winners are featured below with excerpts of why they personally want to study ancient Greek.
Kimberly Meyer
Hi, my name is Kimberly Meyer and I am a first year transfer student at the University of Arizona! The study of classics has always fascinated me since I first got bit with the Greek bug after reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series in the fifth grade. Having this opportunity to study Ancient Greek will allow me to dive deeper into the literature, history, and art that I love so much without the changes a translation can make to the original text. My favorite aspect of classics is the personal, human side of language and history, so being able to further connect with ancient people through their language really excites me.
Noel Washington
I am deeply grateful to receive the Greek Language Tuition Award and for the opportunity to study Ancient Greek through GRK 112. As a triple major in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, & Law, Religious Studies, and History, I see Ancient Greek as directly connected to the questions that shape my academic interests.
Learning Ancient Greek will allow me to engage with the Septuagint rather than relying on modern English translations. Being able to read the text in its original language will help me better understand how meaning is shaped by context, structure, and word choice, and will strengthen my ability to analyze the text more accurately –– both with respect to my own faith and to how interpretive traditions have developed over time.
Just as importantly, my interest also comes from my love of history. Ancient Greek gives readers access to one of the linguistic foundations of the world around us. It offers a deeper look into how people in the Greco-Roman world communicated with one another, understood other cultures, and preserved their thoughts, beliefs, and motivations in writing. Because these texts helped shape law, literature, philosophy, politics, and theology, studying Ancient Greek feels like a necessary step in truly understanding the traditions that continue to influence the modern world.