Walton's Certamen Teams Win Two Harvard Championships

While most readers may not be familiar with Certamen, it is a popular competition among classical schools.

It is essentially an academic quiz bowl about all things Latin. Students answer questions on vocabulary, Roman history, word derivations, mythology, grammar, Latin in use, ancient geography, translation, listening comprehension, culture and literature.

Certamen is generally not something in which a Georgia public school would participate, but most Georgia public schools are not Walton High School. Walton's Certamen competitors consist of two teams—intermediate and advanced—and have won many state championships over the years and began competing nationally in the last decade.

"We are members of the state and national classical organizations for students: the Georgia Junior Classical League and the National Junior Classical League," said Walton Latin teacher and coach Alan Farnsworth. "As members, we participate in many state and national competitions and conventions, including Certamen."

Most of the JCL-hosted tournaments are statewide, but national ones are hosted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Duke, as well as virtual tournaments. These tournaments attract the top teams from around the country.

The Harvard tournament is widely regarded as the most prestigious of the national tournaments. Most of the 80-plus teams at the tournament were from the northeast and were private schools.

"Over the past ten years, the Boston Latin School has become our number one rival. Friendly, of course," Coach Farnsworth said with a smile. "The Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 as the first public school in British America and the magnet school for the city of Boston, boasting alumni such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. There are 13 Latin teachers alone at the Boston Latin School."

Walton's Latin program is nationally recognized and its Certamen team (which is a small part of the overall program) has gotten better and better each year. The Georgia public school team kept gaining prominence and respect at the national tournaments, and this year, they claimed the Harvard Championship with both of their teams. This was the Advanced team's second championship in a row.

"The advanced kids were very excited to get back-to-back Harvard championships, and the intermediate kids were proud to give us our first. This is really a pretty big deal in Certamen circles and it brings positive attention to Cobb," said Coach Farnsworth about his national champs.

Walton's 2024 Advanced Certamen team consists of Mokshi Gunduboina, Ribhu Sonthi, Jerry Xu and William Zhao. The members of the Intermediate team are Allie Chastain, Aaron Chen, Herbert Henry, Maya Muthu and Kashyap Valeti.

Kashyap Valeti and Aaron Chen were selected co-MVPs for the Intermediate tournament and William Zhao was chosen as the outright MVP for the Advanced tournament.