Meet Becca Napolitano: she is physicist, a Latin scholar, and a student athlete! With all of her various interests, it seems there is not anything she does not do. Read on to learn her story…
Class: 2015
Major: Classical Languages and Physics
Certificate: Secondary Education Certificate
Activities on campus: Field Hockey Team, Volunteer Teacher at ISAAC Middle School, Volunteer Teacher at New London High School, Classical Camels, Physics Club, Floor Governor
Who is your favorite professor? Professor Adler definitely! He tolerates Kelsie Fralick and my shenanigans in Latin class such as coming 25 minutes early so we can have a Taylor Swift dance party and play hang man on the board.
What has been your favorite part of your college experience so far? Hmmmm Floralia with my best friends Annie, Leah, Caeli, Nora, Molly, Mo, and Grace last year!! We sat under a tent, that wasn’t ours, thanks to whomever it belonged to, played Apples-to-Apples, went in the bouncy house, ate way too much sugar, and danced for way to long. We all pulled our mattresses into my triple, decorated it with streamers, and watched Anastasia and fell asleep together. That is for sure my favorite college experience so far and I cannot wait to relive it again! Floralia 2013!
Tell me about your summer research position! What will it entail? My summer research position is staying here at good ole’ Conn with Jon Stark ’15—we will be helping to run and take data for the particle accelerator which is in the basement of Olin. And since we are here, Jon and I are planning on hopefully joining up with a beach volleyball league at Ocean Beach! Except neither of us has ever played volleyball…but he’s tall…so I’m hoping that helps!
What are your plans for the future? Well next summer I plan to do an internship in Rome, Italy for archaeology and after that grad school! My long term plan is to be the coolest and most chill high school Latin teacher ever and to have a candy basket in my classroom that is never empty. I am currently trying to put together a book of Latin lesson plans to address social issues which are so prevalent in Latin literature—such as rape and other forms of violence. I am trying to pair problems in today’s world anywhere from North America, to Africa, to Europe with a Latin reading so that our students can become more critically conscious and for the purpose that schools can become sites of cultural and social change not reproduction.