The Latin major has earned both a Haverford Classics Utraque Lingua grant and a fellowship from UC Berkeley to attend that university's Intensive Greek Workshop for 10 weeks this summer.
Latin major Maggie Steinberg '19 has studied the language since seventh grade and one day hopes to teach it as a profession. But this summer, the Shaker Heights, OH, native will be learning a different ancient language—Greek—for the first time thanks to a Haverford Classics Department's Utraque Lingua grant and a fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley.
Steinberg will enroll in Berkeley's Intensive Greek Workshop for 10 weeks this summer to expand her knowledge of classical languages. The program is tough, replacing more than two semesters of regular language work with immersive upper-level language study for beginners. In six hours of class work every day, students will work to master the essentials of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in the first six weeks and then spend the last four using those skills to read selected texts in their new language.
"As a budding classicist, it is important to have at least a familiarity with the Greek language," says Steinberg. "I’d both like to expand the diversity of classical works I’m able to read as well as gain a greater understanding for roots of the Roman literature I already love working on."
This new endeavor will be challenging, but at least paying for it won't be. A $400 Utraque Lingua grant and Berkeley's $3000 fellowship will help offset the cost of tuition. The former is a two-year old grant given by the Haverford Department of Classics to further Latin and Greek study by Haverford students. The latter is a particularly competitive tuition rebate that Berkeley offers to only eight students, two of which are reserved for those enrolled in the university.
"I feel incredibly honored and fortunate to receive these scholarships," says Steinberg. "These represent the first times formal educational institutions have invested faith in me via monetary support. The summer program is by no means easy. It is a sink-or-swim, fast-paced, and full-time class. Given this, I also feel grateful that the Haverford Classics Department believes in my capabilities to undertake such a difficult and rewarding program."
For Steinberg, not only will learning Greek open up new avenues of classical study for her, but it will also help her better understand the present and the future.
"We can learn about ourselves and critique our modern societies through studying humanities," she says. "For example, Cicero had opinions on immigration policy that could be considered more liberal than those of some of today’s politicians. The ancients wrote about love and loss; they wondered what makes us human; and they even bickered over real estate scams, not unlike how we do today. Nothing about that sounds 'dead' to me."
