by Emily Wemhoff

Latin teacher Sue Marquis was recently awarded with the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Board of Trustees of the Eta Sigma Phi Society, a organization for undergraduate students of Latin and/or Greek.

When asked how she felt about receiving the award, Marquis said she “felt old.”

“I hope this award doesn’t mean my lifetime is over,” Marquis said. “I am hoping to keep achieving.”

Marquis received the award at the Eta Sigma Phi National Convention in Columbia, MO over spring break. The Board was impressed by her decades of service to the Classics, as well as her sponsorship of extra curricular Latin activities. Marquis has been a part of Junior Classical League, a national club, for 37 years.

“I was on the national committee for JCL for 10 years,” Marquis said. “In that capacity I have been the creative arts chair and the chair of the national committee for 2 years. I’ve been involved on the local level, but also state and national levels.”

Sophomore Tessa Smith said Marquis, called Magistra by her Latin students, is completely deserving of the reward.

“You can tell how in love with the topic [Marquis] is and how delighted she is when others truly want to learn,” Smith said.

According to Smith, Marquis’ teaching methods are what makes her class so fun.

“Her class is really structured, so I always know what to expect when it comes to what the assignments look like and the material on the tests,” Smith said. “I think this is really important in every class but especially Latin, which is really a fairly difficult and foreign subject for an average student.”

Marquis said she hopes in the future “to continue to inspire students and instill their wanting to learn.”

“Marquis is one of those teachers you will remember long after you’ve graduated, and I feel incredibly lucky she decided to share her talent with us,” Smith said.