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Each year, the Classical Association of Connecticut recognizes with its Distinguished Service Award a member of the profession who has greatly contributed to the study and teaching of the Classics in Connecticut. An engraved silver bowl is presented to the award recipient at ClassConn's Annual Meeting in October. ClassConn's 2009 Distinguished Service Award was presented this fall to Sheila Houlihan, long-time Latin teacher and current World Languages department chair at Newington High School. The following remarks were given by Jim Pezzulo at the October 24 Annual Meeting: "Today we come together to honor one of our members with the annual Distinguished Service Award for this association. We have discovered that our honoree has been intimately involved with this process for many years. Often when a person is so involved in a process, it is easy for such a person to be overlooked. "Our honoree graduated with a BA from Georgetown in 1985 with a double major in Classics and Government. At Georgetown, she not only was a distinguished scholar, but she also lettered on the women's field hockey team. She was also elected to the Eta Sigma Phi and the Pi Sigma Alpha honor societies. This was in addition to working as a waitress and a tutor. "She was inspired by a Georgetown professor to spend some time working in an inner-city school in Washington DC. At the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, she taught both English and Latin to over 100 students. Her efforts at this school were highly successful. "After a year in Nashville, our distinguished honoree taught English and Latin at East Hartford High School. She then enrolled in the MATL&CH program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where she graduated with her Master's degree in 1992. After teaching for four years at Guilford High School, she was hired at Newington High School where she is presently the World Language Department Coordinator. "Sheila Houlihan has served this organization the entire time she has worked in Connecticut. She served nine years as the Association's secretary. This is one of those vital positions that provides continuity and stability to our organization. She has done several ters as a director and presently she is our representative to the Connecticut Organization of Language Teachers. But, above all, I have been told that she is devoted to the teaching of Latin. It is among the great passions of her life. Her virtus and pietas to her family and to her students caused me to search for suitable inscriptions to put on her award. Unfortunately in theRoman world those who destroyed cities and killed or sold their inhabitants into slavery receive the majority of accolades. In Vergil's Aeneid, however, I thought this was a most suitable passage: Inde ubi prima quies medio iam noctis abactae curriculo expulerat somnum, cum femina primum, cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva impositum, cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignis noctem addens operi, famulasque ad lumina longo exercet penso, castum ut servare cubile coniugis et possit parvos educere natos: Aeneid 8:407-412 "(Then when the first rest had expelled sleep within its course in the middle of the night, the woman to whom Minerva first entrusted life with her tender staff, rouses the ash and the sleepy fires, thus adding night to her labors and urges her maidservants to their long labor in the light, so that she is able to preserve her virtuous marriage and she is able to educate her young children.) "So it is my distinct pleasure to present the Distinguished Service Award to Sheila Houlihan." Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition! |