"UVa's Latin SLI program is the closest thing you can get to an immersion experience in Latin. While taking part in this program, I lived and breathed Latin. Once, I even dreamt in Latin! For the first half of the program, I spent my days (and nights) reading about grammar, memorizing vocabulary and morphology, and studying for our quizzes. For the second half of the program, most of my day was spent reading many canonical texts written by classical 'auctores' like Caesar and Ovid. The interesting and entertaining texts that we were able to read (and in some cases sight-read) by the end of the summer made all of the initial memorization worth my while. Going into this program, I did not think that a language could be learned so quickly. We covered four semesters of material in two months. I even went on to succeed in a 3000-level class afterwards."
-- Monica Sokol, 2009 Alumna

"The UVA Latin SLI was a fantastic experience. I was impressed by how much the teachers managed to fit into the summer without the workload or amount of class time being overwhelming. In fact, it was a lot of fun! I would also recommend the course for both complete beginners and those in need of a refresher course. I had not done Latin in five years when I came to Charlottesville but I left the program with a very strong grasp of Latin that allowed me to test into advanced courses in a Classics post-baccalaureate program. In addition, the course was a good deal cheaper than other options I looked at (and with more class time), so that is another thing that convinced me."
-- Kat Potts-Dupre, 2009 Alumna

"Both the process and end result of this program are incredibly rewarding. I entered Latin SLI with zero knowledge of the language, and the French I studied 17 years ago was too distant to give me a leg up. So I was quite out of practice, and thinking consciously about grammar structure itself proved part of the challenge. Now you may have some knowledge of Latin, and you may be competent in another declined language (like Greek), but you should still expect to be pushed to (and stretch) your learning limit at times. In short, you should not plan to have a lot of time or energy for summer activities. Rather, be prepared to study through the weekend. My personal commitment to succeed manifested itself in three to five hours of studying each day, in addition to the classroom time. And again, it was well worth it. But given the picture of difficulty I have presented, one can imagine how critical it is to have a quality teaching staff. Clearly, UVA has invested the resources to qualify, select, and prepare the very best. During my program, I engaged with multiple instructors, all of whom displayed knowledge, patience, and enthusiasm in the subject and in the class's learning experience. In summary, if you are looking to immerse yourself in language study, progress in your learning very quickly, and strengthen your work ethic and mental discipline--I strongly encourage you to consider UVA's SLI program."
-- Anthony M. Caputi, 2009 Alumnus