Scholarship Winners

First Two Winners Announced

Press release in Word (.doc) format.

The first Amy High Latin Scholarships were awarded on April 14, 2004, to two deserving candidates: Kelcy Sagstetter, teacher of Latin at St. Thomas’ Episcopal School in Houston, Texas; and Kathryn Jasper, graduate student in medieval European history at the University of Arizona.

This scholarship is awarded annually in honor of Amy High, nationally known teacher of Latin, who inspired her family and friends to establish the scholarship after her untimely death in September 2003. Recipients are required to study Latin in Rome, Italy, for a minimum of three weeks. The scholarship amount is $5,000 and includes a copy of Lewis & Short’s Latin Dictionary. 

Kelcy Sagstetter currently teaches Latin to students in grades 5 through 12 at St. Thomas.  She graduated with a BA degree and triple major in Classics, Ancient History, and Classical Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin. This is her first year teaching at St. Thomas. Ms. Sagstetter plans to use the scholarship to study in Rome in summer 2004 taking classes from Father Reginald Foster, Latinist for the Vatican.  Sagstetter says, “I hope that the summer program in Rome will help Latin come more fully alive for me and that in turn I can pass on that love of and excitement about the language in the classroom.”

Kathryn Jasper graduated Cum Laude from the University of Arizona in 2001 with a BA Degree in Anthropology. She is currently serving as a graduate teaching assistant while pursuing her MA Degree. She has previously served as a research assistant in the Department of Anthropology and the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona.

Ms. Jasper will also use the scholarship to study in Rome in summer 2004 taking classes from Father Foster. Jasper has studied in the past with Father Foster and was inspired by him to become a teacher of Latin. She says of her experience studying under Foster in Rome, “He is both firm and tolerant and remarkably aware of the capabilities and progress of each of his students. A Latin teacher must have all of these qualities; in addition, a teacher of any subject should strive to become as much of an expert on that subject as possible.” Says Cynthia White, associate professor of classics at the University of Arizona, in describing Jasper, “In Kathryn Jasper, I sense that same passion for Latin that Amy herself embodied and spread. She is a young person of character whose gifted intellect and love of Latin mark her as the perfect candidate to represent the legacy of Amy High.”

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