Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

First classics major snags local job

By margaret windley

mnw777@verizon.net

Paula Mathias, Wesleyan honor graduate, became a full-time Latin teacher. That morning she took a deep breath and greeted her first students at Salem High School. First day fears fled as she spoke to the first year class in Latin and translated for them.

All day, her  A day, she taught classes in all four levels, including a distance learning interactive class at Landstown High School from Salem. The next day, her  B day, she again taught the four levels, but this time at Green Run High School.

 I m on overload but I love it, said Mathias, who received Virginia Wesleyan s first Latin degree in May 2007.

Just last year she was a familiar fixture on our campus. Along with studying and heading to classes, she was preparing for teaching. She tutored in Latin and worked as a teacher assistant for the classics department. By last spring, she had substituted at Catholic High School and had taught some for Dr. Lynn M. Sawlivich at the college.

Last year Tara Kinard, currently a Wesleyan junior, saw Mathias every day in Latin Introductory course. Mathias was present as a teacher assistant to help the students with the course.

 We knew she d be a great teacher because she cared about us as students, said Kinard.

Tanya Tyson, another Wesleyan student, also remembered Mathias as creative and well-informed.

 She tutored me before Latin class, and she taught me to remember my declensions by singing them to me, said Tyson, currently a junior.  Silly, but it worked.

Mathias recalled that it was during in her first Latin class at Wesleyan that she came to love the language, which some refer to as dead. For her, it s a vital language and she wants to inspire her students with a love and respect for it.

 Latin is wonderful, not only for the academy, said Mathias,  but it s also used in medicine, law and science. Our language much of our vocabulary it comes from Latin. It s Latin-based with roots mixed with German.

She added that the language is a key to the past. The ancients wrote down their experiences, thoughts and ideas Julius Caesar with  The Gallic Wars, the orations of Cicero.

Mathias hopes to help her students develop an appreciation for Latin by emphasizing the cultural aspects of the life of ancient Rome. She wants to put on a Latin play and hold ancient Roman-style lunches.

She had originally come to college to become an Episcopal priest. But she soon realized that teaching fit her personality better than becoming a church rector or pastor because she enjoys working with young people.

After graduating from the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, she had trained at Obici Hospital and worked for several years as a nurse.

The resident of Suffolk is divorced and the mother of a son, Lee, 23.

A religious side of her personality showed up. Back in the 1980s, Mathias and a friend at St. Paul s Episcopal in Suffolk had taken city street youth to Sleepy Hole Park for wholesome fun.

Her mother served for years as a medical missionary to Uganda after the death of her husband. An uncle is a Baptist minister. Service is a part of the family history.

 It s in the genes, said Mathias.