Lexi Harrell

Introducing Lexi Harrell, an amazing human of the SCL! Throughout her years in the SCL, Lexi has served as the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 VSCL Vice President, the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 VSCL Member-at-Large, and the 2021-2022 NSCL Parliamentarian. These days, Lexi is a Latin teacher at Clover Hill High School and teaches at Virginia Governors Latin Academy during the summer. Publicity Committee Chair Rachael Cox and Secretary Skyler McLeod sit down with Lexi to discuss all of the hot goss including building a JCL program at a high school, how to be a young teacher, and her favorite SCL memories. 
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The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Rachael Cox: Hey, welcome to Humans of SCL I'm Rachael Cox, the NSCL Publicity Committee Chair with…

Skyler: Skyler McLeod, AKA Miss McLeod, AKA half of the SCLadies from TE 2024, and I'm the secretary of the Publicity Committee, representing the state of Florida. And we are here with our first guest…

Lexi: Lexi Harrell from Virginia. 

R & S: Woo *claps*

L: Not a part of PubCom. 

R: Just a guest. I appreciate you being here! We have some questions for you to get to know you a little bit. The first one being, why did you join SCL? 

L: Good question. Rachael. I joined the SCL because I did JCL in high school, and I really loved it!

R: As most of us did! 

L: State convention, national convention. I went to three states and three nationals when I was in high school. Yeah, a lot of money. Thanks, Mom.

But, you know, I did it, and a lot of my friends in high school were state officers, so it was always like, I was like, in the mix, but out of the mix because I wasn't an officer or anything. It was a lot of fun. And then I decided to do state SCL once I graduated from high school and joined the VSCL, and I was part of that for four years. I mean, I guess I'm still in it. 

R: You were the advisor at one point, correct?

Lexi at the 2023 VSCL Mixer, where she simultaneously served as VSCL’s Member-at-Large and sponsor of her school's delegation. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.​

L: Yeah, I was vice president of the VSCL for two years, and then I was the Member-at-Large, which is like an advisory role, for two years. This has been my first year in a while where I haven't been an officer or on-stage.

R: Enjoying the peace and quiet, I see. 

L: Yeah, it was kind of crazy to sit in the audience at the first GA meeting at the [2024 VSCL] State Convention. But I [first] did it because I wanted to meet new people from wherever, from all over the place, and I loved [JCL] in high school, so I wanted to kind of give back in SCL. 

R: It's always great to get back! 

L: And then I did national convention, and then, you know, now I'm here.

​S: Well, do you have any favorite SCL memories?

L: There are so many. For state SCL, I just loved getting to know people at different colleges. Helping run Certamens, writing questions, and hanging out with some pretty cool people was awesome. And for nationals, I mean, I was a national officer, so a lot goes into that.

R: Speaking of that, there are two previous officers that served with you, actually, right here, we, we were talking backstage, and we were wondering who's your favorite officer that you served with?

Lexi: [REDACTED]

S: Wow. Interesting choice. Bold.

R: Okay, fair enough. I respect your answer, but I have to say: a little shocked.

L: It was a hard one. That was a hard one to do.

​S: Well overall, on the NSCL board, how has that [experience] impacted you?

L: Truly, so much. I wouldn't be here, I don't think, just on Humans of SCL, but also in this place, at this time. 

R: With these great people, having this great time!​

Rachael and Lexi at the 2024 NJCL Convention. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

L: Truly. I ran for office during a virtual convention. And so it was a little funky. 

R: It was an experience. I enjoyed it. 

L: It was interesting. It was something else. It was weird to run virtually and then show up to our first in-person convention since COVID-19 to be the National SCL Officers. That was really scary. It was daunting. I was Parliamentarian, so I had to run an election in-person, which hadn't happened in two years.

R: You killed it. I think everyone was really impressed with us that year. You did a really good job. 

L: Honestly, I think our standard was [hand motioning a low bar]. The expectations weren't that high.

R: Yeah, coming off of two years of virtual.

L: I will never forget when all of us met for the first time in-person and we realized that all of us were the same height except for-

All: Raees! *laughs*

L: Who was like a foot taller than all of us!

R: I love all of the photos with him in the center and us on each side.

L: With his head not in the photo or anything. 

S: The Raees Chop, as they call it.

The Raees Chop, circa 2022. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Foster.

R: Shout out Raees!

L: Love you, Raees. But being an officer, it gave me a lot of leadership skills and cooperation skills and built so many connections. It really sucked me into the world of SCL because I hadn't experienced a NSCL convention as an SCLer in-person until I was an officer. It was a little scary because I did not go to North Dakota, unfortunately. But it got me in there and I met so many people. It also helped me in my career that I have now as a Latin teacher.

R: Oh, yeah, for sure. How is being a teacher nowadays, especially in the classical world?

L: Being a teacher nowadays is interesting, to say the least. Skyler would know. 

R: A fellow teacher. I forgot. 

S: Not the classics but…

L: Teaching is just a joy. I love it! It's what I went to school for. I started being in classrooms when I was a freshman in college. I was in and out of classrooms before COVID, and now after COVID, student teaching in COVID.

Lexi teaching the class warmup, Verba Diei, during her senior year, student teaching placement. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

R: How has it been keeping the students engaged with the classics post-COVID and everything? I know you've only taught post-COVID, but how is that with the classics department and stuff and keeping them involved, especially with state conventions and the JCL?

L: Absolutely. I'll [cover] Latin and then the JCL. My favorite part about taking Latin was when I was able to see it in the real world and not being like, ‘I know the dates to all these battles.’ I love seeing the state mottos and the little abbreviations and things like that. 

My Latin teacher, Mr. Keith, did this thing called classical literacy, where he'd do two phrases every day related to the classical world, but [were in real life]. When I was student teaching, my co-teacher did something called Verba Diei, same deal, but she only did it with Level One. I stole it from all of them. All great teachers are great stealers.

S: Exactly.

L: My favorite thing is I do my Verba Diei, things that are happening in the real world and how it impacts us, how history always repeats itself.​

Lexi picured here teaching at the Virginia Governors Latin Academy, a specialized camp designed for top Latin students in Virginia to enhance their knowledge of Latin in areas not typically taught in the classroom. The presentation is about the use of mythology in modern day pop music. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

R: Bringing it back, relating it back to the modern world.

L: It's really cool because then my students will see something in the real world and they'll bring it to me. Then I'll be like, “Okay, I'll make that a Verba Diei,” and then they get to teach it. 

R: Oh, that's fun. 

L: Obviously, all the fun stuff, reading Catelus, and Ovid or mythology or whatever. Who doesn't love that? It's the little stuff like that. When we do mythology and watch Disney’s Hercules, and then [the students] get mad that all of it's wrong! 

R: Oh my god, yes, I remember!

S: I would pause it and be like, “Wait, is this accurate?”

R: No, literally! 

L: Like, is this how Pegasus was made? 

R: No, it was crazy, slowly learning how Hollywood gets mythology so wrong.
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​L: So wrong! It's so fun to see the kids [spending] weeks on this crazy project. Then they're watching Hercules and they're mad. It’s so good because I'm like, “yes, be mad!”

But it's also really important to understand the classics [through] the lens that we have today, in the world that we're in right now, because truly, there is repetition and we see it all happen around us.

It's all about giving them the information for them to make their own decisions. And being a teacher is just so impactful in that way.

R: Shout out teaching. 

Lexi is pictured during Spirit Week in her classroom. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

L: Shout out teaching! For JCL, the high school [that] I teach at had never done JCL stuff until I became a teacher.

S: Trend setter.

R: Yes, we love to see it. 

L: They had a super active Latin club and honor society. They would go to our [state] convention, but only for a day. It's [planned as] a two day affair, so they would miss a lot of it. So I showed up, and I wanted to build a program. I wanted to really expand everything. I don't know how. 

My first year, just three years ago, I somehow convinced 10 children to go to this weird Latin convention. And then my second year, I brought 23. Then this year I brought the largest group, crazy, I brought 33 [kids] with five adults. I had 40 people. My classroom only has 23 seats. 

R: Dang, so you can’t even hold a meeting.

S: *in shock* your classroom only has 23 seats?

L: Yeah, it's crazy.

S: Wow. That sounds nice.

L: I had to use a different teacher's room to have meetings, thankfully.

S: Borrow the band room.

L: Shout out band room. Shout out Spanish teacher's room, down the hall. But I was able to bring all these kids into this weird JCL thing. My first year, my little group of 10 will always be so special because they were learning all of it. That was the first year, again, that we had a full, in-person convention. They were really learning the ropes with everybody else. 

S: A lot of firsts for everyone. 

L: Oh, exactly. It was so cool. So I had my little 10, and I was able to tell them all my stories about JCL and SCL. Being like, “I met my best friends through this stupid thing.”

​“I met my best friends through this stupid thing.”

​R: AWE! *leans in for hug*

S: Not the besties.

L: Hi friend. I know, and showing them pictures and videos from when I was in high school or in college, and being like, “These people are from Florida, and I live in Richmond, Virginia,” right? 

S: Right!

L: Like it's crazy!

R: Besties for the resties. 

S: Have you taken any students to convention yet?

​L: Not nationals, but I will have kids [at nationals] this year. Because my first little group, a lot of them were freshmen, and so they've been kind of through it. This year they're juniors. This was their third year [at state convention], and one of my students ran for state office and won state office.

S and R: Wooo! *claps*

L: So I did not think that, as a third year teacher, I would have a state officer. 

R: You're killing it!

L: It's a new role for me, to learn how to be a sponsor of a state officer, because I've never done that before. I was never a state officer in high school, but in SCL … blah blah blah.

I should have kids [at nationals] this year, and like, multiple, because my girl that's going with me as a state officer, all of her friends do it, which is really cool. I'm bringing students abroad this summer as well. 

R: Yeah, you're going crazy. 

L: So I'm gonna get off the plane [from Europe] and then go to Miami University in Oxford.

R: Shout out Ohio.

L: Shout out Ohio. Shout out Miami. . . 

S: in Ohio.

R: But anyways, any last minute questions from Miss Skyler?

S: Okay, so most of your day one kids are juniors now. Next year, when they're Slashers, are they still going to have to call you Miss Harrell? Or are they gonna start calling you Lexi, like everyone else in SCL? 

L: So that's a great question. My first group I brought with me was half freshmen, half juniors. It was a lot of my Level 3 freshmen kiddos and a lot of my AP Junior kiddos. Last year, those AP kids were seniors, and one of them decided to go to the college I went to (which is really cool, maybe I convinced her. I would never, like, push it, but if she asked me a question…)

R: You're an influencer!

Lexi is picutured at her alma-mater, Randolph-Macon College. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

L: One of my seniors that graduated last year was at state convention this year (shout out James!) as an SCLer

R: How'd that go? 

L: Oh, he had a lot of fun. And he was awesome. And I was like, “I knew you would love this” because I see these kids in high school. I'm like, “You need to keep doing this. You will thrive in SCL.” 

And you don't have to become a Latin teacher to be in SCL. You don't have to, and, you know, “be good at Latin”. I mean, you [Rachael] are an engineer and you [Skylar] are a band teacher. You don't have to keep doing Latin. But it's like, “you would thrive, like, building this community.
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So it was really weird because my student, James, and Will O'Donnell, who I met over the summer and who was a Slasher, [were] the same age. But one of them was a Slasher at nationals, and one of them was my student. And they both came up to me at my table, when I arrived at state convention, to say hi. I did not realize that they both knew each other.v And it was like, Will coming up and saying, “hi, Lexi.” And then my [former] student walking up and saying,

All: Hi, Miss Harrell *laughs* 

​L: Oh, so it's interesting. It's also like a weird thing to think about being young and teaching. I mean, I've already been kind of doxed by my kids. It’s just something to think about. I hope maybe one day they can call me Lexi. ​

VSCL delegation at the 2024 NSCL banquet. Photo courtesy Lexi Harrell.

R: I feel like, over the years, you're gonna have so many students join SCL but eventually it will just…

L: I mean, you still say Ms. Hornick.

R: I interchange, we go, Amy and Ms. Hornick. 

S: I feel like when we [Skylar and Rachael] are talking like to each other, I'll call her Amy. When I'm talking to her [Ms. Hornick], it’s Ms. Hornick.

R: But even when we were seniors in high school, we started calling her Amy because it was funny.

S: I’m sure your students call you Lexi.

R: They definitely call you Lexi behind your back. 

S: Alexis.

L: It might be Alexis. It might be my full name.

S: Alexis Marie.

Pictured here is the Harrell Temple: a now-annual tradition for Latin Club Officers to create and present a gingerbread house at the end of the Saturnalia club meeting. Photos courtesy Lexi Harrell.

R: Thanks for sitting down with us and chit-chatting. You're bringing back Humans of SCL. You're our first human to return!

​L: Yay! 

R: Bye, y'all.

S: Outro, outro, thanks for watching! See you next time!

L: Subscribe, Like, 

S: Comment,

L: Comment, share, Add me on-