Scholar Films
Harun's most recent film, In the Name of the Son, is based on his experiences growing up in wartime Bosnia
John Jacobs
"A certain internal harmony of logic and thought.testifies to the beauty of both the ancient and modern languages."
- Alumni of: 2002 Graduate Scholarship Program
- Resides: New Haven, CT
- Hometown: Winchester, VA
- Age: 32
- Four-year College or University: Brown University
- Graduate School: Yale University
- Academic/Career Pursuits: Archeology, Classics, Education / Academia, Languages, Literature
- Other Interests: Church / Religious Organization, Classics, Foreign Languages / International Study, Languages, Literature, Outdoor / Mountaineering / Camping, Sports, Saxophone, Guitar; Music and Classics Instructor
Biography
John Jacobs says he owes his love for the Classics to his middle and high school Latin teachers, who introduced him to the language and culture of ancient Rome, led class trips to conventions of the Junior Classical League, and even took him to Rome "to expose me first-hand to the marvels of that ancient culture." His avid reading in all areas of the classical world, from history to mythology, from daily life to grammar, enabled him to garner nearly 125 awards during his high school career, including the title of top Classics student in the nation and a National Latin Exam Scholarship for college.
Today, John has a definite long-term plan and vision for his career. He wants to complete his Ph.D. in classical philology within six years and then become a university professor in a "diverse, high-quality Classics department" that is "committed to vigorous interdisciplinary work," where he can pursue his comparative research into the ancient Roman, Greek, Indian and Near Eastern worlds. John says that he would like to write on "various scholarly and pedagogical issues related to the study of the Classics and the ancient world, linguistics, and language acquisition."
Most important for his personal and professional aspirations, John says, have been his research experiences as part of the Undergraduate Research and Teaching Assistantships and Royce Fellowship programs. These two opportunities, he says, have exposed him to "the true nature of academic work and have fueled my desire to continue my education in graduate school."
Encouraging younger Latin and Greek students in their studies is another important part of John's current and future work. He is composing, as his undergraduate senior thesis, a textbook using a novel method of teaching Latin verbal forms. For the past year or so, he has been giving individual Latin lessons to two young students.
He has also volunteered at numerous state and national conventions of the Junior Classical League to help run the same competitions in which he participated during his middle and high school years.
John says he looks forward to "a life of teaching and writing in the university setting to expose others to these fascinating peoples and their cultures."
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