NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

10/10/2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Michael Thomas, a junior in the Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern State University, was awarded one of two $500 scholarships at the recent annual meeting of the Louisiana Classical Association at McNeese State University in Lake Charles.

Thomas, who is from Shreveport, was awarded the scholarship for his studies in classics. He is the second Scholars' College student to receive the award. The scholarship was awarded in recognition of his mutli-faceted commitment to education and in particular classical/philosophical studies.

Thomas plans to do graduate work in classics and philosophy after getting his undergraduate degree. His career goal is to teach on the university level. According to Thomas, his interest in classics and philosophy stems from high school training at Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport.

He is beginning research on his senior thesis project, a translation and examination of the commentary to Vergil's "Aeneid , Book VI," written by the fourth-century commentator Servius. The commentary became very important in later interpretations of Vergil's work. Most notably it influenced Dante's "Divina Comedia." But it has never been translated or properly studied.

At the meeting, Thomas also made a presentation, along with Prof. Jean D'Amato Thomas on the Web site Campania Felix. The site has been developed over the past two years as a result of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant, which was awarded to D'Amato-Thomas and a colleague from Wisconsin, Richard Monti, initially involved a Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers held in the Naples, Italy area during the summer of 2000.

The Web site was designed to disseminate information about the region first to the actual participants, then to a wider academic and general public. The site was originally set up by another Scholars' Colege student, David West of Bossier City. Thomas became part of the project shortly after its incepeiton.

Thomas is also a member of the Scholars' College's governing body, the Forum. He has also promoted a variety of progams designed to enrich the college experience of studence frionm both academic and social perspectives.

Also at the meeting, D'Amato-Thomas was elected vice-president of the Louisiana Classical Association for 2002-2003. She will become the group's president in 2003-2004. As president, D'Amato-Thomas will host the annual meeting of the Louisiana Classical Association. This meeting will be at the Scholars' College in 2004 and will bring pre-collegiate and collegiate teachers and students of classics to the Northwestern campus.

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