Magistra Jamie Reuben

“For about two years, I moved to Italy in the summer, and I studied Italian and traveled all around Italy, and I kind of tried to track down some of my family. I didn’t find anybody there, but I went and saw where my great-grandmother was born. I feel like possibly being a Latin teacher was predestined, in my blood, and I didn’t know all of this [family history] when I first started studying Latin, I knew my mom was Italian, but I didn’t investigate a lot of the family history… My great-great-grandmother is from Castellammare di Stabia, and that’s where Pliny the Younger, ancient Roman author, tells in his works of his uncle, who during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius tried to save some people in this little town called Stabia. [The uncle] was going to that place where, generations later, my ancestors were born. When I think about all of this and my original love for history and then my love of the Classics and my own heritage, it just really seems to be this crazy, mystical thing,” explained Magistra Jamie Reuben, the LHS Latin teacher.