Student Body

Faber est suae quique fortunae. In English, that means: "Each is the architect of his own fate. " That was the mantra Saturday at Gateway Regional High School, where more than 500 students of Latin, ages 12 to 18, from around the state gathered for the 50th annual convention of the New Jersey Junior Classical League. "I love Latin," said Renee Rowe, 16, a junior at Penns Grove High School in Salem County. Latin "is the basis of everything. " While there is no such thing as fluency in Latin - it is not used conversationally - the language is most certainly not dead, convention participants said.

Cassie's church, where she was so active, will echo with one less voice. Someone else will buy the fishing boat Corey wanted. The music in Kelly's heart, the lyrics in her head? Silent now. Cassie Bernall, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming - killed by two unhappy classmates armored in hate and armed with guns. Yesterday, officials released their names, and confirmed the identities of 10 others shot and killed Tuesday in the worst school shooting in U.S. history: students Steven Curnow, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend and Kyle Velasquez, and teacher William "Dave" Sanders.

Ariel Hanson describes her first-period calculus class as "like being under water. " Her hands sometimes go numb. The teacher's voice is a gurgle. And through blurred peripheral vision, Hanson sees dazed, motionless students barely alert enough to blink. Calculus should be among Hanson's favorite classes. The 18-year-old senior at Central Bucks West High School is on her way to studying engineering at Boston's Northeastern University next year. But with high school starting at 7:30 a.m., she says, it's a struggle even to show up. "We had someone in the middle of the aisle last week using their coat as a pillow," said Hanson, who has been lobbying for two years to get the district to start school later in the morning.

Vince Chiaro, chairman of Clearview Regional High School's technology department, was teaching auto shop five years ago when it struck him that trickling enrollment in metalworking classes and wood shop might be an omen. Perhaps the Internet generation - unimpressed with aluminum ashtrays - was demanding a more sophisticated elective. So Chiaro appeared before the Mullica Hill School Board early in 1992 with an unorthodox proposition: Why not convert the old workshop classroom into a telecommunications studio?

When 19-year-old Nathan Swymer drowned in Lake Owasco in upstate New York in February, many people said there was a good chance that the body would never be recovered. But Nathan's father, Stephen, did not believe that the body could not be found. He said there had to be a way to get to his only son. "I told the police, 'Even if we have to drain the lake, I'm bringing my son home,' ' he said. "We could not accept leaving him in that lake. " Nathan, a Pennsylvania State University sophomore from Exton, had been boating alone on Feb. 22. He left his cottage on a warm winter morning and got caught in a sudden and violent storm characteristic of the Finger Lakes region, where he was living for the semester as part of a work-study program.

Why is it that some people think that all African American males are good at sports; all Asian Americans are math geniuses; all Italian Americans eat nothing but spaghetti; and blond women are less intelligent than their brunette sisters? Paulsboro High School students asked their peers these questions and more at a workshop organized by a group called Students United in Respect and Equality. Through workshops, videotapes, and lectures, the 60 Paulsboro students involved in SURE are working to motivate themselves and others to look beyond such stereotypes.

As the student body president at Northeast High, Ryan Mulvey spends a lot of time making speeches about the school to alumni as well as current and prospective students. He also . . . Hmmmm. Let him think. "My social science teacher was asking me just the other day, 'What campaign promises have you come through on?' " Mulvey said, laughing. "That's a hard one. I hate to say 'none,' but . . . mostly, I'm a liaison between the administration and the student body. " So, the reign of Ryan Mulvey as student body president will be remembered largely for, well, nothing?

Anyone seeking a glimpse of America's demographic future can go to Beverly Hills Middle School, find the sign that says "cafeteria" - in eight languages - and sit down for lunch. The long tables filled with chattering students are a preview of the new melting pot - 40 percent nonwhite - that demographers say will be the America of 2040. At Beverly Hills, they've speeded up the inevitable. The school has the largest percentage of Asian students in the Upper Darby School District, which has the largest percentage of Asian students of any district in the state.

LAWRENCE IS THE VICTIM, NOT THE RUTGERS STUDENTS The desperate attempt by students at Rutgers University to "force" Francis Lawrence to step down is infuriating. In a Feb. 11 article, one student was quoted as saying: "He has been a good slave master to his slaves for the last 35 years. " Correct me if I'm wrong, but here is an African American calling himself a slave. What these students are relaying is that they live in the past, a time that none of us has lived or experienced, or thinks about whenever we make a comment.

A mob moll, saying she was fleeing the wrath of Al Capone, swept through the South American-style cafe like a teenage tornado. "Al's here, Al's here," she hollered in heavy Brooklynese as she darted past the no-stakes poker game and dodged into the back room. The regulars barely looked up from sipping tea and coffee. The thuggish Bruno, wearing a muscle shirt and bandanna, served cookies from his perch behind the bar. This transformation of the Methacton High School student lounge into a 1930s tropical watering hole was just one of the creative outlets for the about 3,000 participants in the school district's Arts Festival.