The Montfort Academy Receives a $20,000 Donation from the Shin Family

The Montfort Academy very gratefully and humbly announces a very generous gift of $20,000 to the Academy from the Shin Family in memory of Joel L. Shin, a friend of Montfort founder Richard Greco and brilliant scholar in the classics and a foreign policy expert who advised George W. Bush during his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Joel passed away suddenly in 2014 at a very young age, leaving behind his family and many friends and colleagues who loved him dearly, not to mention a country who greatly benefits from his insights and ideas.

In June 2014, The Montfort Academy established the Joel L. Shin Memorial Latin Oration in memory of Joel, who was the 1990 Harvard College Latin Orator. Every year since 1642, Harvard has had a tradition of the Harvard Latin Oration, a speech in Latin delivered by a Harvard graduate. The Latin Oration is one of Harvard’s highest honors. In memory of Joel, during the past five commencement exercises Montfort the top Latin student has been named the Joel L. Shin Latin Orator and has delivered a commencement address in Latin. In 2018, a speech in ancient Greek was added as well.

In their letter to Montfort, the Shin family wrote, “We feel that the Latin Oration you have established in Joel’s honor is perhaps the best way to memorialize his extraordinary and achievements and hopefully inspire other young minds.”

For more on the Joel L. Shin Memorial Latin Oration and to learn more about Joel Shin, please click here.