THE JOEL L. SHIN MEMORIAL LATIN ORATION AND THE ANCIENT GREEK RHAPSODY

JOEL LEE SHIN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY A.B., J.D., M.P.P.

The Joel Shin Memorial Latin Oration is named after Joel L. Shin, an extraordinary young man, who was a foreign policy expert. He was an advisor to George W. Bush during his presidential campaign and a principal at The Scowcroft Group.  General Scowcroft, one of the principal architects of the end of the Cold War, had a gift for finding talented and thoughtful people and recruiting them into public service. 

Joel was brilliant.  He majored in the classics at Harvard University.  After his graduation he stayed at Harvard and earned a Masters degree there in public policy, followed by his law degree at Harvard Law School.  After Harvard he continued his education at Oxford in England, where he was a Rhodes scholar and where he earned a masters degree in comparative philology.

Joel was so accomplished in Latin, that Harvard University selected Joel in 1990 to deliver its annual Latin Oration, a tradition that goes back to Harvard’s first graduation in 1642. 

Very sadly, Joel Shin passed away suddenly on January 21, 2014.  He left behind a family who dearly loved him and a great number of devoted friends, including me.  And he left behind a country deprived of his great talent. 

In memory of Joel, The Montfort Academy inaugurated the Joel Lee Shin Memorial Latin Oration, an honor bestowed upon the Montfort Knight who has most excelled in his or her studies in classical Latin.

In 2018, the Shin family very generously endowed for the next 20 years The Joel Lee Shin Memorial Latin Oration with a scholarship to the recipient to use at college.

The above video is the entirety of the 2020 graduation. Since it was such a unique graduation ceremony, we published the entire video. The Joel L. Shin Memorial Latin Oration begins at minute 28:09 if you would like to fast forward.