Students explore their heritage in Greece

Professor Nikos Metallinos and student Dimitris (Jim) Lianoudakis at the Acropolis.

courtesy Terry vouyoukas

Lefteris (Terry) Vouyoukas knew there was nothing new about cheating in sports when he saw the Wall of Dishonour at Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games.

Vouyoukas, an Exercise Science student, and Dimitris Lianoudakis, from the Department of Applied Mathematics, spent part of the summer in the land of their ancestors thanks to scholarships from the Kokklis Foundation of Greece via Concordia’s Hellenic Studies Unit.

“I don’t have much family in Greece, so I don’t go very often. This was a great opportunity to visit the country,” Vouyoukas said.

As well as touring the rich archaeological sites of the region, the students attended two-week seminars given by visiting professors, among them Nikos Metallinos, from the Department of Communication Studies.

One seminar, organized with Duke University Centre for Communications and Journalism, was on the challenges posed by media technology. The other, called War, Conflicts and Identity, was organized by a research centre at Yale University.

The Kokklis Foundation will continue to collaborate with Concordia’s Hellenic Studies Unit, and will offer two more scholarships next year to students of Greek descent to attend seminars in Olympia.

Two other awards of $1,000 each are being offered to students taking courses in the Greek Cluster: the C.P Kouvertaris Bursary and the P. Arnopoulos Scholarship.

If you can’t get to Greece, you can still attend the Hellenic Studies Lecture Series, whose theme this year is Mass Media: Roles, Power and Responsibilities.

It starts Jan. 19, 2007, when Yiannis Petsilas, of the Greek Embassy in Canada, Journalism professor Ross Perigoe and other guests discuss the role of the North American media.

More information will be posted closer to that date in the Journal’s online listings at cjournal.concordia.ca.