On Monday, March 18th, following The White House’s Greek Independence Day celebration, the National Hellenic Society’s Washington, DC Chapter hosted a reception at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel.  Co-chairs Mike Manatos & Louis Courembis welcomed attendees to the annual celebration of heritage and culture as well as introduced some of the night’s honored guests to give their remarks.  Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH), Foreign Minister George Koumoutsakos, AHEPA Past Supreme President Carl R. Hollister, New York State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, NHS Chairman Drake Behrakis, and NHS Executive Director Art Dimopoulos were among those who spoke during the evening.  The event also promoted the “Cliffs of Freedom” film produced and written by NHS Members Dean and Marianne Metropoulos, as well as the National Hellenic Society’s Heritage Greece program.  

The Hellenic Journal recently featured an article by Heritage Greece Alumnus Elizabeth Tzagournis highlighting her experience as a member of the 2017 Heritage Greece Program's excursion. 

Click here to read the full article!

This past Saturday, December 15, many of our Heritage Greece Program alumni attended the Mistletoe Gala in New York, NY.  The gala was hosted by the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church at the Harvard Club in New York City, and created the opportunity for a miniature Heritage Greece reunion.  The NHS is proud to see that the life long friendships created through this program continue to be lasting and continue to show signs of living on forever!

New York - This past weekend, Heritage Greece Alumni Dimitri Roumeliotis and John Banas attended the annual meeting of the National Hellenic Student Association (NHSA).  They had the opportunity to address the conference attendees and made a presentation about the Heritage Greece Program and highlighted the benefits as well as how the program has impacted them. 

And they’re off! Every year, the National Hellenic Society sponsors Greek American college students on a two-week educational and cultural immersion experience at the American College of Greece to discover their heritage and culture through the Heritage Greece Program. This year, we are proud to sponsor 65 participants, joined by 13 peer students from ACG.

Meeting in Washington, DC before heading to Greece tonight, the group visited the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, where they heard from several classicist and fellows, and the Greek Embassy where His Excellency Ambassador Lalacos and his diplomatic corps welcomed the participants and provided an overview of Greece’s challenges. They then visited Capitol Hill, where they met with Congressman John Sarbanes, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and the staffs of Congressman Gus Bilirakis, Congressman Charlie Crist, and Congresswoman Dina Titus! This is just the beginning of a life-long commitment to these Greek American ambassadors of Hellenic heritage!

Safe travels and καλό ταξίδι παιδιά!

 
This is America & the World is a series hosted by Dennis Wholey, a journalist and best-selling author with over 40 years of broadcast experience. The weekly series covers international affairs and is produced in Washington, D.C., featuring countries around the world. The series is broadcast nationally on public television and PBS stations, and it is distributed internationally by Voice of America Television. Dennis explores the cultural, social and political lives of people around the world.
 
The 3-part series of This is America Visits Greece was shot in Greece and airs as follows: Part I on Sunday, July 9; Part II on Sunday, July 16; and Part Episode III on Sunday, July 23.  
 
Thanks to the George & Judy Marcus Family Foundation, the National Hellenic Society (NHS), American College of Greece (ACG), and the Heritage Greece Program will be highlighted in Part II on Sunday, July 16 at 10:00. The episode will feature interviews of several Heritage Greece Program participants and the American College of Greece President, David Horner.

With the help of member John Stratakis with Poles, Tublin, Stratakis, Gonzales, & Weichert, LLC and Clay Maitland with International Registries, the NHS hosted a reception for Heritage Greece students at the Yacht Club of Greece. Distinguished guests included HRH Princess Tatiana Blatnik, former Minister of Health and current Member of Parliament, Adonis Georgiadis, Dr. Dimitrios Andreou, Vice President of Enrollment and Administration of Deree, Peter Poulos, Director of Development for the Hellenic Initiative.

The NHS would like to thank the event's sponsors for offering Heritage Greece students this once in a lifetime experience!