With us today is Steve Sinunu the President and CEO of EnvironX Solutions; an expert on peat fires, Steve has traveled the world to research, train, and fight underground fires. Steve’s global travel has included keynote addresses in South America for the largest Forestry Companies and Asian Fire and Rescue schools. In 2011, when devastating fires ravaged central Texas, he donated thousands of dollars worth of products to the threatened areas, shuttling donated goods from EnvironX North Texas Headquarters and personally assisting in coating threatened homes with the proprietary fire suppressant.

Steve is an ACS Athens Alum, who along with his brothers, came through ACS Athens in the late '70s and early '80s. His family's journey brought him to school until he finished 8th grade before he moved back to the US. He stopped by the campus a few days ago to reminisce and trace his path on the memory lane of those years, after leaving Athens in the early '80s.

Today we talk with two Academy teachers, members of the IB faculty, who during the pandemic lockdowns - among other projects - created a virtual club for students interested in the intersection of Biosciences and Psychology. A club that created a virtual escape room which .... well, I better let them explain. The club continues of course this year.

Dr. Elina Prodromidis and Ms. Angela Chamosfakidis, one Biology Teacher and one Psychology Teacher, that attempt to create bridges and intersections between their two fields. Today, we discuss:

Every so often, but not often enough, there comes an individual in the life of an institution, that through personality, deeds or just aura, gets to be identified with the institution, its spirit and presence in the community. Annie Constantinides, the legendary basketball player and leader of Sporting Athens and the National Women Basketball team in the 80’s and 90’s, is such an individual. Her own teammates from school admit that “Annie was a force to be reckoned with”, and her teammates from her years as a professional athlete remember a natural leader. During her ACS Athens career, even through her occasional hiatus to participate in the organizing of the Olympic Games,  she has served as the Athletics Director and de facto coach of the boys (or girls) varsity basketball teams. She can run a Marathon while speaking on the phone, she analyses strategy on the basketball court from every particular angle, or she can find solutions to issues while restlessly roaming the campus. To some she’s intimidating, to most she’s inspiring. Her story is the story of every student-athlete who follows his or her own dreams without compromises.

Dr. Marco Crivellaro joined ACS Athens a little before the COVID pandemic struck hard face-to-face learning in schools. Operating through two lockdowns could have been an inopportune time in his career, especially when as a librarian you depend on the physical presence of students in your library and the constant contact with books and volumes of manuscripts. But, following the school-wide schooling path from physical to virtual, he created the ACS Athens Virtual Library with a comprehensive list of books and periodicals accessible in electronic formats.

Our discussion with Dr. Crivellaro starts with the library, but expands to topics such as Information vs. Knowledge, Critical Thinking skills of the reader and why it's important to know why you read what you read, we even invited his personal favorite authors for dinner. And yes, History is his favorite subject - who would have thought!

Venie Gaki, is an English as a Second/Foreign Language teacher at ACS Athens, who joined the school 15 years ago. We are discussing: