If you browse through the News of the ACS Athens website, one of the busiest sections is that of Athletics and Activities. As an American school, ACS Athens invests consciously in co-curricular athletics and participation of students in sports, as a way to build character, cultivate the nobility of fair play and set goals for the life ahead. Students appear to celebrate their successes in tournaments as part of team or individual sports, but also announce academic scholarships and other distinctions. Athletics is also at the heart of fostering school spirit, by involving the entire community, students, faculty, administrators but also alums and parents. Therefore, more than an academic requirement, more than providing outlets for chanelling the endless energy of students, physical and mental, Athletics play a crucial role in the development of children and adolescents.

Sports have always been Babis Mamas' passion, and alongside working and studying, he competed at the U18 and U21 Greek Track & Field team for Long and Triple Jump, and at a later age, he was introduced to Volleyball. Volleyball also became a career as he coached professionally at teams in Athens (Panathinaikos, Panionios) and later in the UK. This year, Mr. Mamas is the Assistant Director of Athletics of ACS Athens, with additional responsibilities in student life.

Today with Babis Mamas, we discuss:

This is the 2nd part of the podcast on the 2022 Areté Awards, hosted by Amalia Zavacopoulou, member of the Areté Awards Committee and Division chair for social Studies at ACS Athens.

12 years ago, the community of ACS Athens initiated the annual Areté Awards in order to recognize students, faculty and parents who promote Civic Responsibility through Conscious Citizenship, aiming to improve life and living on the planet. As a community that comes together to address the needs of others, we strive to promote civic responsibility and to model it for our students. And since Areté in English means virtue, our community members are always challenged to uphold a particular moral excellence, showing high ethical standards in their own life, the life of their family and their entire community.

In the second part, today, Amalia Zavacopoulou speaks with the parent recipient of the 2022 Areté Award for Civic Responsibility, Debbie Richards Perakis, also a member of the ACS Athens PTO, and with the Faculty Recipient of the Award, Antigoni Karnesioti Simantira.

12 years ago, the community of ACS Athens initiated the annual Areté Awards in order to recognize students, faculty and parents who promote Civic Responsibility through Conscious Citizenship, aiming to improve life and living on the planet. As a community that comes together to address the needs of others, we strive to promote civic responsibility and to model it for our students. And since Areté in English means virtue, our community members are always challenged to uphold a particular moral excellence, showing high ethical standards in their own life, the life of their family and their entire community.

Every year individuals are nominated for their “activities or deeds” that meet the Areté Award Criteria, which include evidences for embodying the spirit of areté and civic responsibility, demonstrating extraordinary initiative to serve others, modeling service at ACS Athens and/or in the local community, inspiring others to become involved and striving socially and ethically as healthy, responsible members of the community.

Amalia Zavacopoulou, member of the Areté Awards Committee and Division chair for social Studies at ACS Athens, spoke to the 2022 Arete Award Recipients for civic responsibility.

In this week's first part of the Areté Awards Owlcast, Ms. Zavacopoulou talks with the three student recipients.

On October 7, 2022, The ACS Athens Dean of Academics, Julia Tokatlidou, together with the IB and AP programs Director, Mark McGowan, gave a presentation at the International Baccalaureate (IB) Global conference on the ACS Athens Youth-to-Youth Educational and Social Integration program. Their presentation title was, “A Student-to-Student Teaching Approach to Inclusivity and Differentiation” as they highlighted the innovation of the Youth-to-Youth program, especially the student-to-student approach where our students assist in the teaching of English and Greek languages, computers and other subjects to unaccompanied refugee minors.

Over 100 educators from schools around the world learned how the ACS Athens model of a student-to-student approach to learning could be applied to a variety of contexts and classes, and the response was one of overwhelming enthusiasm, leaving many with ideas of how to start similar programs or practices at their schools. Both Ms. Tokatlidou and Mr. McGowan have talked about the excitement of their discussions, the new relationships that were created, and the new ideas acquired that can enhance the education of our students.

In today's Owlcast, we discuss

More than 30 colleges every year, from the US, Canada, the UK and Europe, but also from around the world enter our classrooms, talk to our students and go much beyond a marketing pitch to prospective students. They see how ACS Athens students get prepared, not only academically but also socially and psychologically, for College life. It’s one thing to write a college essay, it’s quite another talking to the recruitment officer who at the end might be part of the admission decision of your application. And students really enjoy that, especially since they get to ask the questions. 

Today, our guest is Dr. Stephen Soanes, Student Recruitment Officer of Warwick University. Representing one of the top 10 ranked UK schools, Dr. Soanes talks about why students choose to study at Warwick U. in field like Business Management, Economics, and Media, Film and Creative Writing.  He holds a BA, a Master and a Ph.D. in History from Warwick University, and he has represented the school since 2014. With Dr. Soanes today we discuss:

https://warwick.ac.uk/ 

https://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/our-universities/ 

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/

https://www.warwickeconomicssummit.com/

ACS Athens' languages, humanities, and theater curriculum regularly return to teaching and learning paradigms through which students are empowered and inspired to gain knowledge of the world and of themselves. One of those paradigms is the latest performance of Oedipus in our Theater, which was followed by numerous Socratic seminars in many classrooms. The entire school became a stage for conversation and debate, facilitating the ideal Project Based Learning through Inquiry, Research, and Performance. 

Today we’re talking with Ms. Sophia Thanopoulou,  Drama Faculty of our Academy, and Dr. Evangelos Syropoulos,  English Language Faculty in the Academy and Division Chair of Language and Literature of ACS Athens.     

With Dr. Syropoulos and Ms. Thanopoulou today, we discuss:

We have with us today Effie Karatopouzi, who began working at ACS Athens in 2016 as a Physical Education Teacher in the Elementary School and has undertaken different posts in the Athletic Department in all three schools and in ACS Athens Summer Camp. In 2017, she piloted a mindfulness program called Mind Body Soul (MBS) for students in Junior Kindergarten classes, which will continue to run this year. The MBS Program is also continuing in a very positive way in all classes in Elementary school. She presented her research findings about this pilot program at the International Mindfulness Convention, held in Slovenia.

She has offered her services voluntarily to the Youth to Youth Program at ACS Athens. She has also presented a workshop on mindfulness strategies to use in the physical education classroom at the ECIS Physical Education Conference in Barcelona.

With Efi Karatopouzi today we discuss:

Today's student edition, we host Adrianos Botsios, an Academy student of ACS Athens who interviewed Jan Kleijssen, Chair of the Information Society and Action against Crime • COMMITTEE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE of the COUNCIL OF EUROPE.

Jan has been Chair of the Council of Europe’s Disciplinary Board since 2015 and acts as the Council of Europe Internet Governance Coordinator since 2018.

Onalytica, a marketing software platform, in July 2019 included Jan among the Top 100 influencers on the regulation of new technologies.

Let's listen to what Adrianos Botsios and Jan Kleijssen talk about:

Welcome to another episode of the Owlcast - Alumni Edition. Today with us is Odysseas Digbassanis, Class of 2019. Odysseas with studies in History, Politics and Economics at Warwick University in the UK, was recently appointed as the Secretary for External Affairs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He tends to downplay his role, but it’s not every day a 21-year-old person gets this post, even on a volunteer basis. With Odysseas Digbassanis today we discuss:

In the first season of the Owlcast, we talked with more than 40 individuals from the school community, teachers, alums, visitors, and of course students, discussing what makes life at ACS Athens exciting, rewarding, and most of all, memorable. Our “unofficial” motto is “never a dull day.” This was reflected in all our episodes, which are accessible through all the major podcast platforms and under the News and Productions section of our website. Last year, we discovered that everyone in our community has a lot to say, what inspires them and what they aspire to do in the year and years to come.

In the new season of the Owlcast, we will bring to you more faculty and student stories from the Life @ ACS Athens, but also stories from Colleges visiting our campus every year, parent stories, and much more!

We kick off this year’s Owlcast with the President of ACS Athens, Dr. Peggy Pelonis, who steers the school through the post-COVID era, that is full of the teachings of online learning, community building and meaningful engagement benefitting everyone  

With Dr. Pelonis, we discuss: