Experiencing College Life in the U.S.

Fifteen Academy students in grades 10 and 11 joined Mr. Medeiros and Ms. Mandy Dragatakis for a nine-day visit to Boston, Massachusetts to visit colleges and universities in that area.  Students had the opportunity to visit a minimum of six colleges and universities each, which represented a wide range of the kinds of educational opportunities available to them in the United States.  Some of the colleges/universities visited are:  Wheaton College, Tufts University, Northeastern University, Harvard University, Emerson College, Boston University, Stonehill College, Bentley University, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Roger Williams, Boston College and the Berkeley School of Music.

There was a cultural component to the trip that gave the opportunity to the students to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, the MIT Museum of Science and Technology, and a theater performance of the Blue Man Group.  During the weekend the students learned abut the American Revolution by walking the Freedom Trail.

One of the highlights of the trip was heard from the Director of Admissions of an Ivy League university that it was clear to her that ACS Athens has become by far the best school in Greece and that it is considered to be among the top tier of international schools around the world.

Third Annual International Coaches’ Clinic

The 3rd International Coaches’ Clinic took place on April 20-22 at our campus where four known basketball coaches from the United States taught the fundamentals of basketball coaching.  Randy Pfund (former Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and General Manager of the Miami Heat), Ken Bone (Men's Basketball Head Coach, Washington State), Je'Ney Jackson (Strength and Conditioning Coach, Indiana University) and Shimmy Gray-Miller (Women's Head Basketball Coach, St. Louis University) joined us and had the opportunity to share with a number of coaches and our own athletes their expertise.

We had over 125 participants during the clinic and great comments were heard by many!  Also, we had a number of international attendees for the first time ever (4 from England, 3 from Switzerland, 3 from Kuwait, 1 from Tunisia, 2 from Cyprus and 2 from Belgium!)

The Coaches’ Clinic has become a great avenue of exposure for our school (there is interest in our school from the general community) but most importantly for our student athletes since a number of our basketball players have received scholarships in the United States.

Visit of Basketball Coach from SNHU

Basketball Head Coach, Mr. Stan Spirou from Southern New Hampshire University, visited ACS Athens and participated in the Basketball Coaches’ Clinic on April 20-22.  During his visit he granted and finalized a full athletic scholarship opportunity for one of our basketball scholarship students, Konstantinos Mantalvanos. 

Eighth Annual Math Competition

The 8th ACS Athens Math Competition took place on Thursday, April 26 with great success. We had a record 72 students from eight schools attending and a wonderful lecture/visit by Prof. Stephan Klaus, Scientific Administrator of the MFO and Adjunct Professor at Mainz University, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO) in Germany.  His talk was on Algebraic Curves and Surfaces.   

Students enjoyed a full day of doing Math at a high level. Our own Morgane Copp won the gold medal for the group competition as a member of a team that included two Athens College boys and a Kosteas-Geitonas girl.

American Festival 2012

ACS Athens has organized a year-long series of exhibitions, performances, talks, and discussions at the Arts Center at ACS Athens in support of the Arts Center at ACS mission to promote Greek - American cultural exchange, and to celebrate the American roots of ACS Athens.

Summer Youth Camp

The ACS Athens Summer Youth Camp Program, an established tradition at ACS Athens will continue this year (June 18 - July 13, 2012) with learning and recreational programs for students of various age levels:

1) Early Childhood Program (4 and 5 years old)
2) the “Kids” program (6-8 years old)  
3) the “Juniors” program (9-11 years old) and
4)  “Teens” program

are designed so the needs of the students are met and at the same time provide FUN for all of children!

Visit to Sarajevo

As a member ISAC (the accreditation decision-making committee of the Middle States Association) Dr. Gialamas was asked to Chair an accreditation team visit to the QSI International School of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina on April 23-26, 2012.   The other three educators that joined him for this accreditation review came from Israel, German and Jordan.

College Acceptances

Our continued success for college acceptances continues.  Below are some universities in the U.S., U.K., and other countries that our students were accepted:

In the U.S. -- Columbia, NYU, Harvard, Tufts, University of Virginia, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, State University of New York at Stonybrook, Drexel, Rutgers University, Northwestern University, Pennsylvania State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, George Washington University, Skidmore University, etc. 

In the U.K. -- University of London (UCL), University of Bath, Kings College, Cardiff University, University of Southampton, University of Nottingham, University of Dundee, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, etc. 

In Canada and other countries -- McGill University, York University, Concordia University, Erasmus University, American University of Beirut, Georgetown University in Qatar, University of Rotterdam, Holland and more.

2012 Learning Differences Conference

ACS Athens hosted its 7th Annual Conference on Learning Differences titled, Connecting the Pieces: Differentiation Strategies, Testing and Assessment, Inspiring Genius and Creativity and Social-Emotional Development held on the ACS Athens campus on May 3-5, 2012 and was a great success.

ACS Athens is committed to promoting awareness and providing tools on the subject of educating children with learning differences.  This year’s program took a different form from past conferences and included four intensive two-day institutes, each focused on one of four conference strands: 

Differentiation Strategies, Testing and Assessment, Inspiring Genius and Creativity and Social-Emotional Development. The third day of the conference was structured as a more typical workshop day, with 14 different workshops for participants to choose from during the course of the day.

Registered participants for the conference came from several countries, such as the U.K., Norway, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Spain,  Saudi Arabia and, of course, from throughout Greece.  Although many of the attendees were new to this conference, there were a large number of participants who were attending the conference for a second and third time or who had attended at least one ACS Athens Learning Differences conference in the past years.

PTO Spring Fair 2012

Be sure to join at the PTO Spring Fair scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 19, 2012 from 12:00 noon – 4:00 p.m.  Join us for a fun-filled day of great food from around the world, fresh baked cakes, cookies and treats, drinks, games for all ages, and much more.  

Also, remember that on this day we will be holding elections for the three parents  representatives on the ACS Athens Board of Trustees.  Parents are encouraged to vote for three of the eleven candidates running for these Board positions.  Elections will be from 12:00 noon – 4:00 p.m.  Remember to bring with you a pictured identification document (ACS Athens ID card, driver’s license, passport, or any other type of ID).  Parents who come to vote without an ID will not be given a ballot.