Dr. David G. Horner, Louis Hepper, Dimitrios Priftis, John Partheniou, Evangeline Litsa Mourelatos, Karina Vasileiadi, Gina Kostoulias, Dr. Hariclea Zengos

Congratulations to the students who took part in the Establishing a Senior Class Giving (SCG) Culture Project competition, which was celebrated at an awards ceremony at the 7th level auditorium on Wednesday, June 17 amid much fanfare, and which concluded with a presentation of the inspiring winning project by the student team Leave Your Mark Behind (John Partheniou-team leader, Karina Vasileiadi and Tatiana Argyropoulou).

Master of ceremonies Dr. Hariclea Zengos, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at DEREE, welcomed the students, saying that she “is very proud” of them “and the work they do,” and also thanked the Professional Communication faculty at DEREE. Dr. Zengos also singled out ACG’s Office of Development & Alumni Relations for their help developing the Senior Class Giving Project, especially its Executive Director Mary-Irene Triantafillou and Manager Carolina Bachariou, before inviting ACG President Dr. David G. Horner to the podium.

In his welcome remarks, Dr. Horner enthusiastically congratulated the student participants for “making us so proud.” He said that the winning team chose an “important subject and topic and that the quality work was well researched, powerfully and clearly communicated, and will be very useful to the institution,” as it deals with one of the defining hallmarks of an American institution of higher education– that is, “the success of drawing the engagement and involvement of students and later alumni.”

Other judges taking to the stage to acknowledge the students and their work included DEREE Provost Dr. Thimios Zaharopoulos, who noted his enthusiasm for the project, calling it an example of “experiential learning that is the epitome of an American-style education.” Dr. Zaharopoulos underlined how much he appreciates the students’ hard work, which he saw first-hand while judging the work of both teams.

Gina Kostoulias, Area Coordinator of Professional Communication, next took to the stage to explain how the competition was held, introduce the teams, and describe the challenges that the students faced in coming up with an implementable idea, while also praising and thanking all those involved – including ACG’s Integrated Communication and Marketing team and the supervising instructors, Evangeline Litsa Mourelatos and Louise Hepper.

On her part, Niki Boutari, ACG’s Vice President of Marketing, also a judge on the committee, said she was thrilled with the quality of the students’ work and looked forward to “welcoming them to the professional world,” as their work is “outstanding,” while she enthused that ACG marketing is happy to help in promoting the winning team’s findings and conclusions, and taking them a step further to actualization.

Following the speeches, The Students in Action Team (Dimitrios Priftis, team leader, Aikaterini Karachaliou, Vasileios Gkrekos and Apostolos Didangelos), were awarded Certificates of Acknowledgement, presented by Dr. David Horner.


Dimitrios Priftis, John Partheniou, and Karina Vasileiadi

Immediately after followed the winning team, Leave Your Mark Behind (Partheniou, Vasileiadi, and Argyropoulou), who received the Certificates of Award and a small gift by President Horner to wide applause.

Concluding the ceremony, Dimitrios Priftis (Students in Action) introduced members of the winning team, Leave Your Mark Behind, John Partheniou and Karina Vasileiadi, who presented their research findings, conclusions, recommendations and implementation strategy, followed by a Q&A, after which ceremony attendees had the opportunity to view a poster presentation of the projects outside the auditorium.

Congratulations to both teams!