As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hellenic American University, I am filled with a profound sense of pride and gratitude for the incredible journey we have embarked upon together. Over the past two decades, our university has grown from a visionary dream into a thriving institution, dedicated to providing quality American higher education that is both career-relevant and interculturally informed.

This milestone is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and passion of our entire university community. Our faculty members have continually demonstrated their commitment to academic excellence, innovative teaching, and groundbreaking research. Our students have shown remarkable perseverance, creativity, and a drive to succeed that inspires us all. Our alumni have gone on to make significant contributions to their professions and communities, embodying the values and education they received here.

As we look back on our achievements, we also look forward to the future with great anticipation. Our mission to educate global citizens who are grounded in the liberal arts and equipped to contribute to the economic and social development of their communities remains steadfast. We are committed to fostering an environment where students can pursue their passions, develop their talents, and achieve their educational goals.

To commemorate this special occasion, we are pleased to announce the award of 20 scholarships totaling €150,000. These scholarships, valued at €10,000 each for undergraduate studies and €5,000 each for selected graduate programs at our Athens campus, reflect our ongoing dedication to empowering students and investing in the future of education and knowledge.

The scholarships will be awarded on a first come first served basis to eligible candidates who will secure their place by July 31st, 2024. Undergraduate scholarship recipients will have the opportunity to pursue their studies in English Language & Literature, Business Administration, Informatics, Psychology, Engineering or Music while graduate scholarship recipients will gain support for studies in Business Administration, Translation, Conference Interpreting, Informatics or Psychology. Scholarships will also be awarded to eligible candidates interested in the MA in Applied Linguistics-TESOL program which is offered exclusively online by the university.

Eligibility Criteria:

Undergraduate/Graduate scholarship applicants must meet the admission requirements of the selected program.

Undergraduate admission criteria
Graduate admission criteria

Important note: For the on-campus programs, applicants must already have a residence permit and not require a visa to be eligible for the scholarship.

Application Process:

Candidates should email our admissions office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. stating the program of their interest, with subject line: 20th Anniversary Scholarship

Leonidas Phoebus Koskos, Esq.
President
Hellenic American University

To commemorate its 20 years of operation, Hellenic American University proudly announces the award of 20 scholarships totaling €150,000.

The scholarships, valued at €10,000 each for undergraduate studies and €5,000 each for selected graduate programs at Athens campus, reflect Hellenic American University's commitment to fostering academic excellence and supporting the development of successful individuals worldwide. “These scholarships represent our ongoing dedication to empowering students to achieve their educational goals and pursue their passions," said Dr. Leonidas Tzonis, Executive Vice President & CFO. "As we celebrate two decades of serving our community, we are honored to invest in the future of education and knowledge."

As we mark our 20th anniversary, we remain committed to our mission to offer students a quality American higher education that is both career-relevant and interculturally informed. The university seeks to educate its students to be global citizens who are grounded in the liberal arts and equipped to contribute to the economic and social development of their communities. Both the University’s mission and its non-profit status ensure that the institution’s overriding interests and yardstick of success remain its students and the quality and outcome of the education they receive.

The scholarships will be awarded on a first come first served basis to eligible candidates who will secure their place by July 19th, 2024. Undergraduate scholarship recipients will have the opportunity to pursue their studies in English Language & Literature, Business Administration, Informatics, Psychology, Engineering or Music while graduate scholarship recipients will gain support for studies in Business Administration, Translation, Conference Interpreting, Informatics, Psychology or Applied Linguistics-TESOL.

Eligibility Criteria:

Undergraduate/Graduate scholarship applicants must meet the admission requirements of the selected program.

• Undergraduate admission criteria
• Graduate admission criteria

Important note: For the on-campus programs, applicants must already have a residence permit and not require a visa to be eligible for the scholarship.

Application Process:

Candidates should email our admissions office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. stating the program of their interest, with subject line: 20th Anniversary Scholarship.

The Winter 23-24 issue of Connect  is currently being emailed to University alumni and is available for download here. This issue features the results from the Employment Survey of the Class of 2023, a profile of our new CDO Director, news of recent events hosted at our Athens campus and the Debate Team recent trip to Rollings College in Florida.

President Leonidas Phoebus Koskos updates us on how the University is preparing to meet the challenges in the year ahead, including the recent legislation on private universities in Greece.

Our Alumni Success Story features Eleni Plemmenou (BSPsy ’22), who shares her experience of the Psychology program and whose journey exemplifies the University’s mission. For the Faculty Spotlight, we turn to Stephen Bacigal, adjunct faculty member and Director of Institutional Research & Assessment at our University.

Finally, as is our tradition, we share news and accomplishments of our faculty and your fellow alumni, from newly published works and talks at conferences to career advancements. 

Image: CONNECT ALUMNI Winter 23-24

A select group of MAAL students in the University’s M.A. in Applied Linguistics program are taking part in an innovative writing tutoring project that draws on the collective expertise of three different units: the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Hellenic American University Writing Center, and the M.A. in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) program.

The idea for the project, which has been developed Dr. Dimitris Tolias, who heads the MAAL and serves as Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, is simple, even if its implementation, given the logistics of coordinating schedules across time zones, multiple instructors, and tight deadlines, isn’t. Graduate students enrol in the MAAL’s elective course in Writing Tutoring, where they learn about how a writing center works and what tutoring processes involve, and about how to apply these theoretical models and principles in tutoring writing. As part of the course, students complete 30 hours of supervised asynchronous personal writing tutoring. In this case—and this is what makes the project unique—they will be providing help to international MBA students at the Nashua, NH campus, under the direct supervision of Dr. Vassiliki Kourbani, the course instructor and Director of the University’s Writing Center.

The new initiative serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it marshals coursework, its supervised practicum, and certification opportunities to advance the personal and professional development of the MAAL students as language practitioners and teachers. On the other hand, and at a very practical level, the initiative will provide individualized assistance to international MBA students in Nashua on their writing assignments.

Dr. Tolias says he is thrilled about the project, and the benefits it offers for the graduate students taking the course. He points out that the course serves as a pathway for students to earn an internationally respected credential in academic tutoring and student support: the College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA) Certification.

At the same time, the course will be an opportunity for the international students in the project to experience first-hand the usefulness of consulting expert help for their academic writing, something Dr. Kourbani says will come in handy later when the same students are faced with the challenges of a demanding capstone project.

For Dr. Tolias, the project is not just about tutoring writing. It is also a way, he says, “for participants to interact with our international students, gain insights into their diverse cultures, and broaden their own global perspective as teachers and individuals.” He is convinced that the course can be a “transformative experience” in the MAAL students’ professional journey.

The new project follows on the heels of similar initiatives designed to integrate student support services more seamlessly across campuses and modalities. One such effort is the annual series of spring online workshops and winter onsite trainings that Dr. Tolias conducts with Nashua students on topics such as the University's digital platforms, effective studying, and understanding instructor feedback. In fact, it was during these workshops that Dr. Tolias realized that the students in his sessions would appreciate and benefit from the support writing tutors could provide.

Image: Nashua MBA students at Dr. Tolias’s recent workshop.

The Director of the University’s Career Development Office (CDO), Domniki Diamantopoulou, has just wound up a marathon round of calls to recent graduates to gather information on the employment profile of the Class of 2023. In the end, she managed to speak to 55% of recent graduates; information on the employment status on the remaining graduates was gathered through LinkedIn research and the directors of the alumni’s degree program. Overall, the CDO was able to confirm the employment profile of 87% of the graduating class of 2023.

The findings for these alumni are encouraging. More than 90% are working or pursuing graduate studies or internships. Specifically, 64% are employed in companies or organizations and an additional 17% are self-employed. About 9% of graduates are pursuing full-time studies or internships.

Behind these summary numbers, however, is a more nuanced picture of graduates’ diverse career paths. Some found work soon after graduation, as in the case of Alzahraa Muneer Sabri Al-Haddad (BSE ’20, MSI ’23), who began work as a Youth Analyst for the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Iraq in August 2023. Others had been working before graduation but found new employment opportunities, such as Christos Anestis Moraitis (BSI ’23), who took up a new position in September 2023 as a software developer for cybersecurity for the Secura Bureau Veritas in the Netherlands, and Konstantinos Topintzis (MBA ’23, MSSM ’23), who has continued his work as a medical sales representative but in a new company this year with ISOPLUS. Still other graduates secured a promotion from their current employer shortly before or after graduation. Christos Pavlogiannis (MSSM ’23), for example, was promoted in March 2023 to Sales Manager and Head of Non-Delivered Trade at Diversey Hellas. Still other alumni/ae are working in positions they had before their studies, or like Konstantinos Sarantos (MBA ’23), a senior account executive at the IBM spinoff Kyndryl, after starting their degree program at the University.

Other graduates finished up an internship or job assignment and went on to pursue graduate studies, like Sidra Ashgar (BAELL ’23), who left her position as an interpreter for the National Center for Social Solidarity to begin an MA in Criminal Justice and Intelligence at the University of Portsmouth this January. Another success story is Eleni Barmpouni (BSBA ’23), who has just completed the internship she began after graduation as a junior marketeer for Karamolegos Bakery and will begin studies this January for an MA in Marketing Management at the University of Bologna.

The CDO Director’s phone calls allowed her to check in with the new alumni/ae individually and remind them of the career counseling and job placement services that they have free access to as graduates, such as guidance in career planning, help in writing their resume, and the newsletter with job postings and internship opportunities. It is also an opportunity to gain insight into graduates’ plans to seek recognition of professional equivalence of their degree by the Greek Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, another area in which the CDO can help alumni navigate. Information was also gathered on graduates’ civil and community engagement; about 10% of recent graduates do volunteer work in addition to their work or studies.

In addition to the phone survey, which is done each year with the new graduating class, the University also updates biannually the employment profile of alumni from previous years through online questionnaires and LinkedIn research. During the last update in 2022 the CDO was able to confirm the employment status of 74% of all alumni. Of these, 94% were employed, self-employed, or pursuing graduate studies.

Image: Captured by Edmond Dantès, downloaded from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/el-gr/photo/4342496/

Hellenic American University is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the 4th International Europe in Discourse Conference, which will be held on September 26-28, 2024.

As in its three successful predecessors in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the year’s conference will explore discourses of Europe through its history, culture, geography and values. It aims to serve as an international, interdisciplinary platform to discuss how Europe is understood and shaped through a plethora of aspects that can be theoretically approached and empirically identified.

EID IV also remains faithful to the conviction that there should be a dialogue between those who talk about Europe and analyze it and those who “do” Europe and shape it. The Conference is therefore an open call to political analysts, communication experts, diplomacy and security experts, public leaders, historians, economists and policymakers from a variety of fields to engage with the Conference themes and submit a contribution along the formats accepted.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Michał Krzyżanowski
Professor and Director of Research at the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism
Chair in Media and Communication Studies
Uppsala University

Federico Romero
Visting Fellow
Department of History and Civilization - European University Institute

Vivien A. Schmidt
Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration
Professor of International Relations, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies
Professor of Political Science
Boston University

Ruth Wodak
Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies
Lancaster University/University Vienna

For more details, consult the Conference website and the Call for Papers.

Image: Ludon-Medoc, France. Ludon Vinery, photo: ©Arthur Pequin.

The Summer 2023 issue of Connect is now being emailed to University alumni and can be downloaded here. In this issue, we highlight several signature events that took place this past semester, with a focus on prominent alumni who returned to our Athens campus to share their expertise with our community.

President Leonidas Phoebus Koskos provides an update on our accreditor’s decision to accept the University’s Interim Fifth-Year Report and the steps we are taking to bring the Nashua and Athens communities even closer together.

This issue’s Alumni Success Story features Christian Moraitis (BSI ’23), who is now living in the Netherlands and working for a large IT firm. Christian shares his experience with the BSI program and how it has shaped his successful career. Our Faculty Spotlight features Panagiote (Pete) Tsolis, the Director of our Business Programs.

Finally, as always, we share recent news of our faculty and fellow alumni’s accomplishments – from new publications and conference talks to career advancements.

Hellenic American University was pleased to co-organize and host the 22nd consecutive year of the Olympia Summer Academy July 11-14 at its campus in Athens. A total of 57 undergraduate and graduate students from 10 countries took part in the Academy’s series of specialized courses in politics and international studies. This year’s program comprised three cycles of 4-day intensive workshops: Global Discord and Cooperation, Terrorism and Counterterrorism, and The Rise of China: Domestic and Global Perspectives. The courses were taught by an international, 11-member faculty of prominent scholars and practitioners.

Joining the University in co-organizing this year's Academy were the European International Studies Association, the Institute of International Relations, and the Navarino Network. The summer program was made possible thanks tthe generous support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Greece and Cyprus) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation Greece.

Image: Faculty & students of the 22nd Summer Olympia Academy

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Hellenic American University and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America have announced the formation of a partnership to facilitate educational opportunities in the U.S. and Greece. The scope of this cooperative initiative, as outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed on March 22, 2023, includes the development of opportunities for study abroad, civic engagement, and faculty and student exchange.

In a recent letter sent to 500 parishes across the US, the Archdiocese noted that the study-abroad options include both semester- or term-study and faculty-led programs on aspects of Greek culture, religion, and heritage. As University Executive Vice-President and CFO Dr. Leonidas Tzonis points out, the latter could take the form of small parish-based groups of college students, who would travel to the University’s Athens campus at Hellenic American College for a series of custom-designed credit-bearing courses. The University is also planning to offer the option of summer Advanced Placement courses for high-school seniors.

As an early step in establishing the partnership, the University’s Director of Business Programs and assistant professor Pete Tsolis delivered a workshop for high school and college students in the 46th annual Faith Dance Fellowship Festival, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona this past February. During the festival, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros announced the offer of ten scholarships to members of the Greek American community for study in Athens.

Image at the top: Pete Tsolis, Director of Business Programs with students at the FDF Festival.

Inside image: His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and University Executive Vice President and CFO Dr. Leonidas Tzonis.

Edla Priyadharshini (MBA ’23) is one of five MBA students doing a practicum this summer in the framework of the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) program. Edla is working under TechAlpha LLC for Delta Airlines.

The CPT is a formal internship, cooperative education, or other type of required placement or practicum that sponsoring employers offer through a cooperative agreement with the student’s university. The practicum is a component for students in the STEM-focused MBA program with a specialization in Management Information Systems.

Edla reports that her particular CPT is focused on learning new technologies and interacting with the senior development team of business analysts, SCRUM masters, and application developers. She says she see direct connections between what she studied in her degree program and her practicum: “The CPT has helped me gain real-time experience of concepts and technologies I’ve been learning during my MBA program. I’ve found the courses I took in Functional Skills Integration, HR Management and Strategy, and IT Management and Strategy very helpful in my practicum now.” In turn, she adds, “my experience now will help in my upcoming course on Systems Analysis and Design and certainly for my capstone project.”