More than 100 students and their families filled The University of Sydney’s (USYD) MacLaurin Hall on Thursday, March 30 for the annual awards ceremony by the School of Languages and Cultures.
The Sir Nicholas Laurantus Chair in Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies at USYD, Professor Vrasidas Karalis, kick-started the awards ceremony as emcee.
He thanked everyone in attendance and welcomed a number of special guests including the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis; Theophilos Premetis from the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation; and Gregory Vetsikas from the Modern Greek Foundation.
Professor Karalis then asked Uncle Michael West to give the traditional Welcome to Country, followed by a number of speeches from the Dean of the USYD Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Lisa Adkins, and the Head of the USYD School of Languages and Cultures, Professor Yixu Lu.
These speeches were complemented by a musical performance from mezzo-soprano Ella Orehek-Coddington and Jamie-Lee Xu on the piano.
An awards presentation was then held for students studying languages such as Greek, Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian and Japanese, among many others.
In French and Francophone Studies, Olivia Loukas was awarded both the ‘Ronald Horan Prize for French’ and ‘The French Embassy Prize III.’ In Italian Studies, Alexandra Zogopoulos received the ‘Rosina Tedeschi Memorial Prize for Italian Conversation.’
Professor Karalis presented awards to eight students from the USYD Department of Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies and they were:
- Modern Greek Foundation Award: Olympia Thea Nelson.
- Order of AHEPA Scholarship in Modern Greek: Anargyros Kallos.
- Robert William Henderson Memorial Prize: Aidan Limnios.
- The Modern Greek Studies Foundation Prize in Modern Greek Studies 2: Anna Chrysanthou.
- The Modern Greek Studies Foundation Prize in Modern Greek Studies 3: Christie Lucas.
- The Politis Family Scholarship in Modern Greek and/or Byzantine Studies: Anna Chrysanthou, Pandora Ktenas and Nelly Sempsis.
The Greek Herald spoke with Olympia Thea Nelson after she was awarded the ‘Modern Greek Foundation Award’ and she said she was proud to be recognised. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department studying “a history of the management of emotion in Greek Byzantine art.”
“Greek studies have always interested me because I have that personal relationship with it. I grew up with icons. The Greek culture has a very image rich history… so it’s personal and academic and the two meet pretty well together in the middle,” Ms Nelson said.
At the conclusion of the formal proceedings, refreshments were served as students mingled and congratulated each other on their achievements.
*All photos copyright: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
