Athens Fellowship Summer 2008

 

Beyond the exciting opportunity it provides to students hoping to get an expert’s in-depth view of today’s Greece, the Athens Fellowship is a unique leadership program meant to give outstanding university students a chance to see for themselves just how modern leaders work at the highest levels of business and government — and the challenges presented by long days of intensive, fast-paced briefings on a constantly changing array of topics, developing stories, and even crises.

 

The highlights below are meant to provide a flavor of the Summer 2008 Athens Fellowship program — as well as a glimpse of some of the fascinating leaders and experts, ranging from ship-owners to government ministers, with whom this year’s Athens Fellows met with over the course of their Fellowship.

 

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A Day in the Life of an

Athens Fellow

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 20: Today was a perfect example of what makes the Athens Fellowship so exciting. What a pleasure to rise with the sun in Athens — home to the Parthenon, the Pnyx, and the premiere international leadership program for outstanding U.S. undergraduate and graduate students which focuses on Greece... otherwise known as the Athens Fellowship.

 

BREAKFAST INTERVIEW

To start the day, a journalist from the Katherimini newspaper joined us for breakfast off the lobby of our five-star hotel overlooking the lovely Pedion Areos Park. One by one, as the Fellows arrived for breakfast (that wonderful Greek yoghurt and honey), they joined in as Margarita Pournara managed to interview every Athens Fellow, peppering them with questions about their backgrounds, their thoughts on Greece, their families back home and what they were going to be taking back to the U.S. from their experience. It was fun to watch them field this veteran journalist’s questions, make her laugh, and even get her to answer their questions!

 

A CHANGE IN SCHEDULE

By 9:45, the Fellows’ pressing schedule meant it was time wrap up the interview — but not before Ms. Pournara joined the Fellows for a group picture. Once we were back on our brave little mini-bus, the lovely and hard-working Alexandra Livadas from the government’s General Secretariat broke the news — she and her office had finally managed to secure a long-shot of a request: a still-unconfirmed meeting we had warned the Fellows may not happen.

 

MEETING HIS EMINENCE

So, instead of the 10:00 meeting with the curator of the National Museum of Archeology, off we went down to the Plaka and pulled up to the Cathedral, where the Fellows got off the bus, and walked up the street behind the Cathedral, past store after store selling icons and candlesticks alongside elaborately carved wooden fonts and pulpits, through a gate and up the steps of white-washed building where the Athens Fellows would meet His Eminence, Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece.

 

After being offered comfortable chairs and refreshments, the Fellows had already calmed down (a little) by the time His Eminence came in to greet them individually. After a brief introduction from Leon, each Fellow had a chance to introduce themselves, and say a little about their experience in Greece, their backgrounds and their families. Archbishop Ieronymos spoke to them at some length about the importance of reaching out to the next generation, concluding with an expressed hope of working with the Next Generation Initiative to bring outstanding students like the Athens Fellows together with students from Greece who have similar interests. Before leaving, His Eminence said goodbye individually to each Fellow, leaving each student with a parting gift.

 

THE HELLENIC PARLIAMENT

An amazed group of students walked back to the Cathedral and climbed aboard their bus for a short ride up the hill to their next meeting — in the former royal palace above Syntagma Square which is home today to the Hellenic Parliament. Driving past the much-photographed Evzones which stand guard there, the Athens Fellows were whisked through gates and up steps flanked by television cameras, as though they were visiting foreign dignitaries.

 

Inside, around a large conference table complete with headsets and microphones, the Fellows were treated to a simultaneous translation of their meeting with Mrs. Margarita Togia, Director of International Relations for the Hellenic Parliament and Mrs. Nayea Miliou, Director of Communications for the Hellenic Parliament. Apologizing for the absence of the Speaker of the Parliament, who was at that moment on the floor of the Parliament which was then meeting in session, Ms. Togia gave a brief description of how legislation is passed in Parliament, and then asked the Fellows to talk about themselves and their experiences on the Athens Fellowship.

 

Following some questions from the Fellows on a number of issues, including an inquiry about the number of women in Parliament, and another about the difficulties presented by corruption and special interests (no shrinking violets, these Athens Fellows), Ms. Togia concluded by offering to host future Fellows in a joint effort with the Parliament. Good work, Athens Fellows!

 

Carrying more presents back to the bus, the Fellows were glad to learn that the change in schedule left enough time for lunch back at the hotel, which later proved to be particularly delicious (arni giouvetsi). But first...

 

AN ANCIENT WONDER

...there was just enough time for the previously scheduled visit with Mary Zafeiropoulou, curator of antiquities in the Bronze Collection of the National Archeological Museum, who was waiting to take the Fellows for a very special visit to a remarkable new item in the Museum’s collection. Meeting us in the lobby, Ms. Zafeiropoulou escorted the Fellows through a twisting series of rooms to a small, dimly-lit gallery, which was quickly closed off to other museum-goers for a private presentation by Ms. Zafeiropoulou of a subject we learned was close to her heart.

 

In the middle of the gallery, housed in a slim glass case, was an intriguing display of three ancient-looking fragments covered in a deep green patina, alongside a small upright brass case, with openings on the sides which revealed the gears and wheels inside, matching the concentric circles, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Greek letters etched on the case’s exterior housing.

 

...FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA...

With the Fellows huddled around her, Ms. Zafeiropoulou unfolded the story of how these fragments were discovered on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea amongst the remains of an ancient shipwreck off the island of Antikythera near Crete.

Outlining the discovery, subsequent preservation, research and testing by scholars from several fields into the ancient artifact, Prof. Zafeiropoulo brought the story home by describing her personal connection to the curious fragments through her role in identifying other fragments from the artifact which had been found in the shipwreck. Matching these with the known pieces — and putting it all together with research by historians and scientists — her research helped reveal the true nature of the small object in the case before the Fellows in the closed gallery: the world’s first computer.

 

...THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM:

Now known as the Antikythera mechanism this elaborate device was likened by Ms. Zafeiropoulou to a modern GPS (global positioning system) — except that it was conceived and built by ancient Greeks in the 2nd century B.C. Scientists believe this device was used to accurately determine the movements of the moon and planets, predict eclipses, and perform as a reliable calendar, and possibly much more. To back up her research, Ms. Zafeiropoulou offered evidence from ancient literary sources to show that a device much like this was, in fact, seen and described by known historical figures.

 

Leaving the Antikythera mechanism behind, our curator/guide/scholar breezed through the museum’s collection of ancient sculptures to show the Fellows other objects, including gigantic statues, recovered from the same wreck.

 

THE GENIUS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Saying goodbye, we thanked Ms. Zafeiropoulou for coming in on her day off to offer our Fellows an amazing encounter with the genius of the ancient world – an opportunity which very, very few people in the world have ever had.

 

It was clear by the end of our visit that one day, when the research is complete and the exhibit is expanded, the Antikythera mechanism will be a world-famous relic, connecting the past to the future, with millions of visitors coming to the museum to catch a glimpse of it.

 

A short walk through modern Athens back to the hotel gave the Fellows something to really think about: what if this mechanism and the knowledge it represented had not been lost? What kind of progress would have been made over the course of the subsequent two thousand years?

 

THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE...

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time over lunch to digest the full implications of these questions, as the Athens Fellows regrouped for the final, formal destination of the day: a 4:30 meeting at the Ministry of Economy & Finance just below Syntagma Square.

 

Up on the seventh floor in a room ringed with computers, the Fellows were greeted by a smiling Professor Plutarchos Sakellaris who serves as the chairman of the government’s Council of Economic Advisors — which is, he explained is very much the equivalent of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors in the U.S.

 

An amiable former professor from the University of Maryland, Prof. Sakellaris started off by leaning back and loosening his necktie, with a confession that this would be the fun time in his day, and a pleasant reminder of his university days. After expressing a little envy of the students who were experiencing the opportunities the Athens Fellowship was providing the students sitting down with him, he launched into a quick run-down of his outlook on the global economy, with a look at its impact on the EU and Greece in particular.

 

...AND A CANDID VIEW FROM THE TOP

After going around the room to have each Fellow the chance to introduce themselves and their academic interests, Prof. Sakellaris’ provided the Fellows his very candid, off-the-record views on everything from the current administration’s (successful) track record on turning around the Greek economy, the financial implications of its integration with the EU, and its hopes for further progress on privatization, to his personal take on his friend and colleague Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve.

 

His offer to answer any question elicited some penetrating inquiries from the Fellows regarding anticipated levels of private investment, the government’s efforts concerning fiscal discipline and its targets for GDP and savings, the continuing effects of the credit crisis on the global economy and the possible introduction and regulation of financial instruments such as derivatives and mortgage-backed securities in the Greek market... WHEW!

 

An hour and a half later, the Fellows were lining up to shake his hand and thank him for giving them his time, and finally joining him for a quick good-bye picture. Walking down the halls, one could tell that, as we detected at the Parliament and at the other ministries, it is not exactly common to see students enjoying such a high level of entrée in their offices, much less seeing such a sharp-looking group of students being escorted to the door by a high-level official.

 

This is a new Greece, and boy, have our Fellows had a chance to see it for themselves — in a remarkably personal and yet intellectually challenging and thought-provoking way.

 

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More highlights from the

2008 Athens Fellowship Blog

 

FROM BRIEFINGS in WASHINGTON...

After a busy series of preliminary briefings in Washington, DC at the Greek Embassy with Amb. Alexandros Mallias, and at the Cypriot Embassy with Amb. Andreas Kakouris, as well as with the Greek Desk officers at the U.S. State Department and with Southeastern Europe expert John Sitilides from the Woodrow Wilson Center — and dinner at the home of one of our board members, former Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Spyridon Pope — the Athens Fellows left for Athens on Saturday, June 14, meeting up in Atlanta with Next Generation Initiative board member Dr. Jim Dimitriou and some students from the first session of his Journey to Greece, and flying together into Athens on Sunday morning.

 

...TO DINNER IN THE PLAKA...

Already fast friends after the flight to Athens, our group — which includes students from Harvard, Yale and Brown Universities, Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as from the University of Florida, New York University, MIT and Stanford — was soon off to Syntagma Square and dinner together outdoors in the Plaka on a balmy Sunday evening, and a brief introduction to Modern Greek history and the rule of the junta by Dr. Jim Dimitriou, underlined by an impromptu visit to a particular spot in the Plaka where he related a personal story of how some young Greek Americans had once infamously defied the junta and its ban on playing the music of Mikos Theodorakis — at some risk to the life and limb of one Leon Stavrou...

 

...EXPLORING THE AEGEAN...

The Athens Fellows woke up very early this morning and were up and out at 7am (right on the button and no complaints!) for a delightful day-long island excursion to Poros, Hydra and Aegina.

 

Blue skies, beautiful weather, the wine-dark sea — what’s not to love? The Athens Fellows had a fantastic day exploring the towns where they landed, taking in the sun, relaxing on the beach— and were pretty exhausted by the time they got back to the hotel for a 9pm dinner-meeting, where we discussed tomorrow’s big schedule at the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of State, among other briefings.

 

They are all now over any jet lag and are ready to go for the rest of their very intensive week. In the meantime, they have quickly bonded as a group and made friends for life in a very short time.

 

...AND MORE INTENSIVE BRIEFINGS:

2oth CENTURY GREEK HISTORY

After a quick breakfast, the Athens Fellows boarded their bus to a very special briefing from the Next Generation Initiative’s own board member Prof. Theodore Couloumbis of the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy, a major Athens think tank known here by its acronym, ELIAMEP.

 

A former professor at American University, Prof. Couloumbis’ very engaging presentation gave the Athens Fellows an outstanding overview of recent Greek history and the current state of affairs from his unique, but widely-respected perspective. The discussion ranged from Kafka to the junta, from the ‘clash of civilizations’ to the crisis in higher education in Greece, and from the fall of the Soviet Union to the rise of the European Union — all in a quick-paced two hours!

 

GREECE’S OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN...

A good back-and-forth with Prof. Couloumbis during the questions and answers which ended his briefing prepared the students for their next big assignment after a hurried lunch: meeting with the Greek government’s official spokesman (the equivalent of the White House and all Cabinet press secretaries all rolled into one), Minister of State Theodore Roussopoulos, a close advisor to the Prime Minister and a figure familiar to every television viewer in Greece.

 

Having just walked in from a Cabinet meeting, the minister treated us to a very candid, up-to-the-minute roundup of the top issues facing the country. Sitting down with Minister Roussopoulos at a conference table in a war room-like briefing area down the hall from his office, he then asked the Athens Fellows to go around the table and introduce themselves one by one, inviting them each to put a specific question to him.

 

The Fellows passed this acid test with some excellent questions (which they asked in both Greek and English), ranging from the government’s response to rising fuel prices and its progress toward developing alternative energy sources, to the government’s treatment of Albanian immigrants and the current administration’s outlook on the future of the Patriarchate in Istanbul.

 

...IN THE MIDDLE OF A SMALL CRISIS

An amazing chance to watch a top government spokesman handle some tough questions — including one on the fallout this week from the recent Irish referendum which failed to win a majority on re-organizing the EU’s administration, thus blocking the EU’s plans for the future and throwing every foreign ministry in the EU into a bit of a tizzy (and creating a sudden rift within the leadership of Greece’s main opposition party).

 

Part of that fallout was the sudden departure today of Foreign Minister Bakoyannis for Brussels, and the last-minute cancellation of that day’s meeting at the Foreign Ministry. While our hosts with the Secretariat General scrambled to re-arrange the Fellows’ schedule, Minister Roussopoulos took the Athens Fellows to visit his private office, followed by a good-bye group photo on his terrace looking up at the Acropolis...

 

DINNER W/ THE SECRETARY GENERAL

...which is how we ended up our day, at a delightful Welcome Dinner hosted by Secretary General Panos Livadas and the Secretariat’s Director for Public Relations Achilles Paparsenos, our official hosts here in Athens, on a roof-top terrace looking up at a brilliantly-lit Parthenon, with a gentle breeze and a full moon accompanying a three-hour, four-course dinner at an excellent restaurant — a particularly rewarding way for the Athens Fellows to end their whirlwind day!

 

Thank you to all who helped send us such great students. They are a great group and are truly outstanding representatives of the next generation — which the Greek government got to see for themselves today — and they are having a terrific time they will never forget.

 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18

Today was another fast-paced, fact-packed series of master classes offering the Fellows a fascinating look at today’s Greece — from a wide range of points of view. The short version of the day? It was an amazing, fully-fledged, briefing-packed day full of dizzying facts and figures, but these Fellows rose to the occasion! The long version...

 

THE EDUCATION CRISIS

By breakfast time our mini-bus was already waiting to whisk us across town to our 9:00 a.m. appointment at the brand-new, white-marble covered Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs with Deputy Minister Spyros Taliadouros.

 

After describing the challenges to Greece’s system of higher education (constitutional requirements that effectively limit innovation and competition) as well as the strengths (Greece has the highest proportion in the EU of high school graduates going on to university) which are shaping Greece’s progress toward becoming the center of education in Southeastern Europe, Minister Taliadouros then took on questions from the Fellows about the effect of EU reforms and entrance exams, ownership of intellectual property derived from university-funded research, and practices regarding the honoring of foreign degrees — before he was off to Parliament to introduce a new bill expanding the availability of Greek university programs in English and other languages.

 

THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

Next stop: a visit to the new high-tech Athens Stock Exchange, and a briefing from the exchange’s Director of Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Simos Spyrou. Following a crash course on how a modern stock exchange works, and the stellar record of the Athens Exchange in particular, Mr. Spyrou fielded the Athens Fellows’ questions on his outlook on the exchange’s future with regard to the recent credit crisis, the trading of derivatives, the development of local hedge funds and investment banks in Greece — and the possibilities of consolidation among regional and other European exchanges.

 

LUNCH WITH A GREEK SHIP-OWNER

As a perfect followup to the exchange’s recent initiative to begin listing shipping companies, the Fellows left for a quick tour of the headquarters of the Tsakos Group of shipping companies — along with a visit to their operations center and a short briefing by a captain of the logistics of tracking 50+ tankers around the world 24 hours a day — followed by lunch in the corporate boardroom as guests of Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) President & CEO Nikolas Tsakos. An informative as well as highly entertaining briefing on Greek dominance of world shipping by TEN’s COO George Saroglu elicited some intense questions from the Fellows that revealed a sudden, growing interest in the shipping industry — especially the factoid about tankers that cost $18,000 a day to operate, but which earn $200,000 a day!

 

MASTER CLASS on ‘BRANDING’ GREECE

Not to be outdone, the government’s General Secretary of Information Panos Livadas asked the Athens Fellows back to the “war-room” at his Secretariat for an in-depth look at how Greece is branding itself for the 21st century. This master class on marketing included an overview of a look at how the world viewed Greece, before and after the wildly successful 2004 Olympics in Athens — and a fascinating sneak preview at how Greece intends to position itself as a global competitor in the 21st century. A lively question and answer session with the General Secretary ranged from a spirited back-and-forth about Greek views of the US compared to Greek Americans’ views of Greece — and in comparison to Greece’s status as a global power in shipping, and its future as a major European power in energy, and a regional leader in investment and finance.

 

MODERN MEDIA IN GREECE

Last, but by no means least, the Athens Fellow met with Nikos Konstandaras the Managing Editor of Greece’s second oldest newspaper, the fiercely independent “Kathimerini” just as it was preparing to send tomorrow’s edition to press. His frank discussion of the never-ending struggle for profitability and the seductions of power that endanger press freedom and strong reporting, which swept from circulation figures, celebrity scandals and the battle of internet versus print, to Greek views on the upcoming U.S. elections — all underlined the vital importance of newspapers to an informed public, here in the birthplace of democracy as much as anywhere else.

 

If you’re tired just reading this, think about our Fellows. (And, in fact, they were exhausted, and asked for us to arrange an early dinner as soon as we returned to the hotel — with no stopping to take off their ties or take off their high heels.)

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 19

 

A PRIVATE TOUR OF THE ACROPOLIS...

With a last-minute cancellation in the afternoon schedule, the Athens Fellows learn there may be a brief escpape to the beach — but first they had to get through the morning, which began with a 7:30 a.m. departure for the Acropolis, and a special guided tour/mini-course in Athenian history. Winding their way to the top through a grove of olive trees, and walking on marble stepping stones shiny from the passage of 2,500 years, the Athens Fellows climbed as did the ancients, to the magnificent ruins of the Parthenon where they would hear of the greatness of Athens and the citizens who built it.

 

And it was particularly good not to be formally dressed as they have been for ministerial meetings.

 

...AND THE NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

From the ruins of the Acropolis, the Athens Fellows descended down the same steps, now crowded with tourists, and went straight for a private tour of the brand-new Acropolis Museum — so new, in fact, that the exhibits are not yet open. Walking across the plate glass floors which reveal the ancient ruins underneath the building, the Fellows were shown a scale model of how the hundreds of ancient sculptures and fragments now stacked in crates would be displayed in the museum’s light-filled, towering galleries.

 

Meeting Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis (president of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum and professor of archeology), on the museum’s marble terrace with a stunning view of the Acropolis, the Fellows walked up to the top floor where he pointed out how all the existing elements of the frieze which once wrapped around the top of the Parthenon will once again be viewed, at the same size, intact and in sequence, as it was originally constructed — exactly paralleling the original seen on the hill right outside the windows of the museum.

 

This amazing museum expects to welcome 2 million visitors a year. It was quite a treat to get this behind-the-scenes, sneak preview of what will soon be a major destination for visitors and scholars.

 

From this modern marvel (these words simply do not do this museum justice), the Fellows made a quick return to the hotel for sunscreen, and took off their beach break...

 

The AGORA, the STOA & the KAFENION...

Back in their rooms safe and sound at 7pm, the Athens Fellows gave a break to their exhausted bus driver — who had to negotiate a demonstration downtown over rising fuel prices (that’s right — imagine $8 a gallon!) — and did their part in the fight against global warming and took public transportation down to the Plaka / Monasteraki area for a 9:30 dinner at a traditional “kafenion”-style restaurant (down the street from Athens’ ancient agora and directly across the street from the famous stoa or porch which gave birth to stoicism).

 

...AND DINNER WITH A CEO

Joining us for a relaxed and informal discussion over horiatiki, keftedes, octopode, souvlaki, coffee and karadopita was Aris Papadopoulos, a Harvard and MIT-trained 48 year-old CEO of the billion-dollar U.S. subsidiary of one of Greece’s largest companies, Titan Cement. An enthusiastic founding member and executive parter of the Next Generation Initiative, Aris was delighted to join us in the Plaka and finally meet some of the students he has been hearing about so much.

 

As the convivial conversation rose and fell with the noise and laughter resounding from the ancient stone walls of the kafenion, questions concerning projections with regard to global levels of infrastructure investment, and construction trends in Southeastern Europe went around the table as Aris talked to each student — along with a lively conversation about the upcoming U.S. elections (Greeks are very interested), and deeply satisfying insights regarding certain elements common to cement production as well as beach escapes, namely water and sand.

 

Needless to say, Mr. Papadopoulos was impressed with the Fellows and the schedule they are keeping here. Speaking of which, tomorrow is another very big day...

 

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About the Athens Fellowship

 

The Initiative welcomes applications from all outstanding undergraduate and graduate university students of Hellenic descent, especially those Greek American university students who have previously had only fairly limited opportunities to spend much time in Greece. This invitation is particularly extended — but not limited — to those highly-qualified undergraduate students in the fields of political science, economics, finance, international relations, journalism and related fields.

 

The 2009 Call for Applications for next year’s Athens Fellowship will go out early next year. Students who wish to be among the first to receive the Call for Applications should write to athensfellowship@hellenext.org and indicate their interest in recieving further information about this program.

 

To stay informed regarding all the Next Generation Initiative’s programs, students can register as a Next Generation student using our student online registration form. Registration as a Next Generation Student is FREE.