The online conference titled “Athens College – Special Olympics: Coexistence – Diversity” that was co-organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Diversity and Psychico College Junior High School on Wednesday, April 21, concluded with great success.

Our School’s Elementary, Junior High and High School students attended informative speeches and watched audiovisual clips about the projects and values advocated by the Special Olympics organization.

Opening remarks and welcome speeches were given by the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation, Annika Papantoniou, Athens College President, Prof. Costas Synolakis ΄75, and the General Coordinator of the HAEF School Units, Christos Papanikolaou ΄85.

Plenary Speakers:

Andreas Potamianos, Founding Member, Honorary President of Special Olympics Hellas and Member of the HAEF Association 
“Historical Retrospective of the Founding of Special Olympics Hellas”

Melita Tsoutreli, Founding Member and Head of Public Relations for Special Olympics Hellas
“How an Idea Came to Fruition”

Ioannis Charalampakis ’14, Member of the Special Olympics Hellas Team (Korea 2011)
“Experiential Coexistence with Special Olympics Athletes”

Keynote Speakers:

Dionysios Kodellas, Honorary Ambassador, President of Special Olympics Hellas
“The Presence of Special Olympics in an Ever-Changing World”

Eleni Marinaki, Alexia Papageorgiou, Loukas Maroutsis, Manos Alevras, Psychico College Junior High School Students
Joint Action between Athens College and Special Olympics: “We Paint – We Coexist”

Anna Antonopoulou, Special Olympics Athlete

"Sports and Special Olympics"

The conference emerged from the action “We Paint – We Coexist” during which College students and Special Olympic athletes joined forces and painted, drawing inspiration from the Special Olympics Winter Games 2022, as well as the values of diversity and coexistence. The students’ paintings were displayed during the conference.

You can watch the online conference through the following link: