10th International Summer University

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great honor and joy to welcome you to this highly significant event! The 10th International Summer School, hosted in Boston, strives to empower the Greek language and culture and highlight the contribution of the media to the preservation and dissemination of language and culture among the Greek diaspora.

Our language operates as the mirror of our culture, the bond that unites the past with the present and the future. Through language, we express our thoughts, shape our ideas, and convey our emotions.

Our culture is the realm where ideas flourish, the intellectual wealth that defines us as a society.

The Greek language and our culture are treasures inherited, offered to future generations, and dynamically evolving over time and space.

The media, by providing a bridge of communication and information that strengthens the emotional and intellectual connection with the homeland, promotes the connection of Greeks worldwide and contributes to preserving their identity. They link language to communication and serve as dynamic intermediaries between the present and the future, in Greece and abroad.

Through social networks and the media, Greeks and Greeks that live in the United States keep the Greek language alive, connect with their cultural heritage, and strengthen their emotional ties to Greece.

This is precisely what is highlighted in this Summer School, where an attempt is made to connect these three elements – language, culture, and media – promoting the understanding, preservation, and dissemination of the Greek language and culture among the Greek diaspora.

The Greek diaspora in America constitutes a complex cultural mosaic. Greek-Americans, incorporating elements with a strong Greek character into their daily lives, keep their tradition and culture alive, contributing to local cultural enrichment, the diversity of the global web, promoting international understanding, and mutual exchange of cultural elements.

The 10th International Summer University in Boston is a grand celebration of the 10 years of organizing this event, aiming to disseminate the Greek language within the diaspora by attracting interest in language and culture from the students of the second and third generations of Greeks in America.

I am confident that the work of the International Summer University will significantly contribute to this goal and promote the study and preservation of the Greek cultural heritage.

With these thoughts, allow me to thank and congratulate, for her tireless efforts, the Founder and Academic Coordinator of the Program, Professor of Linguistics and Greek Language at the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Ioannina, and Associate in Linguistics at the CHS – GR of Harvard University, Prof. Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis-Mallidis.

I wish the Laboratory for the Study of Social Issues, Media, and Education, of the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Ioannina, to continue its excellent work in promoting the Sciences of Language and Culture, highlighting the challenges of teaching the Greek language abroad, and shaping innovative educational and research actions that will strengthen the presence of the Greek language and culture in the Greek diaspora with the help of Greek and foreign media.

However, I believe that the most significant contribution of the Laboratory and, by extension, the University of Ioannina, is its contribution to the ongoing effort to keep the flame of love for Greece, language, and culture burning within the Greek community and among Greek-Americans. I hope that in every generation of Greek and Greek-American diaspora, the Greek language and culture will be spread like light, and every heart will continue to beat with a Greek rhythm.

I invite all of you to actively participate in this effort and collaborate in the dissemination of Greek education within and beyond borders.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing our joint efforts flourish.