AB Vassilopoulos, part of the Belgian Delhaize Group and the second largest supermarket chain in Greece, will generously support 20 PIERCE students participating in the 2014 Harvard Model Congress Europe (HMCE) Conference – being held in Madrid in March – as an act of conscious corporate citizenship.
"The future of Greece and of Greek businesses is dependent on competitiveness, which in turn demands talented and well-trained young people with fresh ideas and international exposure and experience,” says Kostas Macheras, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Southeastern Europe & Asia at Delhaize Group and Chief Executive Officer of AB Vassilopoulos.
“Participation in prestigious academic programs, such as the Harvard Congress Europe Conference, is a lifetime, impactful opportunity as the HCME is the most dynamic international model congress simulation available to high school students,” Macheras notes.
ACG President Dr. David Horner welcomed AB Vassilopoulos’ gracious donation aimed at helping students sharpen their debating and intellectual skills and forming lifetime friendships.
“Preparing our students for their future endeavors and to be competitive in the global marketplace is a high priority for ACG and PIERCE. Programs such as this one reinforce what we teach students in the classroom and we are grateful to AB Vassilopoulos for helping to make this opportunity available to students.”
AB is committed to giving back to society, which entrusts AB with their families' nutrition, and the company strongly believes that by incorporating social conceptions into its operation and strategy, it remains faithful to its values and vision.
PIERCE students will be taking part in the HMCE for the seventh year, and hope to add to the impressive roster of 12 PIERCE students who have been recognized with awards at past HCME conferences. There are no ‘winners’ at the HMCE but the chairperson awards certificates of distinction to those students who exhibit superior communicative skills, knowledge and research.
This year's HMCE theme is “Finding our Global Values and Priorities in the 21st Century" with topics ranging from immigration, gun control, food insecurity, and renewable energy to China-US relations, geopolitics, and cyber terrorism.
Students will be given roles representing either a specific congressman/woman in the US government or a country in international organizations. Once roles are assigned, they will research their topics based on the material provided by HMCE and then prepare a bill or a resolution that is adapted, amended, and then debated or discussed during the sessions.
“This role-playing conference fosters individual and group learning, while students make life-changing decisions that can truly become a turning point in their lives,” says Olga E. Julius, Principal of PIERCE.
Before attending the HMCE, students go through several months of training and work sessions with their professors and counsellors – some of whom are also alumni of the college offering their services.
“HMCE was definitely a unique experience for me and it sharpened my public speaking abilities in a very useful way,” says Stergios Dinopoulos (PIERCE ‘13), a student who participated in HMCE and is now a freshman at Harvard University on a full scholarship, adding “By putting me in a position where I had to support views that were not necessarily my own, I was taught to think of creative ways to structure an argument.”
Founded in 1987, the Harvard Model Congress Europe is an educational student organization conference run exclusively by undergraduates at Harvard College, open to all high school students in Europe who take place in a simulation of both US Government (Senate, House of Representatives, courts, Presidential Cabinet, etc.) and of International Organizations (WHO, European Union, G-8, etc.).
To learn about ways to create your own scholarship fund at ACG or to contribute to existing funds, please contact the Office of Development & Alumni Relations:
US: George E. Triantaris, Vice President – t. + 1.617.459.2829, [email protected]
GR: Mary-Irene Triantafillou, Executive Director, ACG Office of Development- t. 210.600.9800, ext.: 1239, [email protected]
February 2014
