Την Τετάρτη 25 Ιουνίου 2014, στο Κέντρο Σύγχρονης Τέχνης του Κρατικού Μουσείου Σύγχρονης Τέχνης πραγματοποιήθηκε η απονομή των βραβείων στους νικητές και στους φιναλίστ του Διαγωνισμού Επιχειρηματικών Ιδεών «John & Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Awards». Τον Διαγωνισμό διοργάνωσε το Anatolia School of Business του American College of Thessaloniki (ACT), μέλους του Κολλεγίου Ανατόλια. Στη διοργάνωση κατατέθηκαν 141 ιδέες από 240 άτομα. Από αυτούς αναδείχθηκαν οι πέντε νικήτριες ομάδες στις οποίες απονεμήθηκαν  τα πέντε χρηματικά έπαθλα του Διαγωνισμού 4.000 ευρώ το καθένα και τα οποία προσέφερε ο ελληνικής καταγωγής επιχειρηματίας John Pappajohn.

Οι ομάδες που βραβεύτηκαν είναι:

Boneless - Ramps: Η ομάδα εξειδικεύεται σε επαγγελματικά προϊόντα finger boarding (ράμπες και πάρκα). Το finger boarding είναι μία μικρογραφία του skate boarding και παίζεται σαν επιτραπέζιο παιχνίδι.

Boom 2 Boom: Η ομάδα παρουσίασε μία πλατφόρμα λογισμικού mobile marketing που δίνει τη δυνατότητα στον πελάτη να κερδίσει εκπτώσεις παρουσιάζοντας στα social media το προϊόν που αγόρασε και στο κατάστημα – επιχείρηση να διαφημιστεί μέσω του συγκεκριμένου πελάτη.

ENODIA: Εφαρμογή που απευθύνεται σε ταξιδιώτες δίνοντάς τους τη δυνατότητα να οργανώσουν τις φωτογραφίες των διακοπών και των περιηγήσεών τους με εύκολο και κινηματογραφικό τρόπο.

HeySuccess: Site που απευθύνεται σε φοιτητές, αποφοίτους και νέους ανθρώπους που αναζητούν θέσεις για πρακτική άσκηση, συμμετοχή σε ερευνητικά συνέδρια και τη δυνατότητα να σπουδάσουν με υποτροφία στην Ελλάδα και το εξωτερικό.

ΜΑΙΑ: Η «Έξυπνη κούνια» είναι μία συσκευή που προσφέρει αυξημένη ασφάλεια στο βρέφος κατά τη διάρκεια του ύπνου.

Ομιλητές της τελετής βράβευσης ήταν οι: Δρ Στάμος Καραμούζης, Αντιπρόεδρος Ακαδημαϊκών Υποθέσεων του ACT, ο Δρ Φάνης Βάρβογλης, Διευθυντής του Anatolia School of Business του ACT, o Δρ Δημήτρης Κονταρίνης, Διευθυντής Επιχειρηματικότητας στο Anatolia School of Business και ο Ιωάννης Μπακούρος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Διαχείρισης Τεχνολογίας στο Τμήμα Μηχανικών Διαχείρισης Ενεργειακών Πόρων του Πανεπιστημίου Δυτικής Μακεδονίας.

On Wednesday, November 27th, Popi Asteriadou, Head of the News Department at TV100, the Municipal Television of Thessaloniki, gave a lecture entitled "Documenting an elusive presence: A film on Auschwictz-Birkenau," for the benefit of NUin, Study Abroad, and degree students at ACT. The event was co-organised by ACT professors Nikos Dimitriadis and Maria Kyriakidou under the auspices of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service.

By Nikos Dimitriadis

Following Ms. Asteriadou's introduction, we watched two documentaries on the Holocaust, one regarding the presence of Thessaloniki Jews in concentration camps during World War II, and the other about the so called "March of the Living 2013," an annual silent march in memory of the Holocaust victims. Later on, students read poems which were written in and about the concentration camps. The culmination of the event was the presence of Mr. Heinz Kounio, a survivor of the Holocaust, together with his daughter and grandson.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for all those present to speak with one of the few survivors of the city. Mr Kounio kindly answered all questions and gave the most worthy lesson to us all when he stated that, despite his most appalling experience, he is "still a human being."

One of the NUin students present at the event, Grace Sandick, shared her emotions after the event.

“Being Jewish I have grown up hearing stories, learning lessons and watching videos about the Holocaust. One might think that after all this time the power of what humans can do to other humans might have lessened. However, this could be no farther from the truth and the event in Bissell library only proved that more. The videos created by Popi Asteriadou showed her journey from gathering interviews and videos, and then to actually going to the concentration camp Auschwitz were moving beyond words. Although the stories and history were familiar to me from Hebrew school, members of my congregation and my grandparents’ friends, the videos still hit me in a new powerful way. However, nothing was more powerful than getting to meet Mr Heinz Kounio, a survivor of the Holocaust. Not only was this man impressive because of his survival in his early life, he was inspiring because of his life after the Holocaust. He never lost his faith, never regretted his heritage and is still - to quote him directly - 'a human being.' While his survival is incredible, his strength after his liberation from this atrocity was what struck me the most. He spoke for those who could not, he chose to bear that burden on shoulders that were already weak from life and yet he was the strongest 90 year old man I have ever met perhaps the strongest man I’ve ever met, period. I wish there were words I could use, speak, or type that could ever convey how incredibly powerful, moving, and inspiring the experience of meeting him was, but I think his own words, the ones he said to me as I left are the only thing that can hope to do it some small amount of justice, “לעולם לא עוד”… Never again...”

The American University, based in Washington D.C., in collaboration with ACT is developing a new pre-freshman summer program for the summer of 2014, which it hopes to expand in the future. A small group of 10 students will be arriving in Thessaloniki on June 27th and staying for three full weeks. These students will be chaperoned by their Philosophy professor, Dr. Andrea Tchemplik, from the Department of Philosophy and Religion at A.U. Dr. Tchemplik has been to Greece several times in the past, loves its history and culture and is eager to co-teach a course in collaboration with ACT faculty. The students will be visiting Vergina, Mount Olympus, Delphi and Athens. They will also be exploring the city of Thessaloniki and its historical sites.

On Monday the 12th of May, 2014 the lecture “Israel's Miracle in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups” took place at the Audio Visual room in the New Building at ACT campus. The two speakers Mr. Noam Band, CEO of Algomizer Ltd., and Ms. Ayla Matalon, Executive Director of the MIT Enterprise Forum, spoke to the audience about entrepreneurship in Israel sharing personal experiences. The collaborating partners of the event were the Embassy of Israel in Greece and the Navarino Network.  The whole event was recorded by Navarino Network.  The event was attended by an audience of 60, comprising students and entrepreneurs.  Mr. Lazaros Sefiha the Vice President of the Board of the Israeli Community of Thessaloniki was also present.

In September 2013, for the second year in a row, ACT held the Scholarship Competition in the Bissell Library by providing 3 full scholarships for the academic year 2013-2014 (2 scholarships for undergraduate and 1 for MBA studies).  In this way, ACT provides an educational opportunity for exceptional students who want to study at ACT and pursue a globally recognized degree which is both US and EU validated. The test was an aptitude test, not a knowledge test, and therefore, no special preparation was required.  It assessed the students’ abilitiy to do well in pursuing a degree at ACT. More than 60 candidates participated in the competition.

The purpose of the Scholarship Competition is to facilitate highly qualified youth to attend the American College of Thessaloniki and study and flourish in an international and academically demanding environment.  The National Bank of Greece provided one of the MBA scholarships.

The winners of the Scholarship Competition for the undergraduate studies were Avramides Spyridon and Koltsakli Anastasia and for MBA studies were Romanopoulou Evangelia and Rolilides Dimitris. Because of the fact that both of them reached the same highest score, ACT tried to raise the funds and gave to both of them scholarship. In the same scholarship competition, another two scholarships were given only to Anatolia candidates. The winners were Chatzigiannopoulos Dimitris and Mylonas George.

The Dukakis Center will celebrate fifteen years of public service initiatives during the spring 2014 semester. Several events are planned, including the annual Diplomatic Academy, three round tables on various topics, a conference on threats to democracy in the EU, and residencies on campus by Andreas Akaras and Alan Cafruny (Hamilton College). Students at ACT, IB, and Anatolia will have opportunities to undertake long- and short term internships throughout the semester.

The Dukakis Center again hosted a series of activities of the highest quality during the fall 2013 semester for the benefit of the larger Anatolia community.

On November 27 journalist Popi Asteriadou of TV100 shared a documentary she produced on the Holocaust in Greece (see accompanying article). Holocaust survivor Heinz Kounio and members of his family were special guests.

Thanks to the timely intervention of Eleni Godi, Coordinator of English at ACT, on December 9 ACT hosted Athens-based photographer Dimitris Bouras ACT alumnus '94, who shared photographs from his series "Making the Victim the Perpetrator".

Other speakers in the Dukakis seminar series included journalist Klearchos Tsaousidis, Leon Saltiel of the Geneva-based United Nations Watch, and Periklis Kortsaris, Senior Protection Officer and Officer in Charge of UNHCR Mogadishu, Somalia. The ACT Young diplomats attended several events at City Hall during the fall, and planted trees on the ACT campus in December.

During the fall the Dukakis Center hosted Francesca Kareivis, a senior in Public Service at Rutgers-Newark, for a formal semester-long internship on the meaning of public service in the current Greek context. Ms Kareivis conducted a research project which led her to interview key public figures in Thessaloniki. She also staged a debate on public service in Greece and the US, featuring Greek and American students.

Thessaloniki-based photographer Chryssa Nikoleri hosted a series of creativity workshops in the context of the sophomore honors program. Ms Nikoleri will oversee a student exhibition of photographs of public service activities, to be staged in May 2014.

In November 2013 the Dukakis Center hosted Washington, DC-based civil rights lawyer Andeas Akaras as Dukakis Fellow and Professor of Practice. Mr Akaras engaged  in outreach during his two-week residency and was the featured speaker at a round table discussion on innovation and the Greek crisis. The Dukakis Center will again host Mr Akaras for a return visit in the spring.

Several ACT faculty in the field of International Relations attached to the Dukakis Center published books during the fall 2013 semester. Titles include Dr. Maria Kyriakidou, Female Beauty in Art: History, Feminism, Women Artists (Cambridge Scholars); Dr. Filip Proedrou, Ανάπτυξη και Ευημερία στον 21ο αιώνα: Η προσέγγιση των οικολογικών οικονομικών και η περίπτωση της Ελλάδας (IWrite); and Dukakis Center Director David Wisner, Still at Aulis: Essays on Crisis and Revolution in Greece and the Eurozone (available in Kindle ebook format at Amazon.com). 

In the first week of December 2013, the Anatolia School of Business devoted organized the “Creativity Week” which was a series of seminar events and workshops on the topic of creativity that took place in Thessaloniki and Athens.

On December 2, 2013, the week began with the workshop «Stretching Creativity to its Limits: Strategies to enhance Creativity».  Dr. Mario Varvoglis, Creativity Catalyst and trainer in innovative thinking, was the lecturer. The same workshop also was held in Thessaloniki, the last day of the “Creativity Week” (December 7, 2013).  This seminar was a one-day break from "business as usual".  It was an opportunity to think about thinking.  It focused on boosting innovation potential, structuring methods to generate, develop and evaluate new ideas and solutions and finally it focused on how to concretely integrate out of the box thinking in a day-to-day business environment.  The participants of the workshop, both in Athens and in Thessaloniki, were mainly business leaders, coaches and consultants and received the certificate of participation.

On Tuesday the 3^rd of December 2013, the event «Unzipping Creativity: The secrets of creativity revealed in a way you have never heard before » took place at the Helexpo- Ioannis Vellidis Congress Center with over 300 participants.  Dr. Mario Varvoglis, George Adamantides and Rebecca Salmona, Creative Director and Account Director, respectively, of Bold Ogilvy & Mather advertising company and Akis Sakellariou, the famous actor, were the lecturers of the event.  The purpose of the event was a practical approach to creativity, from the different viewpoints of a trainer, a creative team and an artist.  The coordinator of the event was Dr. Fanis Varvoglis, Chair of the Anatolia School of Business. The collaborating partners of the event were the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and the student-run organization AIESEC, supported by Biennale of Contemporary Art.  Media sponsors were TV 100 and FM 100. 

On the same afternoon (Tuesday the 3^rd of December 2013), at the Anatolia School of Business Dr. Fanis Varvoglis held an “open class” that hosted the advertising company Bold Ogilvy & Mather. 

On Wednesday the 4^th of December 2013, at the Stavros Niarchos Teleconference Center in Bissell Library at ACT, Dr. Kourkoumelis held a “Creativity Seminar for IB Students”.

 Finally, on Thursday the 5^th of December 2013, Dr. Mario Varvoglis spoke to the students of ACT on the event «Untangling Creativity ON CAMPUS: The secrets of creativity revealed in a way you have never heard before! » which took place in the Bissell Library at ACT.  The event had an interactive nature and students had the chance to meet creativity in depth.

 "Getting up early for my teaching internship and being at my best gave me a sense of responsibility... Teaching is my calling and I feel I should be in a classroom all the time, doing something related to that...My family does not have a lot of money. My parent always valued education. I would not be here if I didn't have great teachers pushing me and encouraging me... My favorite part in volunteering was working one on one with Konstantinos. He becomes very distracted in class and benefits from individual attention. He reminds me of myself when I was young and I wasn’t focusing…Teaching math in this environment took me into a real situation, which I liked. I wanted to expand and I did get the opportunity to do that…”

Martin Gamboa, one of the 184 U.S. students studying at ACT during the Fall 2013 term, spent three hours a week in the west school district of Thessaloniki, where he volunteered as a teacher's assistant in a special education class at the elementary level. Martin is pursuing a degree in Secondary School Education at Boston College. Teachers and school kids in the 3^rd Public Elementary School of Stavroupoli will remember him for teaching them breakdancing figures and basketball turns during recess and most impressively for jumping over the head of one of their teachers who was standing upright. Spyros, the cab driver that often drove Martin and Anna Cho- also from B.C., to their service site, remembers him for his incredible ability to pick up the language and converse comfortably in Greek in his short three month stay.

Ανακοίνωση Διαγωνισμού Επιχειρηματικών Ιδεών

του Anatolia School of Business

Τετάρτη 12 Μαρτίου 2014, 18:30

Δημαρχείο Θεσσαλονίκης, Αίθουσα Πολλαπλών Χρήσεων

Ο Διαγωνισμός Επιχειρηματικών Ιδεών «John & Mary Pappajohn Plan Award» που διοργανώνει το Anatolia School of Business τουAmerican College of Thessaloniki (ACT) βρίσκεται στο επίκεντρο της εκδήλωσης «Επιχειρηματικά Μονοπάτια για Όλους!» η οποία θα πραγματοποιηθεί την Τετάρτη 12 Μαρτίου 2014 στο Δημαρχείο Θεσσαλονίκης.

Ο Διαγωνισμός απευθύνεται σε όσους ενδιαφέρονται να ασχοληθούν με την επιχειρηματικότητα, σε εκείνους που κάνουν ήδη τα πρώτα τους βήματα στον χώρο, σε εκείνους που δεν το έχουν τολμήσει ακόμη ωστόσο θεωρούν ότι το μέλλον τους είναι το επιχειρείν. Η πρώτη φάση του θα διεξαχθεί την 1η Απριλίου 2014 και σε αυτήν οι ενδιαφερόμενοι θα καταθέσουν τις ιδέες τους, ενώ στη συνέχεια θα διεκδικήσουν το ποσό των 20.000 ευρώ που θα μοιραστούν στα 5 καλύτερα επιχειρηματικά σχέδια. Οι νικητές/τριες θα μπορούν να εκπαιδευθούν για ένα μήνα και στη συνέχεια να έχουν για έναν χρόνο την υποστήριξη του Κέντρου Επιχειρηματικότητας του Anatolia School of Business δωρεάν.

Την παρουσίαση του Διαγωνισμού, θα ακολουθήσει συζήτηση με startupers οι οποίοι θα μοιραστούν εμπειρίες από την έως τώρα επιχειρηματική πορεία τους. Η βραδιά θα ολοκληρωθεί με το ντοκιμαντέρ «The Startup Kids» σε πρώτη πανελλήνια προβολή.

Την παρουσίαση και τον συντονισμό της συζήτησης θα κάνει ο Δρ Φάνης Βάρβογλης, Διευθυντής του Anatolia School of Business.

Η εκδήλωση «Επιχειρηματικά Μονοπάτια για Όλους!» έχει τεθεί υπό την αιγίδα του Δήμου Θεσσαλονίκης και πραγματοποιείται με την υποστήριξη των: Συνδέσμου Βιομηχανιών Βορείου Ελλάδος, Deloitte, Open Coffee Club Greece, Odyssey Fund, AIESEC, VentureGarden.

Χορηγοί επικοινωνίας: TV 100, FM 100, Cosmoradio, Plus Radio και 97, 1 MORE

Πληροφορίες: 2310 398 347, κ. Μαριλίζα Κυρτσίδου

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