Heritage Greece Program at ACG

2026 is the year for new adventures, join us and explore your Greek heritage!

Apply now: link in bio

This year Heritage Greece® takes a trip to Tinos island ! 🏝️

Don’t miss out on this incredible adventure.

Join us for the 2025 Heritage Greece summer program!

Early Bird Application End: February 2nd
Regular Application End: March 30th

Dates:
Session A: June 7-22, 2025
Session B: July 5-20, 2025

https://www.acg.edu/admissions/study-abroad/heritage-greece/

The 2025 Applications are now live!

Apply now to be part of this amazing experience.

-program

It’s here Heritage Greece is accepting applications for 2025!

Join us this summer and create unforgettable memories in Greece.

Click the link in our bio and find out more!

This brings us to the final day, full of hugs and tearful goodbyes. 👋

For two weeks, we experienced Greece like never before.
We met people who gave us insights into Greek culture and identity, as well as teachers who tried to familiarize us with everyday Greek discourse. We saw, touched, smelled, and tasted all the threads of history and culture that bind us all, no matter how far away we are, to this particular small part of the globe.

We left wiser, fuller, and with a greater yearning to return. 🧿🇬🇷

Farewell, and see you in 2025!

The last full day of the program was a celebration in blue: island-hopping in the Saronic Gulf! 🚢🏝

Sailing from Piraeus down the coast of the Peloponnese, our first port of call was the island of Hydra (Ύδρα). Hydra has a rich history and is a favorite haunt of artists and intellectuals to this day. It boasts a rich naval tradition that started even before the Greek Revolution, and its cosmopolitan island ambiance attracts a rarified sort of crowd from Greece and abroad every year. Leonard Cohen found love and inspiration here, and global stars like Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso, and Sophia Loren succumbed to the island's legendary beauty.

Next was Poros, a small island separated by just 100 yards of seawater from mainland Peloponnese. Popular poets and prose writers, including Georgios Seferis, Ioulia Dragoumi, and the American writer Henry Miller, have praised Poros, known as the greenest island in the Argosaronic island complex, for its beauty. Pinewoods cover the island’s hills and go all the way to its sandy beaches. Poros' clock tower is the island's landmark, located on the hilltop and surrounded by prickly pear and pine trees. This location offers a stunning view of the harbor and Peloponnese shores.

Last but not least, Aegina. The island is one of the most popular tourist destinations because it is the nearest major island to the capital, as it is only 16.5 nautical miles from Piraeus' port. In fact, Aegina was once the capital of modern Greece (1827–29), as well as a sanctuary for the Athenians from the marauding Persians during the Persian Wars. A good number of participants skipped beach time in order to visit the famous monastery of St. Nektarios, one of the newer saints of the Greek Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches (St. Nektarios was canonized in 1961 by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, who had previously served as Archbishop of North and South America).

And with that, it was time to sail back to Athens. But not before we put our dancing skills to the test one final time—on the ship’s sun deck! Opa! 🕺

Friday morning: final exams for the Greek Language and Culture classes. Next, we headed to the rooftop of the Royal Olympic Hotel, where we could see the remnants of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis in the distance. Against this backdrop, participants had the opportunity to meet with members of the National Hellenic Society and prominent Greeks and Philhellenes. 🏛

Amongst them is the prolific Desmond Child , whose production and lyrics gave us international hits such as ‘Living on a Prayer’ and ‘Livin la Vida Loca,’ performed by Jon Bon Jovi and Ricky Martin, respectively.
Once again, we were honored to have with us the president of the Academy of Athens, astrophysicist Dr. Stamatis (Tom) Krimigis, who had hosted us at the Academy earlier in the week.

Lea Supata, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the National Hellenic Society, hosted the event on behalf of the NHS and spoke eloquently about the organization's mission.

HG participants were reminded of the importance of the Heritage Greece program in promoting Greek culture and awareness of what constitutes the modern Greek identity, of staying in touch with one’s roots, and of creating a community that transcends national borders.

Claudia Carydis, public affairs vice president of The American College of Greece, looked back at the 15 years of Heritage Greece at ACG (the program started as a collaboration between NHS and The American College of Greece) and explained ACG's deep roots in Greek history and the College's close relationship with the Hellenic Diaspora.

Thursday saw us tie together all the loose historical threads we’ve accumulated over the last two weeks. We've been on a journey through Greek space and time, beginning with antiquity at Acropolis Museum - Μουσείο Ακρόπολης , moving on to the Byzantine era at the Byzantine Museum , and finally to The Benaki Museum . Our last museum visit was to the Εθνικό Ιστορικό Μουσείο - National Historical Museum, where we learned all about the formation of modern Greece as we know it. 🇬🇷 🕊

We marveled at the unique exhibits that played a part in setting Greece ablaze with revolutionary fire in 1821, and we learned about the tumultuous journey it took for a fledgling country to transition from a monarchy to the democratic system we know today.

Earlier, during the session's final experiential language class, we explored the Monastiraki flea market in search of unique items ans souvenirs for friends and family back home. With one twist: all shopping had to be conducted in Greek! 🗣️

On Wednesday, we visited the Academy of Athens at its landmark neoclassical building on Panepistimiou Street, part of the so-called Trilogy (National Library, University of Athens, Academy of Athens). 🏛️

The Academy is Greece's highest research establishment. It was established in 1926, with its founding principle tracing back to the historical Academy of Plato.
We were welcomed by its president of the Academy, Dr. Stamatis (Tom) Krimigis, whose team gave us a short presentation on the important responsibilities the Academy has in an advisory capacity to the Greek state while shedding light on the history of the building itself. Krimigis, an astrophysicist and a native of Chios, spent most of his adult life in the United States, and was instrumental in several of NASA's and the European Space Agency's most celebrated interplanetary exploration missions, like the Voyager program. He is the recipient of almost every honor that can be bestowed in his field both in the U.S. and and Europe. 🚀🌠

In the evening, we visited the Lazaridis Vineyards - one of the largest in Greece and the first to be on the Athens stock exchange - and its wine museum. There, we found out all about how Greek wine is produced and marketed, from plant to glass! We tried some wine and shared our merriment as the sun set behind us.

The day wasn’t just about wine though. Earlier, Pantelis Iliakakis of Olive Oil Bar by Aris & Pantelis gave us a thorough presentation (including tastings) about olive oil, its varieties and attributes. Now, everyone in the program knows how to recognize extra virgin olive oil and how to handle it. 🫒

After a few days filled with outdoor activities and an intimate look at the excavations of the ancient Agora of Athens, it was time for us to put our Greek to the test—yet again, at a real farmer’s market! 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

Farmers’ markets play a vital role in everyday Greek city life. Without them, Greek cuisine wouldn't be the same. They are a literal hub of community life, especially for older people who, with more time in their hands as retirees, meet to exchange news and strengthen bonds.

We experienced the beating heart of our local neighborhood, taking in all the colors and aromas of the fresh fruit and vegetables on offer—we even made some friends along the way! 🙋‍♀️🙋

Later in the afternoon, as temperatures started to soar, it was some well-deserved beach time, a refreshing break from the intense heat of Athens!

Monday morning and bone-tired as we were from three days of frolicking in sweet and salty waters we had to start early for the ancient Agora of Athens – the heart of Ancient Athens’ political and commercial life, in the shadow of the Acropolis. 🏛️

Our guide was Professor John Camp, who, up until recently, was Director of the Athenian Agora Excavations at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Dr. Camp is regarded as the foremost expert on the topography of Athens and Attica, as he has been involved with the Agora excavations since 1966.

We visited the actual excavations that are manned by volunteers – mostly students from the United States. Among them Maria Hellenbrand, an alumna of Heritage Greece 2022, who was inspired to apply as a volunteer to the excavations.

Later, we visited the Byzantine Museum, which houses one of the most complete collections of Byzantine art in the world! ⛪