The National Hellenic Society (NHS) is now accepting applications for Heritage America 2025, an educational and cultural program for college students and young professionals in their 20s, developed and hosted by the NHS in collaboration with Manatos & Manatos. This year, the Heritage America Program will run from July 29 – 31, 2025.
Up to 20 participants will be accepted and invited to come to Washington, DC to join in all activities in person, from the afternoon of Tuesday, July 29, through the afternoon of Thursday, July 31. NHS will cover all expenses while students are in town, including lodging, transportation, and meals.
This program distills the salient features of the study abroad experience and delivers it on the local/regional level. This unique and proprietary program will reconnect Greek-American students and young professionals with their roots, heritage, culture and Hellenic identity through the prism of the American experience.
Participants will learn little-known information about the rise of Greeks in America over the last 100 years. It will better enable these young people to glean the elements contributed to our amalgamated Greek-American culture that came from their Hellenic background and which came from the “American Way.”
NHS Heritage America program
Participants in this exciting education program will meet in person and virtually with Greek-Americans who have reached the pinnacle of success in America, including:
• The highest-ranking Greek-Americans in the US Government
• Younger Greek-American government officials
• Former high-ranking Greek-American government officials
• Prominent national businessmen
• Owners of DC-area professional sports teams
• Prominent lobbyists and lawyers
• Prominent on-air news personalities and editors
In these meetings, they will learn:
• That many of the modern-day American principles and practices were virtually identical to the principles and practices of the Greeks during the Golden Age
• The truly extraordinary impact Greece had on America
• The enormous number of pillars of American and western Democracy that were developed by the Greeks
• The lost history about the extreme sacrifices some of the early Greek immigrants made trying to reach the American dream
• How Greek-Americans rose in just one generation from some of the least educated and successful to some of the most
• The connection between the courage and grit that contributed to the rise of Hellenes in America and the extraordinary courage shown by Hellenes in Greece during WWII
• The concept of philotimo and how it contributed to the person-to-person popularity and acceptance of Greek-Americans in every city and town into which they immigrated in America
• Aspects of the Greek-American experience that many take for granted and assume are practiced by all Americans are in fact quite unique to our community
The National Hellenic Society underwrites all program expenses.
NHS is accepting applications through July 21, 2025. It is seeking Greek-American college students who have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and young professionals in their 20s.
Related: Discussing the Future of Greek Diaspora with National Hellenic Society Chairman Drake Behrakis (Video)