Something positive is happening in the Peloponnesian seaside city of Nafplio. To begin with, an educational centre with ties to one of the world’s leading educational institutions is developing programs with an emphasis on its collaboration with the local community.
What’s more, this peripheral Greek city is set on putting the existence of the educational centre to good use, in the hope of generating even more interest in the broader area. Three years ago, Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies inaugurated its first overseas branch, situated in Nafplio’s elegant neoclassical Iatrou Mansion.
Since then, the Nafplio centre has been constantly developing new activities and programs, turning into an integral part of the city’s – and its environs’ – academic and cultural life, as well as a point of reference for foreign educational institutions. During a recent visit, Kathimerini witnessed the dynamic collaboration between the educational centre and other local institutions and observed a twofold generosity which is bearing fruit. “Besides Nafplio’s historical importance, its practical size, safety and beauty, the city is what we abroad call ‘Greece’.
This is one of the reasons why we decided to establish the centre here,” said Professor Kenneth Morrell, director of fellowships and curricular development at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard. Then there are Harvard’s summer courses in Greece. Both programs, which are aimed at American and Greek students alike, have been operating for a number of years now, long before the centre’s establishment in Nafplio.
Nowadays, the courses are planned and organised around the activities of local society and its institutions: the Archaeological Museum, the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, the Nafplio Annex of the Greek National Gallery, the General State Archives, the Fougaro Cultural Foundation and the Foundation of the Hellenic World. Also in the works is the development of a summer program for high school students. The program, which is being created in collaboration with local authorities, will act as a foundation course for university admittance as well as an introduction to the Greek and US educational systems – and to finding out about opportunities in the latter.
Source: Kathimerini