NUGAS is nothing without our affiliate clubs, members, sponsors and the support from the wider Greek-Australian community. As such, strengthening the NUGAS community is our key focus for the 2022/23 term.

We are very proud to boast an array of social and cultural events planned to occur throughout the term, in hopes to bring together Greek-Australian youth to meet, connect and celebrate our shared culture.

Last year, NUGAS made an effort to extend beyond our Greek-Australian community and make introductions with other multicultural organisations over zoom in our fortnightly meetings. This year, we plan to build on these connections and collaborate throughout the term with social, cultural and educational events. For the first time in NUGAS history, we look forward to what hopefully becomes an annual occurrence in the NUGAS x VITA end of semester exams event on Thursday 30th June. We encourage all youth to attend, with limited tickets left. Apart from our NUGAS x VITA EOX, the famous NUGAS Ball and Boat Cruise is set to return later in the term, bigger and better than ever.

On our social media, we plan to interact directly with our members by reflecting on historical events, sharing our relationship with the Greek culture, showcasing Greek-Australian influential individuals and promoting local small businesses. We also plan to partner with large Hellenic organisations to expand our domestic and international network through sponsorship and collaboration, such as the GCM, PRONIA, GAS, NHSA and CUGA among many others.

NUGAS Co-President, James Panas. Photo: Supplied/NUGAS
NUGAS Co-President, Billy Battista. Photo: Supplied/NUGAS

NUGAS has been one of the loudest proponents for the continuation of the La Trobe University Greek Studies Program and we will continue to advocate for the extension of the program beyond its re-evaluation in 2023. As the only provider of Modern Greek language education at the tertiary level, showing our support and helping to facilitate students learning the Greek language are core to NUGAS’ aspirations and foundation as an organisation. Although the program is only available at La Trobe University, we remind all students that cross-institutional enrolment is available, regardless of what university you attend. We will also look to promote Greek-inspired subjects and programs taught at our universities to all of our members. Beyond the university environment, we are excited to recommence our relationships with Greek schools and work with the Modern Greek Teachers’ Association to offer secondary student support in VCE Greek and to assist in the transition to University from High School.

As Co-Presidents, we’ll focus our committee on bringing fresh ideas and initiatives to our members and the wider community, whilst honouring previous NUGAS committees and our rich past as an organisation. We’ll do this by organising a NUGAS Alumni event to celebrate 50+ years of NUGAS and strengthening the relationship and network between students and our influential alumni. This will also provide the current committee an opportunity to thank all the individuals who built NUGAS into what it is today.

We could not be prouder to lead NUGAS Victoria for the 2022/23 term and our committee looks forward to growing the reach of NUGAS together with our affiliated University Societies, members, sponsors and the wider Greek-Australian Community.