Eleni-Pinelopi Tsolakidou is only fourteen years old, yet she has managed to earn an international award in Greek. She entered a ten day contest against 300,000 students from 1,200 schools worldwide.
The online competition involved translating thousands of words from Greek to English and vice versa, focusing on the correct spelling, syntax and use of grammar as well.
Eleni-Pinelopi attends Benowa State High School and the Greek school of the St Anna community in the Gold Coast, and entered the competition during an extremely demanding school semester. She managed to achieve many VHAs in several classes, whilst performing numerous extracurricular activities.
Apart from winning the Gold Medal in the Greek language for the second consecutive year in a global online contest, such as Language Perfect World Championship 2014, Eleni-Pinelopi also excelled in music (music extension course) by winning the best performance prize by playing piano, guitar and ukulele. She also took the Amer music exam (Australian Music Examinations Board) which is recognised by the Ministry of Education QLD, NSW and University of Melbourne, achieving top grades.
Eleni-Pinelopi’s achievements do not end here, as she also received the first student prize in the Italian language at her school. The girl also received her school’s honour, among 500 students in a total of sixteen grade 9 classes. The honour was awarded for her outstanding behaviour in addition to achieving the highest scores in all school subjects. For the third year in a row she is the class captain for both her schools.
“Next year, Eleni-Pinelopi will in fact attend year 11 chemistry classes while attending 10th grade,” her mother, Eugenia Tziouka-Tsolakidou, proudly tells Neos Kosmos.
“Eleni-Pinelopi came from Greece when she was eight years old and did not speak English,” she explains.
At the same time, the girl is a member of St Anna’s traditional dance group. This year, she volunteered to teach younger children traditional Greek dances and found time to participate in Hellenic Dancers of Brisbane.
“Eleni-Pinelopi enjoys playing tennis and loves painting and photography. My daughter is a member of the school choir and Glee. She just can’t stop learning and has to keep her mind busy.”
In any case, we are dealing with the outstanding example of a Greek migrant child who overcame the language barrier, proving that hard work pays off.