The U.S. Embassy in Athens, in collaboration with the American College of Thessaloniki – Anatolia College, Deree – The American College of Greece, and Perrotis College – American Farm School, announces the program “Education Unites: From Camp to Campus” that will provide higher education scholarships to 100 eligible refugees in Athens and 100 in Thessaloniki.

The goal of the program is to give opportunities to displaced students to continue their education; provide them with knowledge, skills and academic credits they can use either in Greece or in any other European country they move to in the future; help them get out of the camps and become integrated in local colleges; and offer young refugees hope for the future.

At last year’s Hack the Camp program, a creative marathon aimed at finding solutions to challenges that refugees face in Greece, co-organized by the U.S. Embassy in Athens, a young female refugee spoke passionately of her desire to continue her university education.  She was a student of Economics at a university in Damascus, but she had to abandon her studies as she fled the war. Her plea for a better future through education was the inspiration for the program.

The “Education Unites: From Camp to Campus” program will offer two courses per student for the next two semesters (Fall 2017 and Spring 2018) in the three U.S. affiliated colleges in Athens and Thessaloniki. The courses offered will include preparatory English classes, academic classes in diverse fields based on the participants’ educational background, as well as vocational training.