St. Demetrios Student Attends Conference

Kally Konstantinidis is the youngest St. Demetrios student to participate in the “People to People” program.

Kally Konstantinidis, an eighth-grade student at Saint Demetrios Greek American School, Astoria, represented the school at a national student leadership conference in Washington D.C. during the week of October 9. Konstantinidis, an honors student at Saint Demetrios, was selected to participate in the “People to People” program, a part of the Eisenhower Foundation, because of her grades and involvement in the community. The youngest student from Saint Demetrios to participate in the program, she was nominated by Helen Karagiorgos, a social studies teacher and college advisor at St. Demetrios H.S.

During the week of the conference, Konstantinidis met with teenagers from across the United States with varying interests and extracurricular pursuits. The conference participants discussed issues concerning all teenagers, especially the detrimental effects of prejudice and discrimination. They tried to find ways of resolving the problems and visited various landmarks in the nation’s capital, in particular the Holocaust Museum and the embassy of Saudi Arabia.

Konstantinidis said learning about new cultures while sharing her Greek heritage was most interesting. She recommends the People to People program to other students who might be nominated in the future.