AUGUSTINE, FL – An award of $1,000 for the 2022 Metropolitan Iakovos Memorial Greek Language Scholarship Essay contest was presented to Evridiki Vougiouka, 14, of Sacramento, California. The contest, held by the Saint Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, was open to young persons ages 13-19 of the United States and Canada.

A Certificate of Participation signed by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and His Grace Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, Hierarchal Proistamenos of St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, will be sent to all participants.

The Greek language essays, like the English essay contest, reflected on the current relevance of the famous lines from of the poem, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus  which in 1903, were inscribed on a plaque and placed on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Today, the plaque is on display inside the Statue’s pedestal, and an exact replica of the plaque can be found inside the Statue of Liberty Museum:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The annual contest was chaired by Stella Kokolis, M.Ed., President of the Federation of Hellenic American Educators, and donor of the award for the contest. Additional committee members and judges also included Meropi Kyriakou, Katerina Bliatza, and Maria Foutouli.

The St. Photios National Shrine commemorates the first Hellenic settlers to arrive in the New World, as well as celebrating the many immigrants to the United States and their experience in this nation.