By Katerina Grafakos

The program, starting fall of 2011 “will pull together resources from the Departments of World Languages and Literatures, History, and Conflict Resolution.” Through internships, study-abroad programs, lectures and performances by visiting scholars, authors and artists, students will get a “deep understanding of the on-going contributions of Greek culture to Western Civilization and the notions of democracy and personal freedom,” as well as learn about our history, culture and heritage. Starting with a minor, the program will eventually add a major and hope to see it work with other programs in the school such as Italian and Judaic Studies, as well as the School of Business and the College of Urban and Public Affairs. This program will show how “Greece’s classical Hellenic past is interwoven with her modern present,” as well as ours. As E. John Rumpakis says, “The way our life is ordered and built and practiced is all done by the ancient Greeks… they built structures for western world.”

E. John Rumpakis, a graduate of the University of Portland, 7-year member of State of Oregon’s Heritage Commission, a student of Greek and Latin, a member of the Leadership 100, AHEPA and a huge advocate for Hellenism to say the least, believes in trying to “light the Olympic flame here, as far as Hellenism is concerned.” He served for over 35 years the Greek Consulate of San Francisco and donated funds to Portland State University to bring international peace scholar Dr. Harry Anastasiou from Europe. Dr. Anastasiou takes about 20-25 graduate students a year from Portland State University to the green line in Cyprus to better understand conflict resolution, using Cyprus as a “lab”. And this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to E. John Rumpakis. When asked about his new program, he replies: “Money should definitely be the closing line. This is not a "Greece for Greeks alone" program; this is a program for anyone who wants to learn about a bedrock culture of Western Civilization, both in its historical and current manifestations - i.e. both ancient and modern Greece.”