Metropolis of Boston Scholarship Opportunities
2025-2026 Applications Launch March 1, 2025
The Metropolis of Boston Proudly Announces its
2024-2025 Academic Year Scholarships
St. George’s Hellenic Benefit Society of Tsamantas, Greece Scholarship Fund
The St. George’s Hellenic Benefit Society of Tsamantas Scholarship was established in 2020 in memory of the pioneering sons and daughters of the village of Tsamantas, Thesprotia, Epirus, who emigrated to Worcester, MA at the turn of the 19th century.
The Tsamantas Scholarship Fund awards two scholarships annually: The Stavros Bellos Scholarship, which carries a $7,500 award, and the Arthur Athanasiou Scholarship, which also provides an award of $7,500.
The first scholarship is named in honor of Stavros Bellos, the village’s greatest benefactor. Stavros was born in 1913 in Tsamantas, Epirus, near the Greek-Albanian border. He lost both parents early in life and was raised by his grandparents. The poverty of his hometown forced Stavros to immigrate to the United States in 1939. He was a peaceful, unobtrusive, and modest man. He never married and spent countless hours at the Worcester Public Library. When he passed at the age of eighty-five, the Worcester Greek community learned this humble Greek immigrant had been a wise investor. Stavros bequeathed his estate for the betterment of the people and village of Tsamantas, but also earmarked a sum to the St. George’s Hellenic Benefit Society of Tsamantas and St. Spyridon Cathedral in Worcester, MA.
The second scholarship is in memory of Arthur Athanasiou, a sixty-one-year member of the St. George’s Society who served multiple tenures as the Society’s President and on its Board of Directors. Arthur was the driving force in establishing the Society’s first scholarship program in 1999. Additionally, during his long tenure with the Society, Arthur led, developed, or organized a range of religious, historical, and economic programs aimed at the conservation or restoration of many public and religious institutions in his ancestral village.
The Saint George’s Hellenic Benefit Society of Tsamantas Award Winners
for the 2024-2025 Academic Year:
Stavros Bellos Scholarship- Emmanuel Barris
Emmanuel (Manoli) is a Junior at Boston University (BU), double majoring in Hospitality Administration & Business Administration. He is a two-year Dean’s List awardee with a 3.9 GPA. The Dean of the BU School of Hospitality Administration recently asked Manoli to represent BU and speak at the International Society of Hospitality Consultants’ Industry Conference in Washington D.C.
This year, Manoli was elected President of the BU Hellenic Association, responsible for planning all meetings and events, and coordinating operations for the Association’s eighty-five members. He is currently a summer intern in the Athens office of HVS Consulting, a leading global hospitality consulting firm.
Manoli’s Greek heritage traces back to Tsamantas, Epirus. His paternal grandmother’s father, Vasilios Kentros, was among the early Tsamantiotes who emigrated to Worcester, MA, in the early 1900s, and along with thirty other Tsamantiote immigrants, founded the St. George Society of Tsamantas in Worcester in 1908. His home parish is St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester, MA.
Arthur Athanasiou Scholarship- Alexandra Rentzis
Alexandra is entering her junior year at Nazareth University, double majoring in Secondary Education and Mathematics, with a 4.0 GPA. She is on her school’s dance team, choreographs high school musicals and assists dancers with their solos and techniques. Alexandra is also petitioning to establish a Hellenic organization at her university as well as pursing her Greek citizenship. Her home parish is Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Syracuse, NY.
Charles C. Condes Memorial Scholarship Fund
The Charles C. Condes Memorial Scholarships are offered annually from funds granted to the Metropolis from the trust of Charles Constantine Condes to provide college student aid. This year, four scholarship recipients will each receive $8,000.
Charles Condes was born in Chicago, Illinois to Constantine S. and Harikleia (Yiannias) Condes, emigrants from Niata, Lakonia and Alea, Arkadia. The Great Depression affected millions of Americans while Condes was growing up, but this didn’t stop Charles’ ambition to be successful and at the age of 16, he opened his own dairy store. Charles received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology as a first-generation college student and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II as a meteorologist, attached to the RAF. He was stationed across North Africa, the Middle East, and Cyprus. After the war, he worked as an engineering consultant, including as a bridge design engineer for the City of Chicago.
Charles was happily married for 25 years to the late Phyllis Holik. He was a highly principled man devoted to his family and his faith. An astute investor and philanthropist who donated to many charities and churches, he was a great believer in the power of education and an admirer of all things Hellenic. Through his endowment of scholarships, he chose to demonstrate his pride in the Greek-American students who represent the future of Hellenism and Orthodoxy in the U.S.
The Condes Memorial Award Winners for the 2024-2025 Academic Year:
Evangelos Barous
Evangelos is a junior at Northeastern University, majoring in Mechanical and Computer Engineering, with a 3.5 GPA. He is a member of the Northeastern Hellenic Society and the Orthodox Christian Fellowship and spends time in multiple charitable activities. He is currently an altar boy captain and was granted the title of Anaghanostos by his Eminence, Archibishop Elpidophoros. His home parish is St. Demetrios Cathedral in Astoria.
Andrew Devers
Andrew is a senior at Wabash College in Indiana, double majoring in History and Spanish, with an additional concentration in Classical History and Culture. Andrew has a 3.9 GPA and has been initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. He serves as Vice-President of his school’s Pre-Law Society. He has interned for the DA’s office for the Northern District of Texas and in the Wabash Classics Department. Andrew is the sole Orthodox Christian in the Wabash Christian Men’s Club, where he has actively sought to educate others about Orthodoxy at meetings and dinners at family homes. Andrew’s home parish is Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas, Texas.
Georgia Leon
Georgia is entering her senior year at Salem State University, in the College of Health and Human Services, where she majoring in Nursing, maintains a 3.7 GPA and has been on the Dean’s List each semester. She is very active in her home parish of Saint Vasilios in Peabody, MA, aiding teachers at the Greek School, assisting in coaching the girls basketball team, volunteering at church special events, and working with Citizens Inn-Haven for Hunger, in Peabody.
Panayiota Veronis
Panagiota is a senior at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., majoring in Elementary Education and Special Education. She has a GPA of 3.9 and has been on the Dean’s List every semester. For past three years, she has served as youth director for St. Spyridon Church and served on the Metropolis Youth Camp staff for two summers, fall and winter camp sessions. In summer 2022 she organized 25 young adults to attend Project Mexico and returned as a home building intern the following summer, facilitating 25 home-builds with 19 other interns and 400 volunteers. Panagiota is in Mexico right now interning once again for Project Mexico. Panayiotas’ home parish is St. Constantine and Helen in Webster, MA.
Metropolis of Boston 2025 Scholarship Committee
John Anton - Co-Chairman, Nicholas Athanasiou, Leah Kofos, Esq., Nicholas Kourtis, Esq. - Co-Chairman and Teena Lenis.
