2025 Scholarship Winners
Aleksaundra Handrinos
Arianna Kales
Christopher Lambros
Sophia Marangoudakis
Sophia Panagakis
Katerina Pashiardis
Nicholas Veronis
The Metropolis of Boston Proudly Announces its
2025-2026 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 up to two $7,500 scholarships annually: the Stavros Bellos Scholarship and the Arthur Athanasiou Scholarship.
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 2025-2026 Academic Year:
Stavros Bellos Scholarship- Sophia Marangoudakis
Sophia is entering her junior year at Cornell University majoring in Hotel Administration with a 3.3 GPA. She is a member of the Hellenic Student Organization on campus and is actively involved in the Cretan-Greek community. Sophia has a passion for public speaking and sharing her knowledge with an audience. She credits her family with instilling her with the importance of advocacy, being humble and working hard. Sophia is employed in the hotel industry during the school year and has interned at the Armenia Marriot Hotel Yerevan. Her home parish is St. George Cathedral in Hartford, CT.
Arthur Athanasiou Scholarship- Arianna Kales
Arianna is entering her Junior year at Boston College, in its Pre-Med program majoring in Neuroscience with a Minor in Public Health. She holds a 3.6 GPA and is a member of The National Honor Society in Neuroscience. Both of her great-grandparents were born in Leshinitsa, a Greek-speaking village currently located in Northern Epirus, Albania, which to this day has retained its Hellenic and Greek Orthodox heritage. She is Vice President of the BC Hellenic Society and is a volunteer tutor with 826 Boston, a non-profit tutoring and writing organization empowering students to strive for their highest potential through opportunity, independence, and partnership. Arianna is a member of St. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA.
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, five 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 during Charles’ youth, but this didn’t stop his 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 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 2025-2026 Academic Year:
Aleksaundra Handrinos
Aleksaundra is entering her senior year at Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in Ethics, History & Public Policy, International Relations & Political Science with a 4.0 GPA. She is a CMU Dietrich Community Engagement Fellow focusing her capstone project in working with a local non-profit to assess the efficacy of their programming for girls in sports. She is president of the Pre-Law Society at Carnegie Mellon, an executive board member of the Alexander Hamilton Society, a student member of the University Disciplinary Committee and Academic Review Board, and an executive board member of the Women’s Club Basketball team. Aleksaundra is the co-founder and co-president of the Hellenic Student Association at her University. Her home parish is St. Demetrios in Wellesley, MA.
Christopher Lambros
Christopher is an Entrepreneurship major at Bryant University, achieving a 3.8 GPA. His deep connection to his Greek-American heritage is evident in his extensive involvement, including serving as a staff member at the Metropolis of Boston Camp, attending YAL conferences, and supporting Hellenic initiatives with AHEPA in Rhode Island. As president of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship at Bryant for two years, he has been instrumental in building a vibrant on-campus community. Christopher also actively participates in the Boston Young Adults group and the Telos Program in Rhode Island, working to engage young adults in the church. His home parish is the Church of the Annunciation in Cranston, RI.
Sophia Panagakis
Sophia is entering her Junior year at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, majoring in Aeronautical Engineering, where she carries a 3.1 GPA. Among the real-world, hands-on engineering problems Sophia worked on was the propulsion lead for a team designing a high-powered rocket, where her responsibilities included calculating the rocket’s thrust and ensuring its stability. Her family hails from Athens and Sparta, Greece and she says her “…upbringing has been a fusion of modern life and deep-rooted Greek traditions that focus on the values of hard work, perseverance, and hospitality—philoxenia.” Having attended the Hellenic American Academy in Lowell, MA, Sophia speaks and writes Greek fluently. Sophia is a member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Lowell, MA.
Katerina Pashiardis
Katerina is entering her senior year at Northeastern University majoring in Bioengineering with a 3.4 GPA. She is the recipient of a Northeastern Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Award and is a co-author of a publishing for Tango Therapeutics on Tumor suppressor collateral damage screen results. Katerina is secretary of Northeastern’s Hellenic Society E- board, an Orthodox Christian Fellowship member and part of the STEM sorority Phi Sigma Rho. She volunteers with Roxbury Robotics teaching robotics, engineering and coding to students at underserved schools. Her home parish is Saint Katherine in Falls Church, VA.
Nicholas Veronis
Nicholas is entering his junior year at University of Massachusetts Amherst, majoring in Finance with a 3.8 GPA. He is a member Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) and the Greek Club at UMass Amherst, and he has volunteered as a staff member at the Metropolis of Boston Summer Camp and his parish’s GOYA. He has also participated in multiple mission trips to Tijuana, Mexico, to build homes for homeless families. Nicholas’s entrepreneurial spirit spurred him to begin his own car detailing business, where he handles everything from marketing to inventory to customer service. His home parish is St. Constantine and Helen in Webster, MA
Metropolis of Boston 2025-2026 Scholarship Committee
John Anton-Co-Chairman, Nicholas Athanasiou, Leah Kofos, Esq.,
Nicholas Kourtis, Esq.- Co-Chairman, and Teena Lenis.