Apart from standing united in their social activities, NUGAS Victoria members are active community fundraisers and volunteers. Photo: Constantly Flashing Photography.
After hosting one of its most successful annual balls ever, members of NUGAS Victoria will tour Greek schools to promote teaching Modern Greek at universities and their union.
With over 900 Greek Australian students and friends in attendance, all coming together for the most anticipated event of the year, NUGAS’ annual ball celebrated its 10th anniversary last Sunday.
Hosted at the Victory Room of Etihad Stadium, the event of the year for NUGAS and its nine Victorian members organisations, the ball was the fruition of months of planning and organisation and a lot of hard work, as NUGAS Victoria president Tass Sgardelis told Neos Kosmos.
“It was a very successful ball and one of the biggest we had – both the ball and the after party,” Sgardelis told Neos Kosmos.
The special night that welcomed Greek Australian students from Victorian universities, youth organisations and NUGAS members past and present featured live entertainment from the renowned Glendi Band and interstate DJ Nicky Zee, as well as the special guest, singer Carly Yelayiotis.
After their inaugural indoor soccer tournament scheduled at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre for this Saturday, NUGAS will from this week commence their tour of Greek schools around Victoria, with an aim to promote the National Union of Greek Australian Students itself as well as the learning of Modern Greek.
“Our aim is to firstly promote Modern Greek, both NUGAS and other students’ clubs, as well as to talk to students about transitioning to university life and to help answer any questions.
“We have done it on a smaller scale in the last couple of years, but this year we want to try and cover all the main Greek schools,” president Tass Sgardelis said.
Sgardelis, who has been at the helm of NUGAS Victoria for one and a half years now, said that in the last 12 months the numbers of its members have almost doubled, from 800 members last year to 1,500 members in 2014.
The number of clubs has grown from six to nine, representing eight Victorian universities.
“We are now focusing on engaging students before they reach university. One of the main reasons is to inform them about the opportunities to study
Modern Greek at university, because a lot of them are not aware of it, and the benefits of it. That’s something we want to focus on doing in 2015.
“With numbers dwindling in Modern Greek at universities, and courses under pressure, this issue is really important to us. It’s our job to try and boost those numbers and support teaching Modern Greek at universities as much as possible.”
With NUGAS Victoria’s yearly program including numerous social gatherings – the famous annual ball and boat cruises, and many fundraisers, Tass Sgardelis says it is the volunteering of its members that makes a real difference within community.
Throughout October, NUGAS Victoria members will be visiting Fronditha and Agapi Care nursing homes, to volunteer and spend quality time with the elderly of the Greek community.
“We found that our contribution to our community is best served with our volunteering rather than with financial donations – which we are still doing as well, but we found we can make a bigger impact through just going to nursing homes and helping out where we can.”
With NUGAS Victoria numbers increasing, and its members associations active at universities around Melbourne and Victoria, Tass Sgardelis says there is a lot of potential within the young Greek Australian community.
“We have such a unique and wonderful community, and it’s just such a great thing to be a part of it. It gives me such great joy to see that our youth want to engage with our culture and come together as Greek Australian students, not only for social events but also to share their culture.”
For Tass himself, it is a deep sentiment about the organisation and the community that makes him dedicate time to the work NUGAS is doing.
“I care very deeply about the organisation because I see it as very unique and I don’t see any other cultures doing it to this extent. We work closely with Italians and a couple of other student organisations – and we are the envy of Australia. Even the interstate members who came over from Sydney and
Brisbane for the ball were shocked by the number of members and the organisation.
“We recently attended the Italian students’ ball – throughout the whole evening, there were only two Italian songs played. At our ball on Sunday, no English songs made it to the playlist. The band even played leventiko, tsamika; there was a great range of modern and traditional Greek music. At the after party – we balanced it out with both English and Greek music,” Tass says with a laugh.
“It’s important for us to keep it that way, and people respond well to it.”
For more information and to join NUGAS Victoria, visit www.nugasvic.org.au
source: Neos Kosmos
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 