Brookline, MA – Hellenic College is one of 39 colleges and universities in the country to receive a $2 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. that begins or enhances programs that help prepare a new generation of leaders for church and society. This five-year implementation grant will initiate the College's "We Offer These Gifts" project.

"Our Hellenic College and Holy Cross family, trustees, faculty, staff and students, embraces with respect and resolve this visionary and generous grant from the Lilly Foundation," said President, Rev. Fr. Nicholas C. Triantafilou. "The foundation's gift offers an opportunity for creative exploration and practical application of a sensitive and life effecting area of service to our young people."

"We Offer These Gifts" will establish for Hellenic College an Office for Vocations and Ministries to provide high school and college students with opportunities to discern their life's vocations, including the possibility of pursuing ordination in the Orthodox Church. The Office will create vocational assessment programs for Hellenic College undergraduates, a summer institute for high school students, and offer opportunities for Faculty and administration to reflect on and develop their vocations through seminars and grants. "We Offer These Gifts" will also firmly establish a national Office for Orthodox Christian Fellowships (OCF), a North American, inter-Orthodox effort to develop and coordinate campus ministry programs.

The grant "will create a heretofore non-existent program where Orthodox young adults will have the opportunity to consider their life goals and faith convictions within a theologically oriented conversation," according to His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios. "Such conversations will, I hope and pray, lead these young individuals along a path of service to their Church, community, and the world."

Created in 1937, the Endowment is a private philanthropic foundation that supports the causes of religion, education, and community development as well as initiatives that benefit youth, foster leadership education among nonprofit institutions, and promote the causes of philanthropy and volunteerism.

Founded in 1968, Hellenic College is the only fully accredited, four-year Orthodox Christian college in America. It offers a liberal arts education with concentrations in Classics, Elementary Education, Human Development, Management & Leadership, Management Information Systems and Religious Studies. This award is the largest grant given to Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Hellenic College and Holy Cross
Greek Orthodox School Of Theology
Tel: (617) 731-3500