Introducing our Education Assistant and Greece Lead Coordinator

Sky School is delighted to welcome back Elissavet to the team, this time as our Education Assistant and Lead Coordinator in Greece. Since 2017 Elissavet has been a core member of the Sky School family, working in Athens on our very first pilot programmes and facilitating courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Peace-building. Stepping into her new role she is looking forward to strengthening Sky School’s commitments and presence in Athens. She will be focusing on “slowly building a more sustainable presence in Athens. With such a huge community of refugees and migrants, it is a place that really needs educational initiatives such as Sky School.”

Originally from Lesvos, Elissavet attended UWC Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina before going on to study Global Challenges in the Netherlands where she studied Politics at the Hague and Education in Argentina. After a year of working with Sky School she pursued her MPhil in Education in the UK. “Working with Sky School has helped me get a better understanding of the refugee landscape which I was then able to explore in more depth during my masters. My research explored coordination efforts between the Greek government and civil society for the provision of formal education to refugees. So although I wasn't on the ground, I kept a strong connection to issues around refugee education in Greece,” she added. 

While Greece is currently home to many NGOs Elissavet believes what makes Sky School stand out is its non-conventional approach to supporting refugee education. She explains, “I think Sky School really breaks away from this idea that these people are in such desperate situations, and need only basic education to survive. At Sky School we recognise that these people are intelligent and ambitious. They want to do things like everyone else but they happen to be born in a place with certain circumstances that has stopped them from doing that. They should have the opportunity to continue their education and fulfill their ambitions.”

Elissavet has seen Sky School’s progression from its trial courses into a full high school diploma programme. She is thrilled to be back for this exciting new phase of scale and the chance to work more closely with the Sky School core team. 

As well as building up Sky School’s presence in Athens, Elissavet will be working with Sky School’s Director of Education and Course Leaders to support the development of Sky School courses, facilitator training and other educational projects. She comments, “We are doing something really cool and groundbreaking in the field of  education. There is nothing like this happening right now, no other globally recognised secondary school diploma for displaced people. Not only that but it is also cutting edge content and pedagogies. The fact that I get the opportunity to contribute but also to learn from it, and share my opinion, is just enormously enriching, both for me personally and also for my community in Athens.”