A $90,000 commitment from Greek-Australian benefactors Peter and Mary Mitrakas has provided a crucial lifeline for Advanced Greek studies at La Trobe University, helping secure the future of a program that had faced the prospect of disappearing.
The funding, secured through the Greek Community of Melbourne, will support the effort to restore La Trobe’s Advanced Modern Greek major for students entering university after completing Greek at the Victorian Certificate of Education level.
The development is particularly significant because this is not a new program. It is an effort to preserve an existing pathway that had been placed in jeopardy after La Trobe moved to discontinue its advanced language majors, including Greek. La Trobe’s own handbook currently lists the Advanced Greek Studies major as suspended, while Greek remains available at beginner and intermediate levels.
A $90,000 lifeline for Advanced Greek
The Greek community had been racing to raise funds to restore the Advanced Modern Greek stream in time for Semester One of 2027. In July, community representatives said $91,500 needed to be raised to unlock a further $73,500 from La Trobe University as part of a three-year arrangement worth $165,000. Without the funding, students completing VCE Greek risked losing their direct pathway to university-level advanced study.
The commitment by Peter and Mary Mitrakas has now effectively secured the community’s contribution, giving the campaign the financial support it needed.
Diaspora philanthropy steps in
Peter Mitrakas connected the new commitment to a lifetime of involvement with Melbourne’s Greek community. “As an Australian-born and very proud Greek, I am pleased to continue my ongoing support for the Greek community of Melbourne,” Mitrakas said. He recalled that more than fifty years ago, as a teenager, he walked the streets of inner Melbourne helping raise donations for the campaign to establish a chair of Modern Greek at the University of Melbourne.
Only a few years later, Mary Mitrakas was also involved in fundraising efforts within the Greek community. “Since our teenage years, we have never ceased our involvement and philanthropy in the Greek community,” he said. “We are ecstatic that we can continue that legacy with our support for Advanced Modern Greek to continue to be offered at La Trobe University over the next three years.”
Mitrakas said the study of Modern Greek gives younger generations an important connection to their family heritage. “It is vital that our children establish their connectivity and emotional and genetic bond with their parents’ and grandparents’ Greek heritage, and learning Modern Greek at university is one of those avenues and pathways,” he said.
Mary Mitrakas, who completed Modern Greek as part of her Victorian Certificate of Education, said she was proud to help ensure that students would continue to have the opportunity to pursue advanced Greek studies at university. “We can only hope that our infant children will have the opportunity to be taught Modern Greek at university in a couple of decades’ time,” she added.
Greek Community of Melbourne President Bill Papastergiadis said the community had once again mobilized to protect the program. “The GCM undertook to underwrite the La Trobe Program,” Papastergiadis said. “Language is a critical part of our culture and the GCM was committed to working together to secure at La Trobe the continued teaching of the language.”
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