Greece Deputy Foreign Minister & Other VIPs Visit MV Explorer

Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a number of other Greek dignitaries, visited the MV Explorer during its stay in Piraeus, Greece, to tour the ship, learn more about the program and celebrate the program’s new partnership with Athens-based Deree College (see blog posting above).

"That we are here means that we believe in this program,” Varvitsiotis told a gathering of Greek and Semester at Sea officials. “And we believe in the importance of people coming to visit our country to learn more about our country.”

Varvitsiotis is quite familiar with Semester at Sea; his sister sailed as a student on a recent voyage. She is now a journalist in Greece.

The special day-long program included a number of special moments, marking an important time for Semester at Sea. During the morning, Les McCabe, president of the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE), which operates Semester at Sea, and SAS Summer Voyage Executive Dean Michael Zoll joined Andreas Potamianos to raise the Semester at Sea flag atop Potamianos’ Epirotiki Tours building.

ISE’s relationship with Potamianos dates back nearly 40 years. Potamianos oversaw the design and construction of the MV Explorer, which once cruised Greek's islands in 2002. Potamianos owns Epirotiki Tours and had the MV Explorer built in 2001 for his tour company. ISE chartered the ship for its 2004 summer voyage and then purchased it in 2008, making it SAS’s official floating campus. Years earlier, Semester at Sea leased the Odysseus and World Renaissance ships from Potamianos’ company.

“I’m very proud that the [MV] Explorer has been dedicated to a noble cause: Educating the young generations of the future,” Potamianos said to gathered Semester at Sea and Greek officials. “…She now found her historical destination, training young people for a better world.”

Click on the video to watch some of this special event during the MV Explorer and Semester at Sea’s stop in Greece.