“It is from colleges like this that there must come those into whose hands the future solution of world problems is to be entrusted. … As we face this changing, chaotic, fear-ridden world, we can take comfort in [this] great, unchanging truth, and in the fact that the greatest hope for the future still lies in the ability of our schools to send out into the world men and women who will try to live by these eternal truths.”
– Carl Compton, Grinnell alum and President of Anatolia College from 1950-1958, Commencement address at Grinnell College in 1959.
Students from Anatolia and Grinnell have exchanged culture and time across these institutions for decades!
George E. White Scholarship
Thanks to the “George E. White Scholarship,” Anatolia has sent more students to Grinnell College than to any other U.S. institution. The agreement traces back to 1983, when Anatolia president Dr. William McGrew and Grinnell president, George Drake, collaborated to establish the scholarship in White’s honor. They hoped to support one Anatolia graduate annually, to pursue their undergraduate degree at Grinnell College. The scholarship continues to this day, and since that time 37+ Anatolians have enrolled and graduated from Grinnell College.
In addition, from 2004-2009 the [former] Grinnell Corps postgraduate international service program sent new graduates from Grinnell to spend one year of service working on Anatolia’s campus. Grinnell alumni served as teaching and office assistants, living and working among the local students, and reinvigorating the roots of Anatolia’s liberal arts foundation. This program evolved into Anatolia’s Post-Graduate Fellowship program, which keeps that sentiment alive today. The presence of young U.S. alumni, from Grinnell College and from other liberal arts institutions across the country, helps to retain the exchange of cultural connections and social justice ideals across the Atlantic.
Grinnell graduates have also continued the tradition of exchange, by serving as Anatolia faculty and staff. Over 20 Grinnell alumni have worked at Anatolia throughout the institution’s history, especially in its formative years. Even in the current moment, Grinnell alumni hold several staff positions at Anatolia, including Periklis Chatzistavridis, Anatolia College ’08, Grinnell College ’12; Georgia Proestopoulos, Anatolia College ’01, Grinnell College ’05; and Emmanouil Maou, Anatolia College ’82, Grinnell College ’86.