SUNY Cobleskill Administrator Selected for Rotary International Travel Program to Greece

SUNY Cobleskill Senior Admissions Counselor Christopher Callas will take the trip of a lifetime with Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange Program when it heads to Greece for six weeks.

Callas, one of five chosen to represent the 7190 Rotary Region, was nominated by two of his former teachers from Elmira Free Academy, Dean and Ellen Morgan. Though he is not a Rotarian, he was still able to apply and interview to go on the trip as long as he was sponsored by a local Rotary. The Penn Yan Dundee Rotary on Keuka Lake sponsored him and helped him get his application through at the eleventh hour.

Callas had received the information late in September when he was on the road travelling in Rockland City, when he called the regional office they initially told him they wouldn’t accept the application. Then, after a few phone calls were made the regional office agreed to accept his application if he got it into them by 5 p.m. the next day. So Callas, realizing this was a wonderful opportunity, found the nearest Kinkos and sent his paper work in. He had to get a letter from his boss agreeing to give him the time off needed to take the six week trip and a letter from the local rotary sponsoring him.

That night he received a call from Thomas Coene, the Rotary International chair, telling him he was selected for an interview, scheduled for the following week in Rochester.

“It was an honor to just be selected for an interview,” Callas said of his whirlwind experience.

The Elmira native impressed the 13 person panel during his early morning interview by the depth of his answers and his desire to experience his family’s heritage.

Before heading overseas, Callas and the other people going to Greece will spend three days in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada for a Rotary convention, where their Greek counterparts flew in, giving both groups a chance to meet each other. The five person group will then fly out of Rochester and arrive in Athens, Greece after the convention.

While there the group will present a Power Point presentation to Greek Rotarians about the United States, in addition to a vocational exchange. Because each participant comes from different industries, ranging from a newspaper editor to an art teacher to an occupational therapist, the vocational exchange will give them individual experiences in similar areas in Greece.

Callas is working with SUNY Cobleskill administration on creating an international exchange articulation with Greece.  And while he is working with different groups in Greece he will get to show off SUNY Cobleskill.

“I hope to make life long friends while I’m there, and maybe a future wife,” he joked.