Sonia was born in Greece but spent her childhood growing up in both Greece and Cyprus, moving to different towns because of her father’s work, which enables her to empathise with many of our internationally-mobile ILLTC students who are experiencing a similar upbringing. She studied in Athens, earning a BA in Classical Studies (Ancient and Modern Greek Language and Literature, and Latin) from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She then earned an MBA in Organizational Leadership at the University of Indianapolis in the USAA.
She began her career in education, first as an Examiner (Proficiency in Greek as a Foreign Language) with the Centre of Hellenic Language (Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki), and then she worked as an International Baccalaureate teacher, initially as a teacher of Greek Language at I.M. Panagiotopoulos School, which was followed by a long career at an IB World School, The American Community School of Athens (ACS Athens) where she specialised in Greek IB Literature and also Language and Literature classes predominantly in high school. She became Head of the Greek Department with responsibility for the entire Greek language curriculum and programme, including many school events related to Greek language and cultural studies. As a long-experienced IB teacher, Sonia has attended various IB professional development courses and she has supervised Extended Essays.
Besides her work with Greek Language, Sonia spent many years supporting ACS Athens’ UNESCO Team, organising many student-led activities and Symposia, which is so beautifully aligned to the IB Mission and Values. Sonia is happy to meet prospective SSST Greek or pre-IB Greek language students. She was introduced to ILLTC by one of her former students, and IBDP graduate from Athens who was working for a children’s charity in London. She said, ‘Sonia was the best teacher I ever had’. We are delighted that she is able to work with our Greek students!