LEADERSHIP
OPPORTUNITY
PRESIDENT
ANATOLIA
COLLEGE
Thessaloniki.
Greece
September 2009
THE SCHOOL
Located in the city of Thessaloniki in Macedonia, Greece, Anatolia College is a private
non-profit institution. With an enrollment of 2,200 students across three divisions from
Kindergarten through an MBA program, Anatolia is truly unique. Founded in Merzifon,
Asia Minor in 1886, incorporated in 1894 in Boston, Anatolia has a rich and prestigious
history spanning three centuries, and prides itself on the academic preparation it provides,
the students and faculty it attracts, and the governing principles on which it was founded
and continues to operate. Overlooking the Thermaic Gulf and Mount Olympus in
northern Greece, Anatolia maintains an American headquarters in Boston, with alumni,
friends and Trustees in communities across the United States, Europe and Greece, Turkey
and the Balkans.
As one of the leading educational institutions in the country, Anatolia combines the best
of Greek and American educational concepts and methods with the goal of educating
students not only for academic success, but for social responsibility and a respect for
culture, community and society at large. The Anatolian experience begins in
Kindergarten in the recently established Elementary School, which serves 450 local
students through the sixth grade. The High School enrolls more than 1,300 primarily
Greek students in grades seven through twelve in two gymnasiums (grades 7-9), two
lyceums (grades 10-12), and a two-year International Baccalaureate Program (grades 1112), all housed on the same campus. Finally, The American College of Thessaloniki
(ACT) is a fully US-accredited, English language based, four-year liberal arts college and
graduate MBA program enrolling 400 undergraduate and graduate students.
Overseen by a Greek and American Board of Trustees with its headquarters in Boston,
the school strives to be a concrete expression of the friendship between the Greek and
American people and of their shared ideals. The majority of the school’s 44 trustees
reside in the United States, with the rest residing in Greece. The College is incorporated
in Massachusetts and the trustees maintain an office in Boston to conduct fund-raising
and otherwise serve the College. Anatolia has an endowment of $32.8M (as of 30 June
2008), and an annual operating budget across all three divisions of $28.5M.
ACT (American College at Thessaloniki)
Founded in 1991, The American College at Thessaloniki (ACT) offers a four-year
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) program and a Master’s in
Business Administration (MBA). With 350 students from a dozen countries, ACT is
accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Undergraduate
degree programs are offered in Business (Finance, International Business, Management,
Marketing), Information Technology (Computer Science and Computer Management
Information Systems) and International relations and Diplomacy. Graduate programs
include an MBA with concentrations on Banking and Finance, Entrepreneurship,
Management and Marketing. The school welcomes about 100 American students from
colleges and universities who are on semester / year abroad programs.
High School (Anatolia College)
The secondary division of Anatolia is the original element of this educational institution.
Founded in 1886, Anatolia College has long been famous for an outstanding English
program, and the addition of the International Baccalaureate Program in 1998 has
strengthened the school’s academic offerings and reputation. With extensive cocurricular and athletic programs in the tradition of American independent schools,
Anatolia is organized in accordance with Greek law and grants the Greek apolytirion (the
Greek high school diploma) by meeting the requirements established by the Greek
Ministry of Education. Entrance to the regular high school and IB program is based on
competitive examinations in English and Greek and previous school records. Students
enrolled in the I.B program receive the I.B. Certificate. With the exception of courses in
English, Art and Computers, the Greek high school curriculum is taught in Greek, while
all I.B. courses are taught in English. Each gymnasium (grades 7-9) and lyceum (grades
10-12) has its own Dean and Deputy Dean, and the I.B. program has its own Director.
The High School as a whole is overseen by the Vice President for Secondary Education.
Elementary School (Anatolia Elementary)
Established in 2004 and formally opened in 2005, the Elementary School, as the newest
member of the Anatolia family has brought to completion the dream of an Anatolian
education spanning all experiences from Kindergarten through post-graduate studies.
Enrolling 450 students, the school is in the highest demand of any elementary school in
Thessaloniki, as reflected in its acceptance rate. Students are divided into two buildings,
with grades 1 to 3 on the North campus and grades 4 to 6 on the Main campus. In
addition to the classroom buildings, the students have access to basketball, volleyball and
soccer facilities, and spacious outdoor play areas. The Kindergarten has its own building
and play area on the South campus.
HISTORY
Anatolia is one of Greece’s most distinguished private, non-profit educational
institutions. Founded in 1886 and incorporated in Massachusetts in 1894, Anatolia’s
history spans three centuries and three continents, and has affected the lives of nearly
13,000 graduates and their families.
Anatolia College traces its roots to the seminary founded by New England missionary
Cyrus Hamlin, in Bebek, on the outskirts of Constantinople in the mid-19th century. The
seminary operated not only as a religious institution, but also attracted students wishing
to study English and receive a general education. In 1864 the school divided, with one
branch remaining outside Constantinople to eventually become Robert College, while the
other moved to Merzifon in the Pontus region of Asia Minor / Turkey. As more and
more students in Merzifon sought a general education, in 1886 the program was
expanded to include a four-year college named Anatolia College, named not only for the
region of Turkey but for the ancient Greek word for “dawn.”
The American missionary Charles Tracy was the first President of Anatolia College.
Students were principally Greek and Armenian, with most coming from outside the local
area and boarding at the school. The school’s faculty was Greek, Armenian and
American. Tracy understood well the importance of integrating both intellectual and
physical challenges into the educational process, and students at Anatolia were taught to
work with their hands and their minds. Enrollment grew to 115 students and a girls’
school was added. Through hard work, dedication and vision for the greater good,
Anatolia grew to include not only high school programs for boys and girls and a college
level program beyond that, but also a theological seminary, one of the largest hospitals in
Asia Minor, a nursing school, the only school for deaf children in the Ottoman Empire,
an orphanage for 2000 children, a printing press, a carpentry shop, a flour mill, and a
museum. By the early 1900s, the student body included twelve nationalities, and six
languages were taught.
The years 1914 and 1915 brought Turkish massacres of Armenians. World War I forced
Anatolia to close, and while it reopened briefly in 1919, the Turkish government forced
the school to cease operations in 1921 when war broke out between Greece and Turkey.
The Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos invited the school to relocate to
Thessaloniki in 1924. The school reopened in a rented casino with only thirteen enrolled
students, most of whom were refugees. Within one year, however, enrollment had
climbed to over 150, and in 1934 the school moved to its current location in Pylea
overlooking the city of Thessaloniki.
The school rebuilt itself from the ground up, laying the groundwork for today’s
curriculum and ideology. But another World War ravaged the land, and the school was
again forced to evacuate and close in 1940. The campus was used as the German
headquarters for northern Greece, and after the retreat of the Nazis, the school’s facilities
were used for a time by the British as a military hospital. By the time the war was over
and Anatolia could reconvene for instruction, the school’s campus, facilities and
resources were in shambles.
A girls’ college was established after World War II, and for a number of years the
schools remained separate, but co-education was completed by the end of the 1980s.
Enrollment grew, new buildings were added, and Anatolia was re-made once again into
the newest incarnation if the premier educational establishment it has always been.
In the words of the former Anatolia President Carl Compton, who knew the school both
in Merzifon and Thessaloniki: “Anatolia College began with few resources beyond the
courage and faith of its founders. Time and again it faced disaster. Three times it has
moved bodily from one campus to another. Three times its doors have been closed by
war. But from each seeming disaster the school rose again, stronger than ever, because of
the courage and devotion of trustees, teachers and staff, students and alumni who refused
to be crushed by circumstances. They never doubted the truth of the college motto that,
‘No matter how dark the night, the morning cometh’
LOCATION, SETTING AND FACILITIES
Thessaloniki, the gateway city to the Balkans, has a rich history. The Guardian calls it a
“city unique not just in Europe, but in the entire history of humanity.” In 1997 it was
named the Cultural Capitol of Europe. Thessaloniki, or Salonica, is the second-largest
city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia, the nation's largest region. The urban area
extends around the Thermaic Gulf for
approximately 17 kilometers and comprises 16
municipalities. The metropolitan population has
approximately one million inhabitants.
Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic,
industrial, commercial and political centre, and a
major transportation hub for the rest of
southeastern Europe; its commercial port is also of
great importance for Greece and its southeast
European hinterland. Thessaloniki retains several
Ottoman and Jewish structures as well as a large
number of Byzantine architectural monuments. The old part of the city is located on a hill
overlooking the sea behind the massive walls of a citadel. The city’s lively and beautiful
center is filled with shops on tree-lined streets. A seaside promenade leads past dozens of
lively cafés to the majestic White Tower.
Alumni and students alike treasure the school’s campus. Anatolia’s three academic
divisions are situated on an extensive, 46-acre campus in Pylea, a Thessaloniki suburb.
The pine-covered grounds are located five miles from the center of Thessaloniki on a
hillside overlooking the city, with facilities on both sides of the road that connects the
villages of Pylea and Panorama. The campus has three main physical divisions: the
North Campus, the Main Campus and the South Campus. The North campus hosts the
Elementary School building (for grades 1-3) and the outdoor play area, the Bissell
Library, and the new ACT classroom and office building. It is connected via an overpass
to the Main Campus. The centerpiece of the Main Campus is majestic limestone
Macedonia Hall, with its display of historic documents and artifacts School students and
classrooms for half of the High School; the Main Campus also houses historic Compton
Hall (home to the IB Diploma program) and Stephens Hall (administrative offices), the
Elementary School building for grades 4-6, the newly renovated gymnasium, Pappas
Hall, Raphael Hall, the President’s residence, the Alumni House, and the Anatolia
Alumni Soccer and Track Field. The Main Campus is connected via tunnel to the South
campus, home to the Kindergarten, the Eleftheriades Library, Ingles Hall (boarding,
dining and offices), the classroom buildings for half of the High School. Outdoor athletic
facilities include courts for basketball, volleyball, handball and tennis.
Anatolia College is in the midst of an extensive remodeling and expansion effort, which
means that many of the school’s buildings are new or recently renovated. Highlights
include the brand new Elementary School, The Rafael Hall Performing Arts Center, The
Ingle Hall Annex, a newly renovated gym, and the Bissell Library.
The Rafael Hall Performing Arts Center renovation was completed in 2007 and includes
rearranged theatre seating for up to 250; a new entranceway and façade; a new foyer,
including an open-plan exhibition and reception space; new backstage and ancillary
spaces for performers; and new storage and scenery-building areas. The Ingle Hall
Annex is a recently erected (2005) classroom building that has added ten teaching
classrooms, a wired A/V classroom, a 25-station computer room, a series of science labs,
an art room, and an indoor exercise room.
Athletic facilities consist of an indoor gym and fitness center, five outdoor basketball
courts, three volleyball courts, two tennis courts, a handball court, and two soccer fields.
A new soccer field and track were inaugurated in the fall 2005, and gymnasium was
renovated in 2008. Extensive renovations are planned for the outdoor athletic facilities
that include courts for basketball, volleyball, handball and tennis.
The Bissell Library, which opened in the fall of 2002, houses the ACT collection of over
23,000 books, videos and CD-ROMS. Already one of the largest general-purpose English
language libraries in Greece, the collection includes subscriptions to periodicals in hard
copy as well as access to over 16,000 journals online through the library's electronic
databases. In April of 2007, Bissell Library was featured on the cover of Choice
magazine, reaching almost every undergraduate college and university library in the
United States - a rare honor, as no libraries in Greece and only a handful outside the U.S.
have ever been featured by Choice.
STUDENTS
Nearly 2,200 students attend one of Anatolia’s three divisions: the Elementary School,
The High School and the American College of Thessaloniki.
The 450 students of the Elementary School come mostly from the local area. Given
Anatolia’s long tradition as an American institution, there is great demand for entrance
into the new Elementary School.
Entrance to the High School is based on a competitive examination in English and Greek
and on previous academic records. The Greek secondary program has a fixed enrolment
of 1,200 students and, in addition, the popular IB program, with a current enrolment of
140 students representing more than ten nationalities, has been increasing in enrollment.
Since its founding, Anatolia College has provided generous financial aid to needy and
deserving students. In 2008, a total of 110 merit/need scholarships were awarded to high
school students. About 40 students at the secondary level, most of whom attend Anatolia
on some kind of scholarship, board at the school. The majority of the High School
students are from Greece, but there are
also students at the school from the
United States, Albania, the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Bulgaria and South Africa. Recent
graduates of the High School attend such
US institutions as: Albion, Amherst,
Bard, Bennington, Boston Univ.,
Bowdoin, Clark, Davidson, Dickinson,
Drexel, Georgetown, Grinnell, Harvard,
Haverford, Kenyon, Lafayette, Lehigh,
Mt. Holyoke, NC State, Northeastern,
NYU, Penn, Princeton, Rose-Hulman,
Smith, USC, Wesleyan, Wooster and
Yale; British institutions attended by recent graduates include the universities of Bath,
Edinburgh, London, Nottingham, Southampton, Sussex, Warwick, and York, as well as
King’s College and the London School of Economics. Graduates also attend other
universities in Europe.
Over 68% of the aproximately 400 students at ACT come from Greece or other Balkan countries
(Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania) and just
over 30% are American students on semester or year-long study abroad programs
from over 35 colleges and universities , including Northeastern, Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Boston College
Iowa State University, Virginia Tech, Cuny/CCIS, etc. The number of Greek students has
declined in recent years because of the government’s refusal to accredit private colleges
and universities. However, this stance is expected to be reversed in the near future.
Northeastern University, in particular, is interested in sending more students to ACT, as
first semester freshmen.
FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION
There are 230 faculty members at Anatolia College, divided among the three divisions as
follows: Elementary School (32), High School (156), and ACT (42). The majority of the
faculty members are Greek, with the following other nationalities represented: British,
American, dual nationals and other European nationalities. The female/male number of
the faculty by divisions is as follows: ACT (30/12), High School (89/67), and
Elementary (25/7). There is a 1:9 teacher: student ratio throughout the entire institution.
One-quarter of the teachers have advanced degrees, with most of them teaching at ACT.
The administration of the school, with the exception of the President is Greek, with some
members having dual citizenship.
ACADEMIC AND EXTRACURRICULAR PROGRAMS
An Anatolia education begins in Kindergarten, where children are taught from an early
age that learning is interesting and fun. Anatolia’s youngest learners experience an
environment that is stimulating and challenging while at the same time benefitting from
the experience and support of their teachers. Classrooms are colorful and engaging and
the curriculum is varied and developmentally appropriate. Some of the outstanding
features of the elementary program include daily English classes, beginning with 1st
grade, wherein class sections are divided into two smaller groups, computer classes
beginning in the 2nd grade, and special activities and programs on Friday afternoons for
3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders.
Since its establishment, Anatolia College (Anatolia’s secondary program) has earned a
reputation for academic excellence based in large part on its dedicated faculty, state-ofthe-art instructional facilities, digital information sources, and extra-curricular emphasis
on the arts and athletics. With a long and impressive record of sending students to the
most prestigious universities in Greece and abroad, AC attracts the best and brightest
students from around the country and overseas. While Anatolia remains the country’s
only private, comprehensive secondary school with a full boarding program, it is also the
premier school in northern Greece for students preparing to attend universities in the
United Kingdom and The United States, especially now that it is one of the few schools
in southeast Europe authorized to issue the IB Diploma.
Anatolia’s on-site student dormitory provides housing for some three dozen students approximately equal numbers of boys and girls - mostly from Greece, but also from the
United States, Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and South
Africa. Most of the students are from towns and villages in Greece, and they Anatolia on
scholarship, having been accepted on the basis of a competitive national examination.
Other boarding students are enrolled in the school's English-language International
Baccalaureate Program. Thus, dormitory life is enhanced by the multi-ethnic and multilingual character of the students.
In addition to academics, the school is known for its extensive extracurricular program,
including forensics, performing arts, and athletics. Recent student honors include a Gold
Medal in the Panhellenic Mathematics Competition, honors in the Panhellenic Student
Physics Competition, and honors in the Panhellenic Computing Competition.
Additionally, the school’s English Program recently received the European Language
Label, one of only four such programs in the country with this coveted designation.
Sports offered at the high school include soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis,
track and field, and ping-pong. In 2000-2001, Anatolia fielded its first girls' soccer team
and took the lead in organizing the first girls' soccer league in the Thessaloniki region.
Since its establishment, ACT has served as a bridge for connecting the United States to
Greece and the Balkans as one of only a very few institutions outside the USA with full
American accreditation. At the undergraduate and graduate levels, ACT’s goal is to
educate the region’s future business and civic leaders. More recently, the school has
served as a venue for American undergraduates seeking to learn more about the Balkans
while on a semester or year abroad program. As students at the Thessaloniki campus,
they can study Greek history, culture and language in an immersive and stimulating
environment that encourages inquiry, debate, exploration and achievement. ACT’s
outstanding facilities truly set the college apart from most other Greek institutions, with
Bissell Library serving as Anatolia’s crown jewel. Inaugurated in 2002 and home to a
wireless network and state-of-the-art digital communication technology, this facility
represents Anatolia’s commitment to educating its students in the American tradition of
depth, breadth and well-rounded development.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT
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being a visible, involved presence on campus in the tradition of American
educators who believe that a school’s mission is to educate the whole person;
working with an administrative team to shape a cohesive institution, based on a
common mission;
revitalizing the “competitive edge” of the High School in terms of its academics,
extracurricular program and boarding division;
working with a provost to shape the vision and strategic plan for the future of
ACT;
articulating the school’s unique role as a cultural bridge between Greece and the
United States to representatives of both governments;
working with the Board of Trustees to develop and implement a strategic plan for
the entire institution, and implementing Board policies.
THE POSITION
Anatolia College has had a history of dedicated headmasters / presidents who embodied
the “missionary spirit” of the school’s original founders. The school is eager for a
leader who is dedicated to the life of the campus, who will take an interest in student and
faculty affairs, and will lead by example.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
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an experienced educator, with knowledge of both American and international
education, preferably with experience at both university and pre-university levels;
administrative/managerial experience, with an understanding of finances;
international experience;
experience as the leader of an institution;
experience with institutional strategic planning and development;
Greek language, a distinct advantage;
willingness to commit for a significant period of time.
DESIRED QUALITIES
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a leader with a genuine interest in students and teachers and in their interests;
diplomatic skills;
vision;
sensitivity to differences in culture and others’ points of view.
Candidates interested in and qualified for this opportunity are encouraged to submit,
electronically, a cover letter expressing their reasons for their interest in Anatolia
College, a current résumé, a statement of educational philosophy, and a published writing
sample to:
Dr. Arthur H. Charles
Senior Search Associate
Carney, Sandoe & Associates
136 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 USA
[email protected]