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“Why not do it if you feel you feel so strongly about your idea?” was most people’s response when science teacher Michael Panormitis Pakakis AM came back fired up by what he had seen on an education trip to a space camp in Alabama, USA. He wanted to do something similar in Australia.
“They were doing incredible science and engineering (at the Alabama space camp), it was an incredible way to teach children science. It was a shame not to have something similar in Victoria and Australia,” said Mr Pakakis who is the Director of the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSEC) at Strathmore Secondary College in Melbourne where is also the Assistant Principal.
Governor General of Australia, David Hurley made many commendations, including the following:
Sotiria Liangis (AM) ACT
Sotiria Liangis has appeared in Neos Kosmos a number of times for her charity work. Embracing her new home, she arrived in Canberra nearly 60 years ago from Keratea, unable to speak English, after having just married her husband Angelo. Aged 19 at the time, she was full of energy and, like most Greek Australian migrants at the time, she worked hard, saved her money and created a new life.
The developer behind a number of commercial properties in Canberra, she was also the first Telstra ACT Business Woman of the Year in 1995 and was offered an Order of Australia Medal in 1996 for “service to the Greek community, particularly the aged and through St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Canberra”. In 2001, she received a Centenary Medal for her help to the Greek community.