Historical information

The photograph was taken at the 1992 IPS Bursary awards. Ioannis Coutsouvelis was a bursary recipient. He is photographed with his parents, George & Spyridoula and sisters Anastasia & Ioanna. Tony Drakopoulos, president of the IPS is in the photograph together with Anastasios Tamis (second from right) and George Papadopoulos (far right). Spyridoula became president of the IPS in 2000, the second woman to hold this position.

Significance

In 1987 Panoyiannis Raftopoulos proposed to the IPS Executive the introduction of Tertiary Bursaries to recognise and encourage academic achievement amongst young people of Ithacan descent. Introduced in 1988, the highest achieving Year 12 students (male and female) received an award. The awards continue to this day and are now known as the 'Year 12 Awards' and all students who successfully complete 12 are recognised.
George Papadopoulos, whose father was a founding member of the Society, was active in many areas of public life and a member of numerous community and welfare organisations, including Chair of the Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission. In 2013 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) for his significant contribution to the multicultural community of Victoria.

Physical description

A coloured photograph of 8 people ( 5 men, 2 females and 1young girl) standing in a room.
The youngest man is holding a large envelope in his hands.