Philo4Thought Hellenic Professional Mentoring Initiative is pleased to present this month's featured Young Professional! The goal of our publications is to provide positive, successful role models who will inspire the next generation of young professionals. Preliminary criteria for YPM candidates is that they are actively engaged in an entrepreneurial initiative or have made a successful career for themselves, thereby serving as strong role models to the next generation of young professionals. Candidates are typically of Hellenic origin and part of a humanitarian (educational, sociological, scientific, etc.) or environmentally-conscious field. Given the gradual expansion of our readership, we currently interview candidates who embrace a specific Hellenic philosophy best described in a word: Philotimo (φιλότιμο). The most important qualifications all our candidates share are the spirit and compassion to persevere, and the heart to share their knowledge and experience with others.

Ellen Efkarpidis is a graduating Senior at Schreiber High School, where she is on the Principal’s Honor Roll and is a member of multiple honors groups including the National Honor Society. Ellen speaks Greek and French. She was Co-Valedictorian of her Greek Class. She received the President’s Award for Educational Excellence in French and came in 2nd in the national French competition Les Grand Concours. As a member of the Debate Team she came in 1st and 3rd in consecutive LIFA 2019 Public Forum tournaments, participated in a national tournament at Princeton University and qualified for States. Ellen is also an active member of Schreiber’s Future Business Leaders of America; her team came in 1st in the 2020 Wheatley Innovations Competition. She is also an avid and enthusiastic volleyball player, and plays for the Schreiber Varsity Team and while on the JV Team she was Team Captain and received the Coach’s Award. She also co-founded a second volleyball team for the Catholic Youth Organization, who received the Team Sportsmanship Award. She also plays for Archangel Michael’s volleyball team.

In the philanthropic sector, Ellen volunteers and fundraises for the Greek Orthodox Youth Association of AMC and Relay for Life, but today we recognize Ellen for her vision and character as the co-founder of L.E.R.A. Bracelets, an initiative created in support of the Black Lives Matter movement to foster quality training of law enforcement agents so they can Learn, Educate, Respond and Act with a higher level of empathy and awareness. We encourage our readers to support this cause towards progress, equality and justice for all.