Kids Love Greece and McKenna join hands for the Congressional Award!

Virtual Expeditions & Explorations: The Congressional Award, is an amazing program encouraging young Americans to conduct their original research on a topic of their interest, providing at the end a detailed write-up for evaluation. We were really happy here at Kids Love Greece to be chosen for an interview by 16-year-old McKenna, living with her parents in Arizona and discussed with our team’s Maria C. about different aspects of life in Greece.

We then changed hats and asked McKenna some questions about her program! Here’s what she told us:

Q: How did you find this Congressional Award program, McKenna? 

A: When I was 13 years old, my mom stumbled across an article about the Congressional Award Program online and it piqued her interest. It seemed like a fun and rewarding experience. She looked into it some more, talked to my sister and me, and we’ve been working on it ever since!

Q: From all the topics offered, why did you pick Greece, and Crete in particular? 

A: With the virtual expeditions, we choose a country or region of interest. I’ve had a particular interest in Greece since I was introduced to Greek mythology in 6th grade. I’ve read many book series about Greek Mythology, including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, Pegasus, and Titans. I’m currently reading the Iliad and The Odyssey. I’ve also seen a few pictures of the turquoise waters and green forests, both rare sights in the Arizona desert. I chose to learn about Crete specifically because it’s the largest island in Greece and I knew I’d be interviewing Maria, who is from there.

Q: Was the info you got during our discussion, what you expected to hear about Greece? 

A: Although a lot of the information wasn’t too surprising to me, there were definitely some bits I wasn’t expecting. One of those was that most people there can speak English, especially those who work in hotels or restaurants that tourists frequent. I also didn’t expect to hear that heating isn’t necessary in many parts of Crete. It can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit where I live, but even we turn on the heater at night during winter. It also shocked me to hear that the Parthenon used to be colored and that Greek mythology can be found in common phrases (like referencing Pandora’s Box or Hercules). I learned a lot about Crete and Greece from this interview that I doubt I would have known otherwise. Taking a trip to Greece has officially been added to my bucket list!

The whole Kids Love Greece team wholeheartedly wishes lovely McKenna all the luck in the world with her program!

Is your kid engaged in a similar program and wish to interview one of our team members? Are you interested in our amazing country and all that it offers? We are here for you!