About Maria Romas

Maria Romas is a sophomore at the University of Maryland, and is in the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. She is also a member of the College Park Scholars’ Media, Self and Society program, and attends weekly seminars discussing the future of media and its place in the world. She is an editor for the Diamondback, University of Maryland’s award-winning paper, and was a reporter the year an a half before, covering Graduate Student Government, health, crime, student housing and political advocacy. She was a 2011 Athens Fellow for the Reinventing Greece Media Project, and spent three weeks of summer 2011 in Athens interviewing and reporting on people and situations there. Along with her experience in editing — Maria loves to correct people’s grammar and sentence structure — she loves to write. Writing is what lured her to the field of journalism — and any opportunity to write is exciting to her. Maria is active in the Greek American community, as a member of the University of Maryland’s Greek Heritage Society, and is starting up a young-adult Greek dance troupe. She grew up among a flurry of Greek activity, and refuses to give up on it.
Author Archive | Maria Romas

Commemorating the Strong Bond of Greek & African-American Communities

By on March 28, 2013 in Community, East Coast, Events

By Maria Ioannides - On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, the Johns Hopkins Hellenic Association and its President George Petrocheilos hosted a reception honoring the strong relationship between Greeks and African Americans. The event, which took place at Baltimore’s famed Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture, aimed in raising awareness of the existing [...]

Petrocheilos Top Cystic Fibrosis FundRaiser

By on December 7, 2012 in East Coast, Events

On  December 4, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation honored 35-and-upcoming leaders in the Baltimore area for their success in business and community involvement, at the annual 35 Under 35 Finest Event. The reception took place at the historic Baltimore Museum of Industry and more than 200 people attended. George Petrocheilos, 21, who is still a student [...]

Petrocheilos, Melissaratos Make Hellenism Shine

By on October 2, 2012 in Columns, East Coast, Opinion

As a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, I had entered the Mattin Center looking to find the meeting for the Hellenic Student Association. I noticed a couple people speaking in Greek, so I realized that I was in the right place. I did not really know what to expect from a cultural organization. Maybe a [...]

Two Greek-Americans Venture into Entrepreneurship

By on May 7, 2012 in East Coast

In a culture where entrepreneurship is highly valued, it’s not hard to see why two young Greek-Americans have worked hard to make their own way in the world. Kosta Dionisopoulos and Christos Marafatsos, long-time best friends, started Delta Produce — a food distribution company — in their basement, and the business was awarded third place [...]

A New Way for Greeks to Meet

By on April 25, 2012 in Chicago

Sellia Georges is a personal relationship coach…and she loves every minute of it. She and her mother, Dr. Lena Kastrisiou, run a modern dating agency called OnePlusOne. The company started in Greece, and Georges has gradually begun to move a section to Chicago; she has lived between there and Athens her whole life. The Athens [...]

Johns Hopkins Hellenic Students Association Host Successful Greek Night

By on April 25, 2012 in East Coast, Washington

About 750 people attended Johns Hopkins Hellenic Students Association’s Greek Night last Friday, and it left everyone raving. Nine Baltimore-area restaurants sponsored the food, and members of the society said they worked hard to advertise the event to all Greeks in Maryland, especially over the Internet. The highlight of the evening, according to many group [...]

Teaching Greek4Fun to the Next Generation

By on April 9, 2012 in Florida, News

Gamification is the infusion of game design techniques, game mechanics or game style into anything to solve problems and engage audiences. When Taylor Overbey and Stylianos Vayanos decided to employ this technique to education, they came up with Greek4Fun — a game created to fill the need for an entertaining, interactive way to learn a [...]

An Inside Look at the Greek Side of Congresswoman Dina Titus

By on April 9, 2012 in East Coast, Washington

Alice Costandina “Dina” Titus (D-Nev.) is running for Congress in Nevada’s 1st District. The Greek-American politician, who previously served in the 111th Congress, said she is excited to be a part of the Greek group of members of Congress. “I’m excited about running again,” she said. “I’m running in a newly drawn district, which is [...]

Greeks of Baltimore Band Together for Independence Day

By on March 26, 2012 in East Coast, Events

Baltimore, Md. — Outside of St. Nick’s Greek Orthodox Church yesterday, music reverberated up and down Eastern Avenue. From the speakers playing traditional Greek songs and issuing announcements, to the tsabouna players and drummers, the excitement was tangible. At every turn, someone was either smoking a cigarette or making the sign of the cross, beaming [...]