
Athens College owes its founding to the perceptiveness, determination and generosity of enlightened Greeks led by Emmanuel Benakis and Stephanos Delta, as well as prominent American philhellenes.
A chronicle of the School’s establishment and philosophy, as well as the vision of its founders, is captured by Stephanos Delta in three of his articles, published in 1932 in the journal, Ergasia:
“On August 13, 1925, the Founding Committee was granted a charter under the name "Hellenic American Educational Foundation," with an American sister society established in New York, the two societies having as their common goal the founding of Athens College. Conforming to the vision of the founders, the mission of this School would be to educate and shape the character of Greek boys from Greece and from abroad. The founders dreamt of a school that would provide Greek society with patriotic men, humanists of straightforward character, young men endowed with bodily strength and the intellect required to overcome discouraging obstacles. Its students, in acquiring the secondary education provided to them, would thirst for more knowledge from systematic study and from life itself.
A combination of American and Greek educational systems was considered suitable to achieve such a purpose. The results, up to now, seem to justify the opinion of the founders”. *
* Steph. Delta, “Establishment, goal and undertaking of Athens College, I”, Ergasia magazine, vol. 136 (August 7, 1932), p. 997.