Hadjinicolaou is student leadership personified

"Studying, volunteering, eating, sleeping, partying, working – those six words sum up my life
pretty well," said 2008-2009 Student Congress President Aris Hadjinicolaou.

He called himself “just your average everyday student” but as Aris Hadjinicolaou began his second year at Marianopolis College, he was anything but.

Now a medical student at the University of Montreal, at Marianopolis Hadjinicolaou was student leadership personified. Having led student clubs beginning in high school, at College Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur, in his last year at the College he was Student Congress president, representing a dynamic student body that boasts 80-plus clubs.

A perpetually smiling face in the busy corridors of 4873 Westmount Ave., Hadjinicolaou said, “I believe in making a difference and improving life, whether it be student life through my position as president of Student Congress or the lives of children in need through my executive position in the Marianopolis UNICEF Club.”

The oldest of four children of Greek immigrants, Hadjinicolaou was a typical Marianopolis student, excelling, as he did, in two seemingly unrelated disciplines – the arts and science.

“I love to dance and have been dancing since grade two. I’m a part of a traditional Greek dance troupe and the Marianopolis Swing Dance Club. Another art I love is music. Ever since I can remember, I have been taking piano lessons and I was a flutist in my high school band.”

At Marianopolis the arts-lover is studied Health Science. As he unpacked the Congress office for the 2008-2009 academic year, he said, “My Marianopolis experience has been life-changing.

"But that’s what you get when you combine students who are highly motivated in both their scholarly and extra-curricular lives, with amazing, hard-working faculty and staff in a warm and inviting environment.”

A few weeks before graduating in 2009, Aris was awarded the prestigious national TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership.