Costa Joanidis Oral History

Costa Joanidis was an AUC student and alumnus, receiving his elementary and high school education at AUC’s Lincoln School starting in 1947 (part of its last full class before being disbanded), and then graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from AUC in 1957. He offers a portrait of AUC’s student body as comprising mostly foreigners (like Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and other Arabs) or members of ethnic groups like Egypt’s Greek community (to which he belonged) or at the start of his time at the institution, but which changed significantly by the time he graduated to contain mostly Egyptians. He speaks of the benefits of exposure to AUC’s diverse nationalities and religious groups, and how the presence of female co-ed students taught male students (uniquely in the region’s cultural environment) how to work as colleagues with women. Joanidis recalls educational developments like improvements in AUC’s academic standards, a curriculum that came to incorporate more electives and greater emphasis on arts and humanities, and the evolution of the senior thesis requirement. He also recollects the increasing numbers of Egyptians on the faculty during his time at AUC, and the personal, informal relationship with professors, and comments AUC’s role in Egypt. Joanidis relocated abroad after his AUC years (as did many of his fellow graduates), to pursue a career in business in the United States