On June 8, a group of twelve students arrived in Athens to learn about Greek civil society and how it has stepped up to empower, rehabilitate, and legally support recently arrived refugees. The program provided students with an orientation to the place with lectures on Greek histories of internal and external migration, the development of Greek and European refugee law, and modern Greek language. Hellenic Education and Research Center's (HERC) founder Andronike Makres shared how contemporary Greek society and refugee issues can be situated within the "decolonization of classical education”, by teaching the paths from heritage to contemporary societal structures and issues, rather than isolating the past as an idealized Greek phenotype.

Throughout the trip, students visited service organizations in Athens and on the island of Lesvos. At Zaatar NGO, they were briefed by co-founder Marina Liakis on the experience of training and employing refugees in the restaurant Tastes of Damascus. Students learned about the Failte Centre’s individually tailored education and psychological counselling efforts in the working-class Metaxourgeio neighborhood, and the non-hierarchical collective KHORA that provides free clothing, food, asylum application support, and work and art spaces to those in need. After a final Athens visit to a social ‘polyclinic’ run by Doctors of the World, the group flew to Lesvos where they were guided through the Mavrovouni refugee camp. The tour, lead by a Lesvos Doctors of the World representative, covered administrative offices, healthcare and educational facilities, and residential tents within the camp. This provoked much discussion among the students about their privilege in being able to visit such a space, and how they could direct their experience towards ethical and constructive ends. On their final day in Lesvos, students met lawyers at Fenix, a legal aid NGO supporting asylum applicants and protecting refugee rights, to hear their knowledgeable insights about refugees’ lives and human rights within such camps.