CHARLOTTE, NC – Christina Hanos, a 17-year-old senior at Clarkstown High School South in West Nyack, NY, recently represented her parish, Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in West Nyack in the annual St. John Chrysostom Festival held on June 11 in Charlotte. The competition requires participants to select from several topics and write and present four-to-five-minute sermon about their faith. Hanos won the National Competition, her second time doing so (she also won in 2014).
Hanos plans to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Fall in a seven-year medical program with Albany Medical College.
Sophia King, the Chair of the Parish Level Competition at Sts. Constantine and Helen, told TNH that “the competition for Christina began at the Parish Level on April 3, as a Senior Division participant. Christina gave her sermon in front of the community and advanced to represent our parish at the next level, the District Level, which was held at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Manhattan on April 16.
“She competed there against representatives from all five boroughs, Westchester County and Rockland County. She placed first at that level and then represented the region at the Metropolis/Direct Archdiocesan District Level, which was held at St. Barbara’s in Orange Connecticut on May 14.
“She competed there against representatives from the Long Island, Connecticut and Washington, DC, districts. She placed first at that level which led her to the Nationals, held at the St. Nektarios Shrine Church in Charlotte.
“She represented our Metropolis there and competed against the eight other Metropolises of the United States and placed first, winning the competition, and was awarded a $2,000 scholarship. Present at the finals was Archbishop Demetrios.