ETHOS • FALL 2020
“Everything is political” An Interview With Dr. Natalia Linos, Running For US Congress by Ann Marie Martinou, Academy student
I
am not the type of person to refuse to grab a unique opportunity when it is presented to me; I constantly strive to work on what makes me passionate and engaged. This value emerged as I was scanning through my new emails on a warm summer day and one title stood out in particular: “Unique opportunity to interview an ACS Alumna running for Congress.” I was intrigued by the idea, however, could this be true? Could I really have the opportunity to interview someone running for United States Congress? To my surprise, I quickly found out that yes, this was true, the opportunity was bestowed to me by my teachers. A few email exchanges and hours of research later, on Thursday, July 24th, I had the utmost honor to interview Ms. Natalia Linos, a social democrat running for Congress in Massachusetts’ Fourth Congressional District. Natalia Linos is a Greek American born in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a social epidemiologist, an experienced public servant, and a mother of three. Growing up, Natalia had a passion for health and she was destined to pursue a career in medicine; her dad is a surgeon and her mom is an epidemiologist. After perform-
ing some initial research on Ms. Linos, one question quickly dawned on me: how does someone who is passionate about medicine decide to run for Congress? After sitting through an interview with Ms. Linos, along with the supervision of Ms. Carla Tanas, the Dean of the Institute, I am ready to share the answer to this daunting question. Perhaps I did not make one thing clear enough: Natalia Linos attended ACS Athens when she was younger! As psychology strongly suggests, the environment which a child grows up in greatly affects the child’s perception of the world around them. Ms. Linos is no outlier to this fact. AMM: Do you believe the fact that you attended an international school, ACS Athens, influenced your perception and your drive to fight injustice, and, if so, to what extent? NL: Yes, I certainly do. I think one of the main ways that injustice works is through discrimination. In the US, it’s around racism, it’s this discrimination against different groups. In Greece, it could be around Roma populations or people of other ethnic or religious backgrounds. I think the fact that our school was so diverse, included people of many religions, people of many linguistic backgrounds, and many ethnicities, allowed me to break down the isolation that allows you to have these views of the other being inferior. Fundamentally, I see inequities as not about personal failures or inferiority of one group versus another, but just as a failure of our society, of our laws, of our systems, to provide the same conditions for everyone. I think ACS is one of the most diverse schools in Greece. It gave me the opportunity to have these conversations and friendships. “Fundamentally, I see inequities as not about personal failures or inferiority of one group versus another, but just as a failure of our society, of our laws, of our systems, to provide the same conditions for everyone.” Following her graduation at ACS Athens, Ms. Linos attended Harvard University, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, her Master of Science in Social
