[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 27573]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    TO RECOGNIZE THE ARGYRO LALOS SCHOLARSHIP FUND AT ARIZONA STATE 
           UNIVERSITY, AND THE OUTSTANDING CITIZEN IT HONORS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ED PASTOR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 18, 2001

  Mr. PASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to recognize the 
Argyro Lalos Scholarship Fund at Arizona State University (ASU), and 
the outstanding citizen it honors, Ms. Argyro Lalos of Phoenix, 
Arizona.
  Recently, the Lalos family, with the help of 20 contributors, endowed 
a scholarship fund on behalf of 93-year-old Yia Yia (ya-ya, which is 
``grandmother'' in Greek), as she is affectionately known, to honor her 
lifelong respect for quality education. Each year, Ms. Lalos will help 
select a recipient of the award, which is in the amount of $500, from 
among the engineering students at ASU that apply. Engineering students 
are the focus because the Lalos family believes that Yia Yia would have 
excelled in this field had she been given the opportunity. Applicants 
are judged on academic standing and essays they write explaining 
obstacles they have overcome in achieving a higher education.
  Her desire to learn was prominent at an early age. Raised in Greece, 
she was pulled out of elementary school because of the perceived lack 
of value in educating young women in that society. Often sneaking to 
school and borrowing school books, she eventually taught herself how to 
read, while never receiving a formal education. She continues to be an 
avid reader of novels and biographies and reads the Greek newspapers 
daily.
  After World War II, Yia Yia came to America with her husband and 
worked as a seamstress while he worked at a dry cleaning and tailor 
shop. Achieving an education was stressed in the household and their 
goal was always to be able to provide their children the opportunity to 
receive a quality education. Throughout the years, with the money they 
saved, this goal was accomplished as Yia Yia's children and four 
grandchildren have all received a higher education.
  Having endured World War I, the flu epidemic of 1918, the economic 
depression of the 1930's, German occupation during World War II, and 
the Greek Civil War, the only heartache Argyro Lalos holds is over 
never having received a formal education. However, assisting today's 
students in overcoming the financial obstacles to higher education is a 
selfless way to give to others the opportunity she never had and 
therefore a fitting tribute to the much beloved matriarch of the Lalos 
family.

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