In 2018 the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation supported the Student Competition on Creativity – Critical Reasoning “Out of the Box Challenge”, which is organised by Charismatheia and is addressed to all students of primary schools and junior high schools in Greece and abroad.

In April 2018, the first phase of the competition took place, during which the students were called upon to try their skills in responding to logical and imaginative problems. The 120 children thereby distinguished, proceeded to the second phase, where they had the opportunity to take part in a festival of creation and construction in Athens. The children were tried in skills such as teamwork and communication. The 12 children that were admitted to the last stage of the competition stayed at a camp area for 10 days, where they were given the opportunity to seek and find innovative and realistic solutions to real-life problems while cohabiting with other children. At this stage, students were called upon to use technology to go from idea to practice and produce an original product with a reciprocal benefit to society. The winning team dealt with the topic of collective intelligence describing a smart city focusing on concepts such as security, privacy and freedom.

Charismatheia was founded in 2015 and implements activities aimed at strengthening children’s skills, recognising and promoting talented children and implementing customized education in Greek schools. The action pillars of the organisation are interdisciplinarity, creativity and critical reasoning, and the ultimate goal is the children’s holistic development and future contribution to society.

• More than 1,400 children, from 17 different regions in Greece, Cyprus and Belgium, took part in “Out of the Box Challenge”.

• Subject matter from the competition has been used by more than 600 schools and 6,000 people.