CYA was founded in 1962 by Ismene Phylactopoulou (1907-1983), a graduate of Wellesley College[2] who received the Doctorate of Humane Letters from DePauw University in recognition of her achievements in study abroad.

In 1986 courses were added on the history, politics, and international affairs of the Balkans, western Asia, and the Middle East in recent times.

Students visit major sites relevant to ancient, Byzantine, or modern Greek history during trips to Crete, the Peloponnese, and Central and Northern Greece.

The CYA Library has a collection of approximately 5.500 books, CDs and DVDs in the fields of philosophy, history, art and archaeology, ethnography, literature, languages, religion and politics, natural sciences, and maintains various subscriptions to print journals and newspapers, a subscription to the Blegen Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as well as part of JSTOR's database of electronic journals and to Columbia International Affairs Online.

It is the first library in Greece to use the open source Integrated Library System KOHA for cataloguing, catalog searches, circulation, and patron management, and also makes use of the Course Management System Moodle, which facilitates instructor communication with students regarding course assignments, on-site meeting times and places, and important updates.