Birthright Armenia Alumni Newsletter | Summer 2015

BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA

SUMMER//2015

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BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA

- Table of Contents Birthright Armenia’s Participant #1000_______________________________________ 3 Catching Alumni Doing Good _______________________________________________ 4 Alumni in Mainstream Media_________________________________________________ 7 #AG Campaign ______________________________________________________________ 9 Pathway to Armenia__________________________________________________________ 10 Heritage Tour Here We Come!_______________________________________________ 11 See, Do, Volunteer, Discover…Live!__________________________________________ 12 Staff Corner__________________________________________________________________ 13 Connect Professionally_______________________________________________________ 13

Summer Edition

Birthright Armenia’s Participant #1000 On May 22, 2015, Renee Bunn, from Petaluma, CA, arrived in Armenia ready to begin her volunteer experience with Birthright Armenia. As she walked through the baggage claim area of Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan, she was surprised with a flash mob, welcome banners, balloons, posters, and a film crew that was on site to capture the moment we have all been waiting for. She was welcomed to Armenia as the 1000th volunteer and soon to be 1000th alumni of Birthright Armenia.

Bunn, 20, is a student at San Diego State University studying International Security and Conflict Resolution. She was not expecting the 40 volunteers, Birthright staff and ensuing celebration awaiting her. In her mind, she was to arrive and quickly get prepared for her stay in the northern region of Armenia, specifically in Vanadzor, a city she’ll refer to as “home” for the next nine weeks. She’s scheduled to run English language discussion clubs at the American Corner as well as at a youth NGO “Union of Loretsis” while living with a homestay family in Vanadzor.

We welcome our 1000th alumni to the Birthright Armenia family and look to the future with stronger numbers and stronger connections.

Click here to watch the 1000th volunteer being welcomed to her Homeland!

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Catching Alumni Doing Good LAWYERS ON THE MOVE

Arman Sarvarian (2005), has started his own business, Sarvarian Consultancy Ltd in London. He opened his practice in October 2014 and focuses on providing expert advice to clients on public and international law matters. Arman volunteered in Armenia for two months with the Armenian Young Lawyers Association (AYLA) Yerevan. Since then he has received a Masters in Public International Law from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Public International Law from University College London. He is also a Lecturer in Law at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. We wish you great success, Arman!

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Alexandra Kazarian (2004) has recently opened her private law firm, The Law Offices of Alexandra Kazarian, in Whittier California. She opened her private practice on May 2015 and specializes in criminal defense. Alexandra volunteered in Armenia for two months with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then she has received her Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law. Alexandra is a current member of the Armenian Bar Association. The best of luck to you, Alexandra!

Arthur Dolmajian (2009), from Montreal, recently

Dartmouth Tuck School of Business – 2015 Georgia and Armenia Global Insight Expedition As our volunteers return to their lives in their host countries, our hope is always to see further engagement by our alum and Armenia continue, may it be through academics, special interests, or profession.

Nick Bazarian (2006) was able to do just that nine years after his volunteer experience with Birthright Armenia.

Nick, currently an MBA candidate at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, has helped organize a class trip to Armenia through the initiative Global Insight Expedition in order to familiarize them with how business is done in Armenia and the opportunities available. The Global Insight Expedition offers students opportunities to travel to a variety of countries to learn how business is conducted around the world.

They learn about each country’s unique business environment, opportunities for social entrepreneurship, and the role of business people in addressing social challenges. The group had 23 students who visited both Georgia and Armenia during their spring break.

came to Armenia through a grant he received from the UNDP Kolba Innovation Lab. He holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal and worked as a Traffic Engineer for the Ministry of Transporta¬tion of Quebec. His goal for returning to Armenia is to work toward improving access to public transportation in Yerevan and integrating it into Google Maps. A recent Pathway to Armenia fellow, Arthur is now gainfully employed as a professor at the American University of Armenia (AUA). As one of the instructors of Summer Graduate Courses, Arthur will be covering Geographic Information System and Environmental Analysis. His course is four weeks long and he plans to continue teaching at AUA in Fall 2015. Click here to find out more about Arthur’s summer class at AUA. Arthur has also been keeping busy with a project he recently went public with for the centennial year of the Armenian Genocide. He released a websites called 100routes.net, which is a dynamic crowd sourced map developed that allows users to input their family’s city of origin in the Armenian Highlands and up to 4 cities they have lived/currently live in following the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Go to 100routes.net to submit your own family route to where you live today. You can find out more about

Kudos to Nick on helping to establish a relationship between future entrepreneurs and Armenia. We can’t wait to see what’s to come!

Click here to find out more about their trip.

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Imagine Armenia: Amsterdam, Almelo, Brussels, Marseille, and Paris Imagine Armenia is a series of presentations organized

by RepatArmenia that discusses topics about today’s Armenia and how to engage. These presentations include a panel that come from diverse backgrounds and have chosen to engage Armenia for different reasons. Some stayed and some returned. The aim is to give diasporan Armenians an idea of how they may create their own reality in today’s Armenia.

Recently, Imagine Armenia made presentations in Amsterdam, Almelo, Brussels, Marseille and Paris. Two of our alumni, Talin Yakob (2014) and Achod Papazian (2011), were part of the panel and spoke about their volunteerism in Armenia and how they have found ways to continue to experience Armenia.

Talin volunteered for 6 months in 2014-2015 and now lives in Utrecht, Netherlands. On June 12, 2015, she organized her own presentation titled, “My personal tie to Armenia”, at the Armenian Church in Almelo, Netherlands. Click here to find out more information.

More information regarding recent presentations: Amsterdam – https://www.facebook.com/ events/1648354678711065/ Almelo – https://www.facebook.com/ events/1591681167774431/ Achod volunteered for 10 months in 2011-2012 and made his official move to Armenia in 2013. He currently works for AEON and plays music in his free time. Click here to find out more about Achod Papasian’s life in Armenia.

Marseille – https://www.facebook.com/events/633555663446728/ Paris – https://www.facebook.com/events/879547195438580/

AMBASSADOR ALUMS RECRUITING OTHERS On April 19, 2015, Parandzem Saakian (2014) made a presentation at the Russian-Armenian Cultural Center in St. Petersburg. The presentation attracted 3540 people to attend, mainly Armenian youth living in St. Petersburg. We have had many volunteers from Russia since we started increasing our recruitment efforts in Russia, and thanks to alums like Parandzem we can expect more soon! Maladetz!

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Alumni in Mainstream Media THIS ARMENIAN LIFE written and directed by Laura Zarougian (2013) was performed live in front of a packed audience in February at the MLG Gallery in Chicago. The show evolved from stories passed down from her grandparents, as well as proverbs and Nasreddin Hodja stories she heard growing up. Through these stories Laura was able to create a performance piece that would get at the very heart of what being Armenian means to her.

In lieu of charging for admission, attendees were asked to donate to Children of Armenia Fund (COAF).

Laura graduated from Cornell University in 2012 with a B.A. in History of Art.

Emily Mkrtchian (2011) and Alex Igidbashian (2013) were selected as the official videographers for a featured length documentary about Tigran Hamasyan’s Luys i Luso project, part of which is the international tour taking place this year. A big part of the filming will be done in June when they travel through Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey filming performances in Armenian churches. In the fall, the tour will also be heading to Europe and the U.S.

Emily and Alex’s film Հատանցում (Traversed) was just accepted to the Golden Apricot Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere. Hopefully more festival admissions will follow!

Click here to watch the trailer for Traversed.

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Hunter School of Music Amy Hunter (2009) opened the Hunter School of Music in March, 2015 in San Jose, CA. Amy received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Piano Performance from Temple University’s Esther Boyer School of Music and Dance in Philadelphia, PA, where she studied with Dr. Charles Abramovic. After finishing her studies she stayed in Philadelphia and began to do group and private piano lessons, accompanied by numerous choirs and soloists, and learned to play the organ. In 2011 she lived in Washington, DC, where she continued to teach and worked as an Education Associate at Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS). She moved to San Jose, CA in 2012, where she started establishing the Amy Hunter Piano School in her own home. As her studio began to grow and she wanted to offer more musical opportunities for her students, she decided it was time to get an official place for her business. Now she is able to do more and provide her students with more opportunities to develop and grow. We wish you all the best with your new endeavor, Amy!

Visit https://amyhunterpianoschool.wordpress.com to find out more about the Hunter School of Music.

Click here to see an article about the Hunter School of Music in the mainstream!

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#AG Campaign The Centennial events around the world were inspirational and unifying during the months of April and May. We want to take up this space to thank everyone who helped forward the #AG Campaign BR launched on April 1st to become the widespread, global awareness campaign it grew to be! The premise was simple, as at the heart of this campaign were simply two large, black, prominent letters, an “A” and a “G” that we asked everyone to place on the back of their hands in full view to get the “selfie”. It was only with the help of our alumni that we were able to coordinate all over the globe and get tens of thousands of people to participate in the campaign via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 130,000 tattoos were distributed to 21 countries around the globe, where BR/DH alumni played the front and center role of distribution center to the rest of their community.

The stories that were shared connected many and reaffirmed their identity as Armenians. We had influential people from Armenia as well as abroad, who are of Armenian decent, join the campaign to spread awareness.

Many stories were shared and many were able to learn their family stories for the first time. It was a unified movement and one that reached far and wide.

Thank you again to those who helped make this campaign powerful and successful.

Visit www.agcampaign.org to read the stories that were shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click on images to read their family story.

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azmig Karamanoukian (2014), from Beirut, Lebanon, returned to Armenia in March 2015 as a Pathway to Armenia fellow. After applying to many different jobs in accounting, finance, and consulting, he was able to secure a job with Armecenombank as a Market Research Specialist. Razmig has a B.A. in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut.

PATHWAY to ARMENIA

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ofia Sargsyan (2014), from Brussels, Belgium, returned to Armenia on March 3rd as a Pathway to Armenia fellow, and found a job through a European organization, International Organization for Migration (IOM). IOM aims to create experiential exchange and transferring of skills through working with organizations in Armenia. Through IOM, Sofia is working with the French-Armenian business club (CAFA) and the French Embassy in Armenia. She is responsible for providing expertise to CAFA in order to strengthen their structure and to help find the best approach for French companies to contribute to Armenia’s development. Sofia has a B.S. in Economics and Management and a Master in Management Science from the Université Catholique de Louvain.

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ayane Bagramyan (2014), from St. Petersburg, Russia, arrived in Armenia as a volunteer in November 2014 and decided to become a Pathway to Armenia fellow right after completing her volunteer service. Gayane was offered a job by Mariam Finberg Studio as a Graphic Designer while she was still volunteering. The Pathway to Armenia program was a great way to help her during her first three months as she started her new job. Gayane has a Master in Applied Informatics in Computer Design from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

Heritage Tour Here We Come!

The Armenian monastery on Gdouts island (Photo: George Aghjayan) What do you get when you combine our founder, two guides, four staff members and 56 BR alums together for 8 days? You would get an inspirational journey to historical Armenia, July 23-30, to celebrate our heritage, the centennial, and our first decade of success all in one! Stay tuned for photo collages, anecdotes, blog posts and so much more from all of us, who are anxiously awaiting this trip of a lifetime!

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See, Do, Volunteer, Discover‌Live!

Many of you may be looking for something to show your friends and family that will convince them to apply for Birthright Armenia today. This video might be just that thing!

Our 3 volunteers: Akexander Harvey from the US, Florence Low from the UK and Lorie Enezian from France take the roles of the main characters. Their individual stories blend into a single theme showing how diverse and rewarding the Birthright Armenia experience can be.

Click here to watch now.

Leadership Retreat We had a successful retreat in New York City on May 23rd, with the board and seven alums collectively brainstorming on how to grow the Birthright Armenia program in depth and breadth over the course of the next 10 years. Many thanks to Harout Manougian, Meredith Derian-Toth, Anoush Tatevossian, Arpine Baghdasarian, Lily Abagyan, Christine Serdjenian, and Nick Bazarian for their time, effort and valuable feedback. We will be wrapping all the key items that resulted from the retreat into a draft memo of what our vision for the next 10 years looks like, continuing to refine our thoughts over the summer months, and will share with you in the upcoming issues of this newsletter.

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Staff Corner Lusine Avanesyan joined Birthright Armenia this past March as a Jobsite Placement Assistant Coordinator. She holds her Bachelor’s Degree from Yerevan State Linguistic University and a Master’s Degree in Political Science and International Affairs (PSIA) from the American University of Armenia. Lusine is fond of music, photography and actively participates in forums relating to youth in Armenia. She believes engaging in social development and change in Armenia is very important for self-development. Her motto in life is “ Be the change you want to see in the world”. Please join us in welcoming her to the BR team!

CONNECT PROFESSIONALLY ON

Accelerate your career by joining our professional networking community on LinkedIn. Connecting with alum can help you discover business opportunities, land exciting jobs, distribute job listings, and get introduced to inside connections, all through your affiliation to Birthright Armenia and fellow Depi Haykers. Our alumni base, which now represents 32 different countries across the world, is well connected and you may be surprised by who they know.

STAY WITH US!

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