Youth Programs

Youth Programs

Report on the Secondary Schools Partnership to Promote Civil Society, May 2004

Respectfully submitted, Peggy Hovanissian, Chair, Education Committee and Rev. Joanne Hartunian, Project Director -- May 21, 2004

On June 23, a team of high school students and educators representing Arlington and Belmont High Schools and Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, will depart for our sister city,Yerevan, for a three-week cultural and educational exchange with their partner schools, #190 in the Southwest district, #65 in the Shengavit district, and The Knights and Daughters of Vartan School #1. The theme of the program is Secondary Schools Partnership to Promote Civil Society. It is funded by CYSCA, supported by volunteers, and the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Visitors will be hosted by former in-bound exchange participants, and students and teachers will work side by side on joint projects and workshops. Students will attend classes on Armenian language, Armenian traditional dance , anthropology, Armenian government structure and history, and architecture. Joint projects will include games of different parts of the world, concluding the theme unit on creating "embassies" to promote tolerance for diversity and respect for differences. The US teachers will conduct workshops on nonviolent conflict resolution; a US and non-Armenian perspective and historical documentation of the Armenian Genocide; and English composition, including value clarification using critical and analytical thinking skills. In addition, students will volunteer to develop citizen responsibility by visiting an orphanage and creating park and recreation programs for students and children neighboring their schools, thereby using public space for community develpment. There will also be a website class; and taste test comparing similar US and Armenian products, such as US and Armenian Wrigley's chewing gum, Mars bars, US and Armenian Coca Cola, and Pringles. The group will also analyze lyrics of popular US and Armenian popular teenage music. They will also plant tree seedlings and participate in an educational program with the Armenia Tree Project.

This is not an ordinary student trip! Part of the pre departure orientation process, was an overnight retreat at which students were tasked to shop for their food for the time they would spend together using limited funds, walking a mile and a half to the store and returning on foot wirh their purchases as if they were in Yerevan, and preparing, serving and cleaning up. Eighteen students learned to cooperate and work together as at team, needing to decide on a mutually agreed on menu, also a video for after dinner. They talked, played board games and cards until the wee hours of the morning. The weekend was one of working together, learning about Armenia, having fun and team building.

Also as part of the pre-departure orientation, each has already seen online photos of his or her host family's apartment. Together the group has collected 27 boxes of donated gifts and materials, including school supplies, English language reading books for a school lending library which our program initiated. They will also take over 500 Beanie Babies for orphanages and the School for the Hearing Impaired. They will take anti-smoking posters, keychains and games which were requested by our partner students for their no-smoking campaigns in their schools and for programs our Yerevan students have initiated in other schools. They will take water-proof boots and winter jackets for farmers in Armavir.

Students in the group have varied interests and expertise. They have competed in athletics, participated in volunteerism, literary publications, Model UN, mock trials, National History Day competition, and the Massachusetts statewide science Oympiad. One student has won a music award, another a Boston Globe Arts award.

One of our former Armenian student participants, Victoria Ohanjanian from School #190, has just been selected for the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) program, sponsored by IREX. She will come to US to study journalism on the University level in the fall for one year.

Being part of this team of US and Armenian students and educators is a privilege as well as a heavy responsibility. CYSCA and YCSCA are joining hands to create a better world. Through the development of programs to help one another understand our mutual civic responsibility and understand each other's social, economic, political and educational strengths and weaknesses, our program creates opportunities for discussion and democracy in action.

UPDATE: March 20, 2004

Orientation sessions are beginning for the next youth exchange trip to Yerevan:

A group of high school students from Cambridge, Arlington and Belmont and several teachers and chaperones, led by Program Director Joanne Gulezian-Hartunian, will depart on June 23 for a three-week exchange. This exchange, part of the Secondary School Partnership to Promote Civil Society is partially funded by a grant from the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchanges.

Every participant will be hosted by the family of a Yerevan student who has visited us in past exchange trips. In the mornings, there will be study sessions about Armenian culture, language, history and current issues, also classes in which individuals in the group and their hosts will offer each other workshops on topics relating to civil society. In addition, the group will sightsee, carry out volunteer projects and explore some other parts of the country.

FOLLOW-ON PROJECTS FROM SECONDARY SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP

On October 25, 2003, members of last winter's(December '02/January '03) Secondary School Partnership group gave a workshop at School #190 in which they reported on their experience and projects which have followed from it. The workshop was opened with a greeting by teacher Irina Amiryan, who gave a short history of the exchange program. Next Lilit Baghdasaryan described her project on "Fairness" and the "No Smoking Project", in which the group prepared posters, and played the games with fellow students and gave them the pens with "No Smoking" written on them. This resulted in a decrease of the number of smokers at school.

Sona Nazaryan thanked CYSCA for organizing such a wonderful Exchange Program. She said it was a great experience for her and she studied a lot in the USA. She is participatingÊin theÊ"No Smoking Project" and "Makur Yerevan" ("Clean Yerevan"). The students organized a "Makur Dprotz" ("clean school") program and worked in the garden near School #190. The group will gather materials and photos for a school newspaper. Sona is now studying in the Briusov University College and will try to spread these ideas to students there. Edgar Khachatryan told about his "Country Project" in which he researched information on Japan\0x00\0x00\0x00\0x01m the Internet for a geography lesson.

Anna Harutunyan, student at School #65, teaching neighborhood children inthe summer 2003 kindergarten program that she ran as a free service to the community. She taught the English alphabet, sang songs, and talked to the children about what they wanted to be when they grew up.CYSCA had supplied crayons -- which the children used in their abc work and art projects.Joanne Hartunian says of Anna and other Secondary School Partnership alumni/ae "I am proud of the work these kids do when they return to Armenia."

The Principal of School #190, Karine Zatikyan reported that she has seen real results in her school from 3 years' work with CYSCA.Ê Teachers have become more active, the students know the English language better, and they have an e-mail connection with their new friends in USA. In addition they are studying the idea of civil society and try to spread their knowledge to other students.

Lusine Mkhitaryan described the Student Council in School #190, of which she is the President. It was newly-formed at the beginning of the school year.They have 19 members and 3 vice-presidents, and meet once a week. They have set up a suggestion-box in the school where students can put recommendations. Lusine also told about a Club of the Merry and Sharp-Witted, named after a famous program on Russian TV. The CYSCA exchange students said they would be glad to help in this. Lilit Malkhasyan, a student who had not been part of the Exchange said she really wants to be aware of and participate in these students' projects, because she considers that they are doing very interesting work.

At the end of the workshop, I gave them the tickets to Moscow Movie Theatre for special admission to the US Embassy American Movie Classic series.