Interns meet with HENQ

Yesterday, on the 22nd of June, the interns participated at a presentation by Henq, a youth organization. The presentation, entitled "The Virtual Citizen", was about civil awareness and how citizen activity can be expressed and developed in the virtual world. It raised a friendly debate among the youth and some adults present at the meeting, since the adults didn't really approve the idea of using the internet for engaging civilians in public awareness. The interns shared their ideas about the topic and got engaged in the debate.
After the presentation, HENQ presented their vision and mission.
Since the interns found the meeting with Henq very interesting and useful, we came to a mutual agreement to hold another meeting with HENQ in the near future.

In the caption below- interns Aram Kavoukjian and Diana Oganesyan with the HENQ team.

Welcome Party

We had our welcome party for the interns at "Parvana" yesterday, the 21st of June.

Dances, laughter, chatter, toasting, dances, laughter, chatter, toasting, dances, laughter, chatter, toasting... the whole evening.

(from left to right: Gaya Baloyan, Aram Bedrosian, Anush Petrosyan, Katia Hairapetian, Aram Kavoukjian, Diana Oganesyan, Alisa Darbinian, Ani Boghossian)

 (dancing)

(group photo)

Yerevan City Tour: Museum Day

Yesterday, on the 20th of June, the interns visited some of the museums in Yerevan and toured Yerevan.
So, the first stop was the Erebouni museum....

(from left to right: Anush's cousin Ani, Anush Petrosyan, Gaya Baloyan, Vram Karakeshishyants, Aram Kavoukjian, Diana Oganesyan, Aram Bedrosian)

Next, they visited the ruins of the old Erebouni fortress on the hill above the museum, took pictures of archaeologists working at the site, jumped from one wall of the fortress to the other and did many more exciting stuff....

  (from left to right: Anush Petrosyan, Diana Oganesyan, Aram Kavoukjian, Aram Bedrosian, Gaya Baloyan)

After that, they went the Genocide museum and put flowers at the Genocide Memorial.

In the end they visited the Cascade museum and saw the works of Tarkowsky. They had a longer stay at the top of Cascade, enjoying the view and taking pictures of the city...

  

First Meetings

Today, early in the morning, Anush Petrosyan arrived.
"From the day I left my country I wanted to go back and live there again. With this internship I hope to gain more insight about my country and have another chance to self-actualize myself as a human being. I was very young, when I came from Armenia and didn't apprehend the importance of my country. Now, I have come to a critical time to choose a path in life. To be able to do this, I need to go back to my roots and have an enriching experience about political, economic, cultural, foreign affairs of Armenia."

Around 10 am in the morning Aram and Diana were at the Yerevan Office, both formally dressed, for their first day of internship at the Armenian Development Agency. They had a brief conversation with country director Armina Darbinian at the AAA office then left for the Armenian Development Agency for their instructions.
Below is a photo of Diana and Aram with Armina Darbinian at AAA Yerevan Office.

At the Armenian Development Agency they met with ADA director Robert Harutyunyan.

 (from left to right: Diana Oganesyan, Aram Kavoukjian, Robert Harutyunyan, Armina Darbinian)

Also, they all went to ACNIS, where they participated in a discussion and met with Richard Giragossian, the head of ACNIS.

(from left to right: Richard Giragossian, Aram Bedrosian, Armina Darbinian, Diana Ogensyan, Aram Kavoukjian)

Aram is to do his internship at ACNIS (Armenian Center for National and International Studies). So he received instructions from Richard Giragossian. 

Aram Bedrosian, Diana Oganesyan, Aram Kavoukjian arrive

On Sunday, around 6 AM the airplane which carried Aram Bedrosian, landed at Zvartnots Airport, Yerevan. Five minutes before boarding Aram wrote in his Facebook page "Boarding in 5min". Yep, Aram was counting the days, the hours and the minutes till his arrival to Armenia... "7 days" "5 days" "ready set hayastan!" :)Now he is here.
Diana Oganesyan and Aram Kavoukjian arrived this morning. Now they are probably asleep in their rooms, or maybe awake... who knows. But they're here, at home.:)
Both, according to their FB statuses, are very excited.
Diana had previously written in her essay "I have been dreaming of a summer as an intern in Armenia for as long as I could remember. Many roadblocks have emerged each summer, such as no passport, and age limits. All obstacles have been lifted this year..."
And Aram..."During my last visit to Armenia, summer of 2008, we visited an Armenian day care for underprivileged children and the elderly named Orran. Here after spending a few hours with some of the kids we were making a collage with, hearing their stories and seeing these kids very happy was one of the best parts of my visit to Armenia. That day was one of the first days that I can truly say I volunteered my time to help out my Armenian brothers and sisters, and I enjoyed every part of it. After that experience at Orran I was trying to find another opportunity to go back to Armenia and work as a volunteer or an intern for my homeland."

Me and Katia are very excited to meet them this afternoon.
I will later send them co-author invitations so that they themselves can write about their arrivals, their anticipations and thoughts.