10 stories about young change makers in Armenia - Mediamax.am

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10 stories about young change makers in Armenia


Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax


With the support of VivaCell-MTS, in 2017 Mediamax presented 10 stories about young people without fear of changes and challenges. They left the comforts of their usual life for providing thousands of children in marzes with quality education, for teaching them how to dream and make those dreams come to reality, how to think freely and discover their talents. 85 young people have joined the 2-year Fellowship of Teach for Armenia since 2015. They moved to marzes of Armavir, Aragatsotn, Lori, Gegharkunik, Tavush, Shirak for 2 years and taught at 52 schools in need of specialists. 

 

Ms Muradyan, the teacher of “future geniuses”

"Dear Ms. Muradyan, please do not go. Stay with us, we cannot be without you. Wherever I go, wherever I end up, you will be always in my heart, my dear Ms. Muradyan. " (A note from one of Ms. Muradyan’s students)

 

Envelopes of “Acts of kindness” by Mr. Arzumanyan

“First time when I entered the classroom I said, children, from now on I am your home room teacher! They were looking at me very suprised and asked “you moved from Yerevan to stay in our village”? We introduced ourselves to one another and then one of my students said that he wants to sing a song and started to sing a very beautiful Armenian song which is about a person who flies away to his home in his mind. I was very sad for a moment and then realized again that I have to stay here, with these children, we have to change someting together!”.

 

Mr. Vardanyan who showed the way to achieve dreams

I started to believe in myself and my children started to believe in themselves. We share the same difficulties, which means that we can change everything together. Not everything goes the way you would like it to, you just need to be very diligent and be a strong person.  I keep telling my students ‘you can do it, you can learn.’ When I used to tell them that ‘one of you may be the future president or the prime minister,’ they doubted themselves, now they believe it. The most important thing is to believe and have faith in yourself.”

 

Ms. Ghukasyan who teaches how to make mistakes

“There were fewer moments of sadness than happiness, when one of your students who has never raised his hand, does so for the first time, when the student with whom you worked so hard with during the year so he can say “hi” to you, when you see that the student who has never been active during classes takes part in the school performance and you see him laugh and smile, at that moment you get butterflies in your stomach, and you begin to cry and laugh at the same time. Those may seem like small achievements from the side, however when you are looking from within those are the greatest achievements. The smallest step of each student on their way to success is a great satisfaction and happiness".

 

Ms Kocharyan, taught by her students to enjoy every day

“One of the children has a problem remembering and writing letters with none of them written correctly from the very first grade. Now he shows the exercise-book of History or Armenian Language “Miss Kocharyan, I have written this for You, is it nice?”. The other teachers are also satisfied that the students are learning, and I am satisfied, that he worked so hardly, thinking that it will make Miss Kocharyan happy”.

 

Mr. Choukhajian who left America and came to Lori to follow his dream

Learning the language with the help of the songs is not the only unusual innovation that Khachig Choukhajian brought to the village of Medovka last year. The 28-year-old young man stands out with his Western Armenian dialect, lifestyle, and mentality. Last year Khachig followed his dream and moved to Lori region from the United States which is a dream country for most people. University of California Los Angles (UCLA) philosophy faculty graduate now teaches history in the village of Medovka as well as has an after school English club.

 

“The kids were very quiet, only smiling: “who is he, where did he come from, what is going to say?” Perhaps a month later they started asking me questions like, why I moved to their community? what is America like? How life is in America? I did not want to be put a big emphasis of my move, I wanted to place the concentration on the classes, I'm a regular teacher, I'm here, I'm teaching history.”

 

Miss Susana, to whom each student’s opinion matters

“There is such a saying “Be afraid of your dreams, they may come true”. That’s what happened to me. A couple of days ago I put everything aside and was trying to realize where I am, what am I doing. At that time, I realized that I dreamt about this, I always wanted this, maybe only subconsciously. I worked in many places, interacted with so many people, but I didn’t feel comfortable. Now almost everything contributes to the fact that I can understand that this is mine. This is what I need right now, for my personal growth, I have a goal and I work towards it. Now I am on my way to achieving those goals”.

 

Mr. Martirosyan who always stands by his students and gives them wings

One day Mr. Martirosyan out of excitement threw one of the students in the air. The classmates were surprised by Mr. Martirosyan’s excitement so he explains, “the student expressed a brilliant idea and I was so proud and excited that I could not express my feelings with words, I walked up to him hugged him threw him up in the air”.

 

Ms Marikyan, who teaches to let go of fear and love fiercely

“When Mrs. Papyan told me, I’d be the homeroom teacher for the 12th grade, I looked at her silently, thinking that my students are taller than me with age difference of only 5-6 years. Then I found out that the naughty kids themselves asked Mrs. Papyan to appoint me. I got so emotional, I had to leave the room,” tells Mariam.

 

Mr Tsatryan, the ‘culprit’ of students’ success

“The principal must have thought when he saw me on my first day, “How is this kid going to teach anyone?” He asked me every day if anyone was disrupting my classes, and the basic military training teacher said once, “Don’t go home with Henzel. It seems like you are the student.” I used to look like my students, but now my hair’s gone a bit grey and you can notice the age difference,” the young teacher says, laughing.

 

Lusine Gharibyan

 

Photos by Vaghinak Ghazaryan (for Mediamax)

 

VivaCell-MTS is the general partner of the project

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