Armenian students give back
While some students are busy figuring out next semester’s class schedules and how they’re going to manage all their finals, the Armenian Student Association (ASA) has been working hard on more than 20 different humanitarian service projects for the community and throughout the world.
Gagik Melikyan, senior in political science and economics, is the president and founder of the Armenian Student Association and said the main goals of the club are to do service and make the world, both local, and non-local, a better place to live for everyone.
This year they have already sent more than 65 shirts and 16 blankets to Zatik Orphanage in Armenia. The shirts were donated by the USU bookstore while 28 blankets were bought and given to the group by Dr. Vijay Cannon. The bookstore donated a total of 440 game day T-shirts to the club so that they could be sent to people who needed them in other countries.
“The T-shirts were the game-day shirts from 2008 and 2009 that we just weren’t using anymore,” said Celestyn Hollingshead, the marketing manager for the USU Bookstore, “so because we couldn’t sell them anymore we gave them to Gagik.”
The other 370 shirts along with the remaining 12 blankets were recently given to the Red Cross Armenian Organization to be given out and disturbed among other orphanages and places where they were needed.
Heidi Harris, costumer service representative, said Melikyan had been working for her and when he found out about the extra T-shirts that the book store couldn’t get rid of, offered to take them off her hands by finding places where they were needed. Harris said she thought this sounded like a good idea and started looking into ways the bookstore could make this happen for the club.
Harris said she’s been impressed with the organization and said, “Every one of these students are on time, hard workers, and fun to work with.”
The group has a special tie with the Zatik Orphanage because this last summer, 12 of their members went there to do service at the orphanage along with several other service-oriented clubs from schools all across the nation.
Mher Petrosyan, senior in business administration and the club’s vice president said, “We went there and renovated the orphanage, played with the kids, and it was a really great group project because we got to work with so many other groups.”
The group is currently associated with the Huntsman School of Business, and 26 of their members are Huntsman scholars. John Huntsman is a well-known name in Armenia, Harris said. Melikyan said Huntsman has built a hospital, a high school and apartments in Armenia and has worked in Armenia to help people gain a better way of life. Petrosyan said Huntsman’s interested in Armenia was sparked after an earthquake which devastated many Armenians.
The group is currently planning an anti-genocide day for April 24. Their goal, according to Petrosyan, is to raise awareness so people can see the harm it did in the past, and therefore prevent it from happening in the future.
Though the club does special service projects for the people in Armenia, Melikyan said the majority of their projects and activities are services that provide for the local community.
“The whole idea was to have our own Armenian Student Association that could help support and promote service,” Petrosyan said. “That’s the majority of what we do, helping the community and creating a better place to live.”
– jessica.black@aggiemail.usu.edu