Students Ready for Armenia

Staff Report

Eighteen college students will join Armenian Students Organization advisor and Armenian Studies Program lecturer Barlow Der Mugrdechian for a three-week study tour to Armenia in June of 2001.

The group departs Fresno for a two-day stop in Paris, where they will visit the many beautiful sites, before departing for sunny Yerevan. In Armenia they will visit the many interesting and beautiful churches, monuments, and museums.

But this trip to Armenia is about people as well, and the Fresno State group will have the opportunity to meet with students from Yerevan State University, the main university in Armenia. Whether in informal discussions or in more formal exchange of ideas, the students will be able to explore and compare how life is in Armenia and in the United States.

Faculty from Yerevan State University will give talks to the students on a variety of topics, such as art, history, and current events. Faculty from the school of Business at YSU will explain the economic conditions in Armenia.

A special highlight of the trip will be the fact that it will coincide with activities celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Proclamation of Christianity in Armenia. The group will participate in the Feast of Holy Etchmiadzin, which will be held at Holy Etchmiadzin, on June 17.

A full schedule of activities will enable the students to partake of the social life in Armenia as well as to begin to understand life in Armenia.

A complete description of the Armenian Summer study tour will be published in the October 2001 issue of Hye Sharzhoom.