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Fund for Armenian Relief
Press Release
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Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR)
Press Office
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
email: press@farusa.org
web: www.farusa.org
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A Diasporan in Armenia:
Jason Paul Kazarian from Texas discovers Gyumri and its young talents in unique way.
Life in Gyumri is a far cry from Texas for Jason Paul Kazarian. But when the opportunity arose to fill the vacant Executive Director position at the Gyumri Information Technologies Center (GITC/GTech), he accepted it without hesitation.
Moving 5,000 miles away from his home country provided quite the lifestyle change for Mr. Kazarian, both professionally and personally. But the vision and goals he had for GITC prompted his move and have remained his priority.
Each day for him at GITC - a competitive post-graduate IT institution - varies. On Mondays, he teaches a class for students working on their thesis projects and helps them with the organization of their papers including the format, thesis, thesis chapters, and gives overall guidance to the 20 students so they can graduate on July 14. Mr. Kazarian also makes it a point for himself to travel out of Gyumri into Yerevan to do development work and build partnerships between the IT industry and GITC. There he frequently visits the FAR office. He also spends his time writing grant proposals and finding sources of revenue, in addition to supervising GITC's employees.
Founded in August 2005, GITC promotes the IT industry, drives the formation of an IT infrastructure and promotes employment opportunities in this area devastated by the major earthquake in 1988. GITC has graduated about 50 young adults. In exchange for nearly free training, students commit to remain in the Gyumri region for two years following graduation.
The cultural differences between Armenia and the United States are ones Mr. Kazarian has observed while living in Gyumri. "The way women and men engage with each other is similar to the US in the 1950s," said Mr. Kazarian. "The women's lib movement hasn't taken full effect, although it seems it's going to happen with the current generation who are 25 and under. I'm seeing a modern mindset in some of them," he said, noting that Gyumri is a mix of eastern and western cultures.
"It's interesting to look at our students because they have a provincial mindset. Gyumri has a population of 150,000 people and there's a prevailing village mentality," said Mr. Kazarian, who has a bachelor's and a master's degree in computer science.
Moving across the world naturally poses many challenges and obstacles to complete even the simplest tasks. "There's not an open market for rental property," said Mr. Kazarian, who had to hunt for a place to live when he first moved to Gyumri. "Something as simple as finding a place to live is basically done by word of mouth." He compared Gyumri to most European cities where it's very compact. Mr. Kazarian walks 20 minutes to work every day and doesn't need a car to get around, as it's easy to get everywhere on foot.
Originally from California, Mr. Kazarian lived the last 14 years in Texas. He has been in software development for about 25 years and spent three years in industrial education in technical topics such as telecommunications and software development. Prior to joining GITC, he worked six years as an independent contractor for multiple customers and owned a boutique IT company.
Mr. Kazarian's vision for GITC is three-fold. He wants to modify the curriculum so that there are no prerequisites to complete before enrolling in GITC, other than earning a degree from a public institution. He would also like to hire local Gyumri-based full time faculty which both reduces expenses and improves the quality of student life. "Now we have instructors who commute from Yerevan and come once a week," said Mr. Kazarian. "There is no opportunity for students to interact with their teachers. Having our own faculty will also make it easier for students to get help on projects and homework assignments during the week."
He sees GITC moving from an academic model to a vocational and certification model of training which is more job-focused and will be more beneficial to students who don't want a college degree but want to work in a technical discipline. "The vision is going towards that direction. We are targeting people that don't have those kind of resources and are being ignored by the rest of the educational community," said Kazarian.
In addition, Mr. Kazarian wants GITC to engage with more Americans, in particular, American-Armenian companies and have GITC students perform outsourcing and off shoring work for them. "We need to build bridges with these companies who are moving in that [off shoring] direction, especially with the recession we have going on in the US," said Mr. Kazarian.
"Armenia is an optimum market for generating wealth through intellectual property. Salaries paid for talented technical specialists are reasonable, even when compared with Chinese and Indian markets. Dozens of companies are engaged in hardware and software product development for export, including National Instruments and Virage Logic. Some organizations, Epygi and Synopsys to name just two, are betting the entire company's future on Armenian based talent--and winning. GITC is becoming a bridge to Gyumri for companies like this and many others. I would love to see this opportunity - GITC, explored and supported by, especially, young generation of Armenians from Diaspora."
Mr. Kazarian is indeed enjoying his position at GITC and living in Gyumri. Two of his favorite things in Gyumri are the weather, which he said is comparable to Denver, and the healthier food, including the locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.
Gyumri, located 75 miles outside of Yerevan, is the second largest city in Armenia, and has made substantial progress since it was hard hit with the earthquake in 1988. The calamity took the lives of 50,000 people and injured scores of others. "One of the big changes is the amount of construction since I was here in December 2006 to today. There are buildings popping up everywhere. I've seen 3 or 4 multi-story large buildings go up in spaces that were vacant in a little over 2 years. Earthquake-wise, they're rebuilding the original Armenian Church, and the project is coming along. There have been a lot of changes. It doesn't look anything like it did, five, or even two years ago."
There are many things Mr. Kazarian wants to accomplish as Executive Director of GITC, including starting a full-time faculty, hopefully with the participation of Diasporan Armenians. "I wish I could encourage people in the IT industry who want to become educators to come and teach at GITC," said Mr. Kazarian. "If we had half a dozen people who would be willing to move here for a year or two, we would have a cutting edge educational institution. We would like to have people from the Diaspora to come here and do something different than a typical nine to five job."
Mr. Kazarian's friend from Texas, Mr. Ken Maranian, participated in FAR's Young Professional's Trip to Armenia in the summer of 2006 and had an incredible experience that he shared with Mr. Kazarian once he returned to Texas. Mr. Kazarian was interested in Mr. Maranian's experience with GITC and contacted FAR to start volunteering and teaching part time. "When I came back and told my parish about the trip and how wonderful and promising it was, Jason got in touch with FAR and started teaching there," said Mr. Maranian. "We're really proud of him."
Patrick Sarkissian, one of the founders of GITC said he is proud of having Jason as the Executive Director of GITC. "As a fellow American-Armenian, I am amazed by Jason's sacrifice and dedication. As a colleague from the IT industry - I am impressed with his talents and capabilities," said Mr. Sarkissian. "He is bringing western business ethics and culture to GITC."
While there may have been no hesitance on Mr. Kazarian's part when he assumed the Executive Director position at GITC, the staff was concerned whether he would be able to adjust to the realities of life and culture in Gyumri. Those concerns, however, eventually faded. "We thank God Jason is with GITC," said Amalya Yeghoyan, Deputy Executive Director of GITC. "Students admire him, even though he is a tough and very demanding teacher, and the staff owes him a lot for an incredible learning curve we have gone through under his leadership. Jason is an excellent example of what Diasporan Armenian could do in Armenia."
"Jason is helping the young talents in an area devastated by the earthquake to regain hope for a better future," said Mr. Sarkissian.
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About FAR
Since its founding in response to the 1988 earthquake, FAR has served hundreds of thousands of people through more than 220 relief and development programs in Armenia and Karabagh. It has channeled more than $265 million in humanitarian assistance by implementing a wide range of projects including emergency relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic development.
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For more information on FAR or to send donations, contact us at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone (212) 889-5150; fax (212) 889-4849; http://www.farusa.org; e-mail press@farusa.org.
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