Armenia Leadership, Education, Action, Development Project | 2021 - 2023
The purpose of the Armenia LEAD project, funded by the U.S. Department of State, Public Diplomacy Section, is to equip 180 Armenian regional youth with essential soft and hard skills helping them to mature into successful professionals and engaged citizens of Armenia and of the world. Additionally, the project works with their schools and educators to create an enabling environment for youth development and civic activism.
The project will deliver the following activities:
o Administration of 250 hours of English instruction (targeting intermediate level) and 70 hours of personal enhancement/development activities for 180 beneficiary youth aged 13-16, from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, living in 9 regional communities of Armenia.
o For 50 youth aged 13-16 from socially disadvantaged backgrounds living in 9 regional communities of Armenia creation of opportunities to learn methods of community needs assessment and project design for implementing community action activities.
o Facilitation of training for 18 in-service English teachers from selected regions in lesson observation skills for better identification of their own strengths, areas for improvement and for more informed decision-making about their students.
o Towards the end of the 2-year cycle of the Access program administration of a Mini Grants component: using the skills that the beneficiaries have learned, the 180 alumni of the program will lead an opportunity to form teams with peers from their communities to design and apply for 9 Access Small Grants aimed at identifying and solving community issues by engaging other youth, their teachers, parents and key community members.
Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers | 2019 - 2023
“BUILDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAPACITY FOR ARMENIAN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS”
IMPLEMENTATION TIMEFRAME: October 01, 2019-September 29, 2023
FUNDER: Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan
The project consists of two components: English Access Microscholarship Program and English Language Teacher Training.
English Access Microscholarship Program
The purpose of the English Access Microscholarship Program is to make the study of English more accessible to adolescents from an economically disadvantaged background. In addition to working on their language skills, the participants of the program become familiar with aspects of U.S. culture and develop a deeper understanding of current world issues, specifically in North America. Greater sensitivity to cultural differences coupled with newly-acquired language skills will enable the participants to take advantage of the opportunities that had previously been unavailable to them.
Five English Access Microscholarship program sites were established with a total of 100 students recruited from Vanashen and Surenavan communities from Ararat region, Arpi and Yeghegnadzor from Vayots Dzor region and Ttujur from Gegharkunik region that will study intensively over the course of 20 months, from December 2019 to September, 2021. This course of study will include after school instruction of 3 lessons per week/360 hours over 20 months and 70 hours of personal enhancement/development activities. In addition, a 2-month, 20-hour Internet-Computer basic training course has already launched in the schools Computer Labs conducted by the partner schools’ Informatics/IT teacher or another trainer from the community. In the period of February-March, 2020 the contracted 5 Informatics/IT teachers from 5 Access sites will work with the students to provide the course.
English Language Teacher Training
To build on the successes of the Access program and extend the best teaching experiences throughout the country, as a second component of the program, PH will initiate training of English language teachers. This training component will be implemented in three stages and will produce two cohorts of teachers across the country: 10 mentor teachers and 40 in-service teachers better equipped with professional knowledge, skills and attitudes. 10 teachers will be trained through a 7 day training of trainers (ToT) to be mentor teachers and train 40 in-service teachers of English language over a 5 day program.
In 2014-2015, building on success of previous social inclusion initiatives, the U.S. Embassy, Yerevan partnered with PH International to bring the “Wonder-ful Life” project to Armenia. “Wonder-ful Life “- is a series of activities based around the reading of Wonder, R. J. Palacio’s prize winning novel about a young boy with a severe facial disfigurement and the challenges he faces when he enters public middle school.
PH International worked jointly with the Ministry of Education of Armenia and the National Institute of Education to train 30 teachers from around the country who then facilitated group readings and discussions of the book with their students during the Social Inclusion Month in February, 2015. In addition, copies of the novel were distributed to libraries, schools, and NGOs in Armenia.
Armenian students were encouraged to create post cards featuring the Wonder bookcover on one side. The best designs were then printed on real cards and students sent them to the U.S. Ambassador, the Minister of Education, and the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs with a brief idea about how they could make their community more inclusive.
The Developing Online Tools for Community Outreach and Mobilization (DOTCOM) program engaged media-savvy and civically-engaged youth from Armenia, Azerbaijan and the U.S., providing training and opportunities for these young people to create socially conscious media impacting communities in the U.S. and the Caucasus. The program was sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and supported by a global network of organizations.
The first phase of the program began in early 2009, when 90 Armenian, American and Azerbaijani students began online collaboration by exploring youth issues through the lens of media, creating their own documentaries, digital stories, short films, public service announcements and other media for distribution internationally. In May 2009, the second phase of the project began. Based on their achievements in the first phase, 30 students (ten per country) were selected as program finalists, and traveled to the U.S. in July 2009 for advanced media and social action training. In March 2010, ten American high school students joined international peers on a visit to the Caucasus, which included participation in the regional Social Media for Social Change conference in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The program was a tremendous success, with all students going on to reach personal and academic goals beyond their involvement in DOTCOM. For more information about the online learning component of the program, as well as links to student blogs and the DOTCOM YouTube page, please visit the program forum: http://www.netvibes.com/phdotcom#DOTCOM-Home_Page
TCON Consultancy Project: Project Harmony was contracted by the Republic of Armenia's Center for Implementation of Educational Projects as a consultant for basic computer literacy training, giving training to 708 educators from Gegharkunik region’s secondary schools. The level of community support for the program was remarkable, with media coverage of PH activities on several occasions.The consultancy took place from Feb. to Sept. 2008 within the framework of much larger national program called “Republic of Armenia Education Quality and Relevance Program”, funded through a credit received by the Republic of Armenia from the International Development Association.
Through its different components, the “Republic of Armenia Education Quality and Relevance Program” aimed at raising the quality of general education, ensuring its relevance to the new economy and building a professional workforce among Armenian educators and students.
CELEBRATING OVER 35 YEARS
OF GLOBAL SERVICE Honor the Past and Invest in the Future
If you would like to make your gift in honor or in memory of someone special please fill out the form below and continue to the donation page by clicking on the 'Donate' button.
If you'd like to make a donation with no special attribution please just click on the 'Donate' button and continue to the donation page.
Armenia Leadership, Education, Action, Development Project
