Success
In the summer of 2011, 24 Armenian teenagers visited the U.S. to participate in a Youth Leadership Camp. The camp was organized by PH international’s American and Armenian offices in partnership with ARI Movement in Turkey, under the sponsorship of the US government.
With 24 participants from each of the engaged countries, Armenia, Turkey and the United States, a total of 72 teenagers participated in the camp. Upon return to the home countries, each participant has designed a Civic Action Project (CAP). All participants are currently implementing their CAPs.
Overview
Three Armenian participants, Hayk Harutyunyan and Davit Shahnazaryan from Yerevan’s Anania Shirakatsy Lyceum and Arman Ayvazyan from Yerevan’s Polytechnic High School, united into a team and decided to share with their friends from different regions of Armenia all knowledge and skills about leadership they had gained during the US-based camp. They chose 5 schools from various regions of Armenia and in three of them (Yerevan Sch. 132, Dilijan High School, and Vanadzor Sch. 1) they already facilitated 3-hour seminar-discussions. The seminars have been conducted with the support and direct participation of PHI Armenian office’s management. The seminars included discussions about leadership and negotiation skills, introduction to social media and interactive games. In total, the 3 seminars hosted about 70 attendants.
At the end of each seminar, the participants were requested to provide feedback on what was useful and effective, and what needed improvements. For this purpose an assessment questionnaire was used. According to the summary of the collected feedback, the young initiators of this project are confident that the seminars have increased the regional participants’ perceptions of “commonness and unity” and offer a long-lasting positive impact on their self-confidence and leadership skills.
The three students believe that, "Leadership is not an abstract idea - it is diligent action towards the change one wants to see in the world." With this conviction and confidence about their work, excited about the nice feedback they have received from their participants, they are currently planning for the next rounds of leadership seminars.
Armenia | 