NEW YORK (A.W.)—The ARS Youth Connect Program (YCP), featuring a powerful lineup of speakers and dynamic discussions, be held at NYU on March 1.
The full-day program for university students 18-25 years old, includes discussion sessions on Armenian-American experiences, the social and economic challenges facing Armenia, and Islamized Armenians.
The ARS Youth Connect Program will be held at NYU on March 1.
The morning panel on Armenian-American experiences features novelist Nancy Kricorian, filmmaker Talin Avakian, and journalist Raffi Khatchadourian (The New Yorker).
The afternoon panel tackling challenges facing Armenia features three speakers with extensive experience and involvement in Armenia: Armenian Weekly columnist and organization development advisor to the Center for Victims of Torture Kristi Rendahl, Counterpoint International vice president of programs Alex Sardar, and ARF Eastern US Central Committee member and Tufenkian Foundation executive director Antranig Kasbarian.
The program also features a discussion on Islamized Armenians and identity with Khatchig Mouradian, this year’s ARS Youth Connect Program director.
The program will be held on Saturday, March 1, from 10a.m.-5p.m. at New York University’s Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, Room 461. A dinner will follow the program.
Registration is required. A $25 registration fee includes meals and the evening dinner. Overnight accommodation will be offered for out of town students. To register, click here.
For more information, contact the ARS of Eastern USA office at (617) 926-3801, e-mail arseastus@gmail.com, or go to the program’s Facebook event page.
Talin Avakian is an award-winning young filmmaker who has produced, shot, and directed several of her own films. Her most recent film, Demi Pointe, won the Indie Soul Best Picture Award at the 2013 Boston International Film Festival (BIFF). Avakian holds a bachelor’s degree in Film and Video from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She resides in Worcester County, and works full time as a Videographer and Editor at an Advertising Agency.
Antranig Kasbarian works professionally as Executive Director for the New York-based Tufenkian Foundation. His work focuses on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh, involving small business development, social and economic recovery, and the resettlement of strategic border areas. He holds a PhD in Geography from Rutgers University, where his doctoral dissertation dealt with the geography of nationalism during the 1988-1994 war in Karabagh. He is a former editor of The Armenian Weekly, and currently serves on the Central Committee of the ARF Eastern United States.
Raffi Khatchadourian became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 2008. His first piece for the magazine, a Profile of Adam Gadahn, an American who joined Al Qaeda, was published the year before, under the title “Azzam the American,” and was later nominated for a National Magazine Award in profile writing. Khatchadourian has also written for the Village Voice, The Nation, and the New York Times, among other publications. In 2005, he was a journalism fellow at the International Reporting Project, which is based at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington, D.C.
Nancy Kricorian is a writer, essayist, and activist who lives in New York City. She is the author of three novels: Zabelle (1997), Dreams of Bread and Fire (2003) and, most recently, All the Light There Was (2013).
Khatchig Mouradian is the Editor of the Armenian Weekly and the Coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University. He teaches history and political science at Rutgers University and Worcester State University as adjunct professor. Mouradian is a PhD Candidate in Genocide Studies at Clark University, where he is currently writing his dissertation on the second phase of the Armenian Genocide.
Originally from a family farm in North Dakota, Kristi Rendahl lived and worked in Armenia from 1997-2002 and visits the country regularly. She works with the Center for Victims of Torture as the organizational development advisor to 10 torture treatment centers around the world, and is pursuing a doctorate in public administration. Rendahl writes a monthly column for The Armenian Weekly.
Alex Sardar is an ardent advocate for the voice of citizen activists and leaders as they collaborate to find real solutions for real challenges across the globe. As Vice President of Programs at Counterpart International he currently leads the organization’s $60 million programs portfolio in more than 20 countries, partnering with 3,400 organizations to deliver services to 1.8 million people. Alex spent more than a decade living and working in Armenia on citizen engagement and civil society support initiatives. He’s done similar work in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.