American University Students Learn the Best Of Both Worlds at WPI

“In 2017 we received permission to launch a pilot program in Armenia. We had 8 students on 2 projects — one project was with the Armenia Eye Care Project and the other with Smithsonian/Mt Armenia,” he added.

In 2018, he assumed the role of center director for the Armenia Project Center and completed all of the work to set up a permanent project center.

“In 2019 we had our first full class of 24 students go to Yerevan to conduct 6 projects. I served as faculty advisor with another WPI professor, Holly Ault,” he added.

AUA fit the bill on several fronts, he explained, as the students already had fluency in English.

Everyone benefits from this collaboration, Aghajanian said.

“The WPI-AUA Strategic Alliance is a mutually beneficial relationship. The AUA students get to come to the US to study and they get to work on projects with WPI students in a project-based learning program that has been celebrated by the National Academy of Sciences as a best-in-class program. The WPI students get a much richer immersion into all things Armenian and get to work on more complex and meaningful projects that they were not able to do with teams of American only students.”

Laura Bilazarian Purutyan, director of youth careers with MassHire Metro South/West Workforce Board, a supporter of STEM education and the parent of a student at WPI, has been helping the visiting students.

“The seven AUA students are full of enthusiasm and adapting well to apartment life on the WPI campus, where they’re quickly acclimating to the 7-week term, very different than the AUA semester,” she said.

She has been working with Lusine Baghsarian, the marketing manager at WPI, as well as the WPI Armenian Students Association and other community volunteers “to coordinate an enriching calendar between January and March. They are vibrant engaging individuals ready to experience as much of the culture and history of Worcester, Boston and New England as possible, without sacrificing their important project work,” Purutyan said.

She added, “They are gathering in the homes of Armenian-American families and connecting with many Armenian students from Worcester and Boston, as well as the 15 Tavitian Scholars who arrived in January for the semester at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.”

The visiting students also took part at a Boston AGBU Center event for hi-tech professionals.

“Ken Martin of Suffolk University and also their AUA photography professor, showed them around Worcester, through the lens of the first Armenian immigrants in the early 20th century,” Purutyan added. (Photos by Martin accompany this story.)

The students have ridden on the “T” and toured the city, including the Armenian Heritage Park. They have visited historic sites in the state as well as visited other college campuses. They are working with non-Armenian students on projects to expand their horizons.

And what do the organizers hope these AUA students will take back?

“[The memories of a] warm welcome and new friendships from the Massachusetts community and a valuable project-based learning experience and new skills they can take back to Armenia. We hope and expect this produces strong bridges that will continue,” Purutyan and Baghsarian said.

The Students in Their Own Words

Four of the students took part in an interview about their stay in Massachusetts as well as what they hope to take back.

Lilit Ghandilyan is a junior majoring in computer science. This is not her first time in the US as she said she has studied at a US high school with the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) program.

Asked what she wants to take back to Armenia, she replied, “Good memories and a motivated team ready to work on our projects. (Anything else can be ordered and shipped to Armenia!)”

“I see this program as an immense growth opportunity for me both personally and professionally and a challenge which has taken me out of my comfort zone. Me and my team are motivated to work on our IQP projects and do our contribution in Armenia’s progress,” she noted.

Another interesting fact about this group is that the majority of the participants is female. According to Ghandilyan, around 40 percent of the AUA computer science students are female.

She added that AUA and WPI are “just different,” with advantages to both. “In WPI courses are faster paced which make you more focused on them. I enjoy that most of our classes are around 30 people in AUA while in WPI there are around 100 people in each of my major courses.”

She is taking an applied statistics course as well as one titled “Foundations of Computer Science.”

Ghandilyan added that she is excited about the project she wants to implement in Armenia. “My team and I are using the Poverty Stoplight tool to measure poverty in Armenia. It is a survey developed to measure poverty in its multidimensionality. According to the data we will identify a high priority need and implement a solution in collaboration with our sponsor World Vision Armenia.

Levon Amiryan is a senior majoring in business and marketing. This visit has been his first outside of Armenia. “Exiting the airport was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. The instant contrast that I felt was incredible,” he said.

“I have loved engineering since early childhood and when I saw the opportunity to study in the US polytechnic institute I immediately applied. Also it was a dream for me to experience what it is like to be a US student having watched so many movies during childhood. Last, but not least, my most favorite professor, who taught me how to shoot gorgeous photos during the AUA summer semester, Kenneth Martin, is originally from Worcester,” Amiryan said.

Amiryan noted that he is participating in My Step foundation’s “Promoting a healthy lifestyle project,” “which aims at problems in Armenian schools, more specifically hygiene and physical education.” He added that apart from the IQP course he is taking a psychology and law course as well as an introduction to materials science.

He noted his delight in meeting with the locals. “The Armenian community of Massachusetts is incredible. The way they greeted us, helped us with every little aspect and made our lives substantially easier and enjoyable, simply cannot be described with words,” he said. Asked what he wants to take back with him: “I wish to take a jar of peanut butter and a bottle of maple syrup as icons of American culture.”

Nina Kirakosyan is a  junior computer science major. Before coming to WPI, she had spent one academic year in Texas several years ago as part of the FLEX high school student exchange program sponsored by the US State Department.

“This collaboration between AUA and WPI is an excellent opportunity for me to experience a new educational approach and appreciate the benefits of project-based learning. I wish to take the teamwork, leadership, networking skills, and academic knowledge acquired through this experience to Armenia,” she said. “This program is also an excellent opportunity to meet professionals from my field, as well as the amazing Massachusetts Armenian community members, so I am happy to use this chance to widen my network and build lasting relationships on this side of the ocean. Also, I am here with a great group, so I am excited about all the memories, the fun we are having and the great friendships that we are building during these seven weeks.”

“The challenges that come with adapting to a new environment, and getting oneself outside of the comfort zone as during this program are opportunities for growth. WPI has a very strong engineering department, which I am passionate about, so I was happy to have the opportunity to take advantage of the courses and resources that aren’t available in Armenia,” Kirakosyan said. The motivator for her was that what she learned here could be applied toward the betterment of her country, one that she hoped would be even more open to females in tech.

“The female majority [of the visiting student group] came as a surprise to a lot of people. I believe that the selection process was very competitive, and I am thrilled to be studying at an institution that has many motivated and intelligent female students, breaks gender stereotypes and promotes women’s role in STEM. Like in the rest of the world, in Armenia as well, the tech industry is male-dominated. However, the ratio of women indeed is higher than in the US and many other countries,” she noted. She stressed that Armenia’s tech industry is thriving.

Kirakosyan explained that her IQP project is about designing a centralized platform “for matching Armenian diaspora resources to Armenia’s needs. We are working with the Armenian General Benevolent Union to support its mission of increasing diaspora engagement and supporting Armenia’s development.”

In addition to her project she is taking artificial intelligence and operating systems courses at WPI. “I am very passionate about computer science, and exploring AI and OS here at WPI is a unique and fruitful experience for me. These are quite intensive courses, especially with all the extracurricular activities that come with this exchange program and the cultural experience of MA that we are here to enjoy, but we are always up for the challenge.”

She also stressed her delight with the warm welcome. “We have been blessed with the support and warm welcome of the Armenian community, which we are very thankful for. I am especially happy to be working on an IQP project that aims to strengthen the Armenia-Diaspora connections for the benefit of our country.”

Aneta Baloyan, a junior majoring in computer science, said this was the first overseas visit for her. Studying at WPI has given her practical experience. “One of the aspects that is well developed in Armenia is the theory and the explicit professional knowledge. From this experience I look forward to taking back also the practice and the soft skills, as working in a team, communication, working on a real-life project from scratch and many other factors that might come up working in a multicultural environment,” she explained.

“We are proud of the gender distribution not only in our university but also in Armenia. We believe that talent must be harvested no matter where it is settled,” she noted.

Her IQP project is also “Matching Diaspora Resources to Armenia’s Needs” sponsored by AGBU. “During our stay, our team will be working on the project by researching and developing the required methodology to realize the project later in Yerevan. The projects require a well-rounded problem-solving and a great amount of teamwork and communication.”

“I am looking for ways to give back to the community that has contributed to my education and development. I guess my guts say that this program is a step forward. Until now, I am getting more and more confident about the decision I made to participate in this program,” she noted.

Besides the IQP, she is taking courses on artificial intelligence and operating systems in WPI.

The group was scheduled to take part in a program on February 28 at WPI on the Armenian Project Center to meet with all the WPI community and share their stories.