End of Era as St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School Principal Boyamian Is Set to Retire

Founding SSAES

The school, with grades pre-K through 5, is currently the only Armenian day school in New England. Its pre-school division is accredited by the state’s Department of Early Education and Care, while the K-5 part of the school has been accredited by the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE), which requires an exhaustive set of tests and reviews.

“I knew that in order for the school to be successful, we needed to keep the academic standards high. Otherwise, the alternatives, the choices are too many and too good. We are surrounded by the best private and public schools in the nation. And our parents pay for their children’s education when they send their kids to St. Stephen’s, when they can send them to a free public school,” Boyamian explained.

She worked hard for the accreditation of the school by AISNE, with the third cycle happening in October.

She said that in addition to the high standards, the school strives to instill in students the importance of their heritage. “We made sure that our alumni understand that when they graduate, they have a responsibility because of their Armenian education, to serve their community, or to serve in Armenia. We have a good number of alumni students now who have moved to Armenia and are working there. Even here, my biggest joy is to see our alumni serving in different organizations and taking leadership roles in our area,” she said.

Alumni from the school have attended some of the best universities in the country, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tufts.

Boyamian said she hopes one day there will be a middle school. “The greater Boston area deserves an Armenian middle school,” she said. “We need to give that opportunity to students who want it.”

Importance of Armenian Schools

The Beirut-born Boyamian is an apostle for Armenian schools. She attended the Armenian Lyceum (Hay Djemaran) whose official name is the Nshan Palanjian Djemaran, where her father, Karnig Panian, was the vice principal.

“My father was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide — the only survivor of his family,” she said. While he did not speak much about his horrifying experiences with his family, he kept a diary and wrote his memoirs, Goodbye, Antoura: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, published in Armenian in 1992 and in English in 2015.

“This is how we found out what he went through,” she said.

“My father was looking forward. He was optimistic by nature. His idea was we have lost so much and now we can’t lose our language, culture and identity. That’s what he worked on his whole life,” she recalled.

She studied at the French University of Beirut and received her pharmacy degree. In 1986 she and her husband, Avedis, and their three children left for the United States. “It was no longer possible for us to stay there,” she said.

Once in the US, Boyamian noted she stayed home one year to study for her pharmacy state board exam, after which she passed her test and started working as a pharmacist.

However, only a short while later, the members of the nascent SSAES board came to her, asking her to become the principal.

“The reason they came to me was some of them knew my father and they knew I was a graduate of the Djemaran and I could do the job. I didn’t think twice. I thought there are a lot of pharmacists in the area, but that if you can’t find a principal, I will take the position,” she said. “I went back to college to receive my master’s in education and also a certificate of directorship for early education.”

Her father is her idol, she explained.

“My father is my role model, my inspiration, my hero. It is unbelievable what he went through and how he worked to get a good education and also to serve his nation. He was not only the principal of the school but also the head of the Armenian Education Committee of the Prelacy in Lebanon. He dedicated all his life to the Armenian nation. He was only five years old when the Genocide happened, so whatever he did, he did by himself. I appreciate more and more what he did,” she said with obvious emotion.

She added, “For the past 35 years, there hasn’t been a day when I’ve said I don’t want to go to school today. Never. I know what I am doing is important and did everything so this school flourishes and advances.”

“We need to continue offering a very good education to our students. Once we do that, the other challenges will not affect the school that much. There are challenges, of course,” she said.

When the school was founded, Armenians around the world could scarcely dream to hope about an independent Armenia, much less an independent Karabakh.

For the past two decades, the school has organized an annual trip to Armenian and Karabakh (Artsakh) for graduating fifth graders and their parents.

“Those who went to Armenia returned as if they were baptized as Armenians. Whatever they had learned at the school, they went and saw with their own eyes. Armenia became a reality for them,” she said.

Last year, the school hosted two trips, one in May and one in July, with the latter for the class of 2021, which had not gone to Armenia as usual in May because of the 2020 war waged by Azerbaijan, resulting in the loss of most of Karabakh, including the historic city of Shushi.

No firm decision has been made for the trip this year, she added.

“We are deeply, deeply saddened with this situation, but Armenia has gone through difficult times and Armenians are super survivors and hopefully, they will be able to come to a good solution. I am hopeful. I don’t give up,” she said.

“I am happy that I persevered and from day one, when I took the position, I said to myself, whatever happens, I will not give up. I will continue, because the mission is an important one,” she said.

She had some advice for her successor. “From my experience, the most important requirements are the following: commitment, patience, perseverance, and of course, academic background, believing in the mission of the school and a lot of flexibly to work with different stakeholders, different groups, patiently, respectfully. Also, the new person should have the drive to bring the school to the next level,” Boyamian said.