PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. — Alex Koceyan has been named the 2023 recipient of the annual Myron and Carol Boyajian Fine Arts Scholarship.
Koceyan is attending the College of Creative Studies in Detroit. He served as an instructor with the Arts of Armenia summer arts camp at St. John’s Armenian Church in Southfield, Mich.
The scholarship is awarded through the Sts. Joachim and Anne Armenian Apostolic Church of Palos Heights.
The first recipient was Tatevik Kocharyan, who was studying for a master’s degree in operatic performance at the Longy School of Music in Boston.
Carol Boyajian passed away on March 5, 2021 after a 10 year fight with cancer. She herself began her college career with a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with academics at the University of Chicago (UoC). Graduating from high school as an awarded student artist, Carol was unable to afford college, and considered joining the Army or Navy to gain an education later on the GI Bill. Her high school art teacher told her to register at the Art Institute and “that things would be taken care of.” Carol never learned the name of her benefactor, but rewarded that confidence by hard work in the arts and her academics. She was granted a full 4-year scholarship to SAIC and the University of Chicago after one semester of school. After Carol graduated (with high faculty honors), the couple promised each other to find a way in the future to “pay forward” that good deed. Carol taught art to mostly adults for over 35 years and produced numerous commissioned fine and illustrative art until she became too ill to work.
“I am happy to be able to honor Carol’s memory this way; to see other young people get a start as Carol did years ago,” Myron Boyajian said. “Carol and I were married in the Sts. Joachim and Anne Armenian Apostolic Church, then in Chicago, now in Palos Heights, IL. Carol was baptized in the Armenian Church and came to look upon all of our Armenian families and friends as members of her own family.”
