Glendale Community College is home to so many beautiful and enriched ethnic and cultural groups of faculty, staff, students, and community members. In this issue of Chaparral, employees Zohara Kaye, Sharis Davoodi, and Sevada Chamras shared their efforts to support folks during the Artsakh humanitarian crisis of 2023 as well as other Armenian history and cultural events.
This story is about hope and what can be achieved through the power of unity; it’s a story about Glendale Community College (GCC) and its students, faculty, staff, and community coming together to make a difference during the Artsakh humanitarian crisis of 2023.
GCC, home to a large number of Armenians in diaspora, did their best to support students, staff, and faculty distraught when more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians were forced out of their homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh. A support group led by psychologists/therapists specializing in these issues was formed for the community, and an ad hoc committee made up of GCC students, faculty, staff, and administrators was formed.
First, we decided to narrow our focus to aid displaced students of Artsakh. Next, we looked for reputable organizations capable of collecting donations we raised and distributing them to our designated recipients. After careful consideration of all the options, we decided to partner with Armenian Educational Foundation AEF (aef.org).
Students created flyers, sign-up sheets for tabling, and a working group met to organize a fundraiser-concert to raise not only monetary donations, but also awareness and hope through celebration of Armenian culture.
Who would have thought GCC has so much talent? We carefully considered the selection of performers and performances. Within our group, we had amazingly talented singers, dancers, musicians, and performers. We crafted the agenda, revised it, and kept revising it until we ran out of time, and after only one rehearsal the night prior to our scheduled performance, we were ready!
The result was a spectacular performance achieved by collectively working together - students, faculty, staff, and the community - toward a common goal none of us could have achieved alone. The concert included a special guest appearance by Senator Anthony Portantino. Sarkis Bakery catered the event, and our superb videographer was Suren Mirzakhanian.
The concert raised $6,000 in one day. Our combined efforts of tabling, smaller fundraisers, and awareness campaigns collectively raised close to $30,000 - roughly $1 for every student displaced from Artsakh - and we did this through donations from students who are likely cash strapped themselves, our classified staff and faculty unions - CSEA and Glendale College Guild, as well as anonymous donors whom we had reached through our awareness campaign.
Action Item For You
Tell your qualifying students to apply to the The Armenian Educational Foundation scholarship program, aimed at supporting Armenian undergraduate and graduate students pursuing higher education in the United States. The AEF is accepting applications for the Richard R. Tufenkian Scholarships for Armenian undergraduate students enrolled in accredited colleges or universities across the United States.
This scholarship, established in memory of Richard R. Tufenkian by the Tufenkian Family, aims to empower Armenian students pursuing higher education. Three scholarships, each worth $3,000, will be awarded to deserving candidates who demonstrate academic excellence, financial need, and active involvement in the Armenian community. The eligibility criteria for the Richard R. Tufenkian Scholarship are as follows:
Application and scholarship information available at the AEF Website.
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