AN ARMENIAN FROM TEXAS PROMOTES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN FARAWAY GYUMRI
by Taleen Babayan

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Wednesday June 10, 2009

Gyumri, Armenia – Life in Gyumri is a far cry from life in Texas for
Jason Paul Kazarian. But when the opportunity arose to fill the vacant
executive director position at the Gyumri Information Technologies
Center (GITC/GTech), he accepted it without hesitation.

Moving 5,000 miles away from his home country provided quite
the lifestyle change for Mr. Kazarian, both professionally and
personally. But the vision and goals he had for GITC prompted his
move and have remained his priority.

Each day for him at GITC – a competitive post-graduate IT institution
– varies. On Mondays, he teaches a class for students working on
their thesis projects and helps them with the organization of their
papers including the format, thesis, thesis chapters, and gives
overall guidance to the 20 students so they can graduate on July
14. Mr. Kazarian also makes it a point for himself to travel out
of Gyumri into Yerevan to do development work and build partnerships
between the IT industry and GITC. There he frequently visits the office
of the Fund for Armenian Relief. He also spends his time writing grant
proposals and finding sources of revenue, in addition to supervising
GITC’s employees.

Founded in August 2005, GITC promotes the IT industry, drives the
formation of an IT infrastructure and promotes employment opportunities
in this area devastated by the major earthquake in 1988. GITC has
graduated about 50 young adults. In exchange for nearly free training,
students commit to remain in the Gyumri region for two years following
graduation.

The cultural differences between Armenia and the United States are
ones Mr. Kazarian has observed while living in Gyumri. "The way women
and men engage with each other is similar to the US in the 1950s,"
said Mr. Kazarian. "The women’s lib movement hasn’t taken full effect,
although it seems it’s going to happen with the current generation
who are 25 and under. I’m seeing a modern mindset in some of them,"
he said, noting that Gyumri is a mix of eastern and western cultures.

"It’s interesting to look at our students because they have a
provincial mindset. Gyumri has a population of 150,000 people and
there’s a prevailing village mentality," said Mr. Kazarian, who has
a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science.

Moving across the world naturally poses many challenges and obstacles
to complete even the simplest tasks. "There’s not an open market for
rental property," said Mr. Kazarian, who had to hunt for a place to
live when he first moved to Gyumri. "Something as simple as finding
a place to live is basically done by word of mouth."

He compared Gyumri to most European cities where it’s very
compact. Mr. Kazarian walks 20 minutes to work every day and doesn’t
need a car to get around, as it’s easy to get everywhere on foot.

Originally from California, Mr. Kazarian lived the last 14 years in
Texas. He has been in software development for about 25 years and
spent three years in industrial education in technical topics such as
telecommunications and software development. Prior to joining GITC,
he worked six years as an independent contractor for multiple customers
and owned a boutique IT company.

Mr. Kazarian’s vision for GITC is three-fold. He wants to modify
the curriculum so that there are no prerequisites to complete
before enrolling in GITC, other than earning a degree from a public
institution. He would also like to hire local Gyumri-based full time
faculty which both reduces expenses and improves the quality of student
life. "Now we have instructors who commute from Yerevan and come once
a week," said Mr. Kazarian. "There is no opportunity for students to
interact with their teachers. Having our own faculty will also make it
easier for students to get help on projects and homework assignments
during the week."

He sees GITC moving from an academic model to a vocational and
certification model of training which is more job-focused and will
be more beneficial to students who don’t want a college degree but
want to work in a technical discipline. "The vision is going towards
that direction. We are targeting people that don’t have those kind
of resources and are being ignored by the rest of the educational
community," said Kazarian.

In addition, Mr. Kazarian wants GITC to engage with more Americans,
in particular, American-Armenian companies and have GITC students
perform outsourcing and off shoring work for them. "We need to build
bridges with these companies who are moving in that [off shoring]
direction, especially with the recession we have going on in the US,"
said Mr. Kazarian.

"Armenia is an optimum market for generating wealth through
intellectual property. Salaries paid for talented technical
specialists are reasonable, even when compared with Chinese and Indian
markets. Dozens of companies are engaged in hardware and software
product development for export, including National Instruments and
Virage Logic. Some organizations, Epygi and Synopsys to name just two,
are betting the entire company’s future on Armenian based talent –
and winning. GITC is becoming a bridge to Gyumri for companies like
this and many others. I would love to see this opportunity – GITC,
explored and supported by, especially, young generation of Armenians
from the diaspora."

Mr. Kazarian is indeed enjoying his position at GITC and living in
Gyumri. Two of his favorite things in Gyumri are the weather, which
he said is comparable to Denver, and the healthier food, including
the locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.

Gyumri, located 75 miles outside of Yerevan, is the second largest
city in Armenia, and has made substantial progress since it was
hard hit with the earthquake in 1988. The calamity took the lives of
50,000 people and injured scores of others. "One of the big changes
is the amount of construction since I was here in December 2006 to
today. There are buildings popping up everywhere. I’ve seen 3 or 4
multi-story large buildings go up in spaces that were vacant in a
little over 2 years. Earthquake-wise, they’re rebuilding the original
Armenian Church, and the project is coming along. There have been a
lot of changes. It doesn’t look anything like it did, five, or even
two years ago."

There are many things Mr. Kazarian wants to accomplish as executive
director of GITC, including starting a full-time faculty, hopefully
with the participation of diaspora Armenians. "I wish I could encourage
people in the IT industry who want to become educators to come and
teach at GITC," said Mr. Kazarian. "If we had half a dozen people
who would be willing to move here for a year or two, we would have a
cutting edge educational institution. We would like to have people
from the diaspora to come here and do something different than a
typical nine-to-five job."

Mr. Kazarian’s friend from Texas, Ken Maranian, participated in FAR’s
Young Professional’s Trip to Armenia in the summer of 2006 and had an
incredible experience that he shared with Mr. Kazarian once he returned
to Texas. Mr. Kazarian was interested in Mr. Maranian’s experience
with GITC and contacted FAR to start volunteering and teaching part
time. "When I came back and told my parish about the trip and how
wonderful and promising it was, Jason got in touch with FAR and started
teaching there," said Mr. Maranian. "We’re really proud of him."

Patrick Sarkissian, one of the founders of GITC said he is proud
of having Jason as the executive director of GITC. "As a fellow
American-Armenian, I am amazed by Jason’s sacrifice and dedication. As
a colleague from the IT industry – I am impressed with his talents and
capabilities," said Mr. Sarkissian. "He is bringing Western business
ethics and culture to GITC."

While there may have been no hesitance on Mr. Kazarian’s part when
he assumed the executive director position at GITC, the staff was
concerned whether he would be able to adjust to the realities of life
and culture in Gyumri. Those concerns, however, eventually faded. "We
thank God Jason is with GITC," said Amalya Yeghoyan, deputy executive
director of GITC. "Students admire him, even though he is a tough and
very demanding teacher, and the staff owes him a lot for an incredible
learning curve we have gone through under his leadership. Jason is
an excellent example of what diaspora Armenian could do in Armenia."

"Jason is helping the young talents in an area devastated by the
earthquake to regain hope for a better future," said Mr. Sarkissian.