CHAMLIAN STUDENTS FIND COMMON GROUND DURING ARMENIA TRIP
Glendale News Press
April 15 2015
Eighth-graders explored villages and witnessed Mt. Ararat on 10-day
trip.
By Kelly Corrigan, [email protected]
April 15, 2015 | 6:27 p.m.
For 10 days, more than 40 eighth-graders of Chamlian Armenian School
traveled to Armenia, where they spent time exploring the nation’s
capital, visiting its countryside, meeting with fellow students,
commemorating the Armenian Genocide and stepping inside what is known
as the world’s oldest Christian cathedral.
“The views were beautiful, and they were very touching to my heart,”
said Andrew Kaypekian, 13. “The way that people were living there
really hurt me in a way. We’re living here, and we all have all
these things, but in these villages in our homeland, they don’t have
very much.”
The 44 teens traveled to Armenia on March 28 and returned April 9,
along with 42 of their parents and three school chaperons.
For 13-year-old Nicole Hajjar, it was an opportunity to find the
similarities they share with students and people there.
“We’re all so similar in many ways, even though they don’t have what
we have and we don’t have what they have,” she said.
The Chamlian students visited schools and learning centers, including
their own sister campus, the Ashan School, which Chamlian students
have helped for years by sending money to the campus after holding
fundraisers such as bake sales.
“They were all learning the same poems and songs. It was cool to see
that they, on the other side of the world, they’re learning the same
stuff we are,” said 14-year-old Ani Ghazarian.
When the students visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial on the
outskirts of Yerevan, they delivered flowers near the Eternal Flame
and prayed.
“A lot of people got emotional. I didn’t expect us to be that touched
by it,” Ghazarian said.
Among the places they visited was Echmiadzin, where the oldest known
cathedral in the world stands, and it was one of a few red-stone
churches the students visited and they lit candles there.
They also posed for photos with Mt. Ararat in the background.
In all, the trip brought to life the country and its treasures the
students have learned about throughout their eight years of education,
and they bonded over the experience in a way they hadn’t before they
arrived in Armenia.
“Everything that we have seen in eight years, we really see,” said
13-year old Ara Yacoubian.
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From: Baghdasarian