The 31st annual meeting of the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association was held June 22 at Johnson Hall at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in Cambridge.
During a brief business meeting, CYSCA President Alisa Stepanian gave welcoming remarks. Suzanne “Suzy” Pearce was honored for her dedication and decades of service on the CYSCA board of directors. Pearce was one of CYSCA’s founders and she passed away last year. Patricia Nolan, CYSCA member ex officio and longtime member of the Cambridge School Committee, also was recognized. Over the years, Nolan has been active in hosting CYSCA guests visiting from Armenia.
An update and annual report of the Armenia School Aid Project was given by Jack Medzorian. ASAP was founded in 1994 and aids needy schools in Armenia. In 2016, 10 schools in the region of Berd and nearby frontier villages received donations from 10 sponsors totaling $9,000. In April 2017, Eva and Jack Medzorian visited the same region again and distributed $10,500 in aid from 22 sponsors to 11 schools. Funds provided assistance to different schools in various ways, including repairing toilets, replacing crumbling windows with new ones, installing a new fresh drinking water line and providing refrigerators and stoves for a school lunchroom.
Medzorian also shared that Vigen Sargsyan, previously chief of staff to Armenian President Serge Sargsyan, is now Armenia’s minister of defense. Vigen first came to the United States in 1994 as part of the first CYSCA student exchange.
For the eighth consecutive year, CYSCA participated in the Cambridge Science Festival. CYSCA organized a panel discussion on lightning, climate change and other scientific challenges at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and invited Dr. Ashot Chilingarian, director of the Yerevan Physics Institute and head of its Cosmic Ray Division, from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to be on the panel. Joining him were speakers from MIT, the University of New Hampshire and the Florida Institute of Technology. The panel discussion was moderated by Mike Wankum, chief meteorologist at WCVB Channel 5 in Boston, attracting more than 100 participants.
During Chilingarian’s stay, CYSCA also organized his visits to various universities including MIT, UNH and Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he gave talks to colleagues and graduate students. He also visited the MIT Haystack Observatory and the Museum of Science in Boston. Discussions were held for potential collaborations and visits to Armenia by climate change experts.
For the 2016 Cambridge Science Festival, CYSCA hosted solar energy expert Dr. Artak Hambarian of American University of Armenia and local counterparts in a panel discussion on renewable energy held at Lesley University in Cambridge.
In May 2016, with funding from Open World, CYSCA hosted a group of young experts in the field of disabilities and inclusion. Over a period of eight days and 25 meetings, they met with local counterparts, such as the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities; Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; Disability Law Center of Massachusetts; Boston Center for Independent Living; Charles River Center; the Arc of Massachusetts; and Perkins School for the Blind. A panel discussion took place on May 26 at National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, during which guests shared their experiences in Boston and the realities in Armenia. The experts have brought back to Armenia the lessons learned in the Boston area.
Open World recently granted CYSCA a fourth grant for a media literacy program for five young professionals from Armenia that will take place in the Boston area from Sept. 28 through Oct. 5. The program aims to develop the leadership capability of young professionals by engaging them with American counterparts, and a program of visits and meeting with various individuals and organizations in the greater Boston area has been planned. Host families are needed.
After the CYSCA annual meeting, guest speaker Brian Corr, executive director of the Cambridge Peace Commission, discussed the importance of sister city relationships, shared values and the future. Corr discussed the peace movement in the 1980s, the importance of people-to-people relationships and formation of sister city relationships.
The minutes, financial report and operating budget were reviewed and accepted. The 2017-18 slate for the CYSCA board of directors was accepted and include Nathan Allukian, Isabelle Hamel, Nancy Kalajian, Philip Ketchian, Eva Medzorian, Jack Medzorian, Ashot Papoyan, Alisa Stepanian and Scott Yerganian.
For information on CYSCA membership or becoming a host family, email asteoanian@aol.com or visit http://cambridgeyerevan.org.