Bergen Community College: Bergen Awards Scholarships, Hosts Production On Armenian Genocide

Emil Lazarian 2023
New Jersey – Aug 31 2023
Caren Lissner,Patch Staff

Press release from Bergen Community College:

PARAMUS, N.J. – Founded through the Bergen Community College Foundation to foster awareness on the mechanisms of social conflict, political and ethnic violence and genocide, the Bergen Community College Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation has tapped its grant funds to award students with scholarships and sponsor a faculty-led theatrical production on the Armenian Genocide this fall.

“It is a tremendous honor to provide scholarship awards to such exceptional students each year and a true inspiration to see them take a stand on the conflicts of our world and express their hope for peaceful resolution,” Bergen history professor and CPJR team member Sarah Shurts, Ph.D., said.

Four students earned $2,750 in scholarships for their submissions in an essay contest on the theme of conflict and conflict resolution. The 2023 Peace Scholarship Essay Challenge annual writing contest featured academic essays, personal essays or poetry with topics ranging from global crises and historical violence to interpersonal and family conflict to conflict within oneself. The student winners are:

  • First Place ($1,000): Yeyson Lopez, of Cliffside Park;
  • Second Place ($750): Andrea Huerta, of Fair Lawn; and
  • Third Place ($500): Yaroslav Pasichnyk, of Maywood, and Rod Gonzalez, of Ridgewood (tie).

    • In addition, CPJR has recognized the recipient of this year’s faculty mini-grant, adjunct professor of performing arts Lynn Needle, with $1,500 to produce “Off the Grid: Passionate Abstractions – Gorky’s Dream Garden,” a musical and theatrical event alongside Bergen adjunct professor of performing arts Janette Dishuk and guest composer Michelle Ekizian, D.M.A. Ekizian’s work has previously appeared at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

    Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.

    This press release was produced by Bergen Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

    https://patch.com/new-jersey/wyckoff/bergen-community-college-bergen-awards-scholarships-hosts-production-armenian

    Emil Lazarian

    “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS