On August 30, Consul General of Armenia in Los Angeles Ambassador Armen Baibourtian met with the Glendale Community College (GCC) Board of Trustees President Dr. Armine Hacopian, GCC Superintendent/President Dr. David Viar, Glendale Unified School District Board of Education President Shant Sahakian, and GUSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Vivian Ekchian. Initiated by Ambassador Baibourtian, the meeting took place at the Consulate General of Armenia.
The discussion topics focused on devising actionable items and agreeing on their implementation in order to enhance cooperation of Glendale Community College (GCC) and Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) with higher education institutions of Armenia and Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.
The meeting participants agreed to develop a separate action plan aimed at establishing a partnership between Glendale Community College and Yerevan State University (YSU). Ambassador Baibourtian informed about the consent of the new rector ad interim of Yerevan State University for establishing bonds of partnership with GCC. As an important step of the cooperation toolkit, discussions were made on the prospect of including Armenia in the "Study Abroad" curriculum of Glendale Community College (GCC) students. This would entail that GCC students can earn college credits by studying at YSU in Yerevan for a semester and transfer them to Glendale Community College. GCC Superintendent/President Dr. Viar informed the Consul General that GCC presently holds the highest number of Armenian students among all higher education institutions in the U.S., which makes it the largest number out of Armenia. Among the total number of 12,000 students at GCC, 3,600 are Armenian-Americans (30%).
Dr. Baibourtian also discussed the possibility for the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) to contribute to the process of systemic reforms in the educational sector in Armenia. The Consul General expressed readiness to support the Armenian programs of GCC and GUSD Armenian Dual Language Immersion Program 2 schools with Armenian textbooks. Ambassador Baibourtian extended an invitation to the educational leaders to visit Armenia to finalize the prospects for cooperation with respective educational leaders in Yerevan.
One of the topics of discussion was the possibility of organization of a virtual event by GCC and GUSD on the occasion of the Independence Day of Armenia and a lecture by Ambassador Baibourtian at GCC on this very occasion.
