While living in the U.S., Lusine Poghosyan ’15 learned a great deal about social activism and media-making. On April 15 and 17, she shared her new experiences and skills with young people in Tatev by conducting two educational trainings titled ‘Step Up – Clean Up’. They took place at the Tatev Youth Center, which provided a fully-equipped conference room for free.
Prior to the seminars the FLEX alumna gave media training to a group of high school students after which they conducted an environmental research project in their village.
The first seminar was dedicated to developing leadership and career skills. The participants defined essential qualities of a good leader, discussed their dream future professions and learned how social media could be useful in their education. During the second event students met two Peace Corps volunteers and cleaned the public areas of Tatev and their school yard together with them.
‘After the project a few school teachers got in touch and told me that their students were inspired by the action. They conducted a few clean ups in other areas of the village independently and will keep up their social activism in the future,’ says Lusine.
She plans to organize more media trainings on a diverse range of topics in other Armenian cities and villages. ‘I was amazed to see what a great job all the students did after a short media training. If they have more training and experience, they can become great media-makers and give a voice to their communities,’ she says.
