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AVC Visits Istanbul 10/08/2013
The AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) is anywhere, anytime … And this is not only virtually but also physically. AVC makes every effort to be also physically present at the Diaspora Armenian communities that have strategic importance for Armenia and that really need AVC services. From October 8 to 11 the founding president of AVC Dr. Yervant Zorian was in Istanbul, Turkey to meet the Armenian community representatives. This was the second meeting with the Turkish-Armenian community in Turkey, the first one taking place three years ago. Doctor Zorian had a lot to show to the community members during the visit in a number of meetings. One of the most exciting and sincere meetings organized by a community active member Tamar Karasu took place at the Mekhitarian Alumni Committee (Mekhitarian Sanouts Mioutioun) with attendees being bright and active young people - professionals in different spheres: lawyers, economists, teachers and others. Dr. Yervant Zorian’s open talk about AVC and the friendly atmosphere gave rise to a nice discussion; AVC’s mission and activities ‘infected’ the young people as well and they became enthusiastic in assisting AVC in its endeavors and spreading the word about this opportunity to receive a full-fledged Armenian education. Another productive meeting was organized by the Educators’ Foundation in Istanbul. Representatives of the education sphere in Istanbul, such as principals, teachers, students and pupils of 17 Armenian schools in Istanbul and general public members took part in the meeting. Dr. Zorian presented AVC’s latest achievements after his first visit to Istanbul; a lot had changed during the period and a major achievement for Turkey Armenians was certainly the introduction of Turkish as an instructional language for teaching AVC courses apart from the six existing instructional languages. This had substantially increased the number of students from Turkey joining AVC. Another topic of interest became the hybrid method of teaching viewed as one more aspect of collaboration; many Istanbul schools could use AVC multimedia teaching materials to provide a better education to their audience. The 4-day visit of Dr. Zorian to Istanbul created positive awareness about AVC within Armenians in Turkey and set the start of new collaboration and partnership opportunities.