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PRESS RELEASE
Armen Karo Student Association
397 Boul Des Prairies, 3rd Floor
Laval, Quebec
Canada H7N 2WP
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 450-505-1032
Web: http://www.armenkaro.org/
Second Canadian Armenian Students' Convention
Kingston - On Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, 40 students from universities across
Canada gathered in Kingston, Ontario, for the second annual Canadian
Armenian Students' Convention. The convention titled, the "Canadian Armenian
Student and his/her Challenges" took place in Kingston's Holiday Inn
Waterfront Hotel and was organized by Armen Karo Student Association. The
students were invited to represent the Armenian Students' Associations of
their respective universities, and each association had an opportunity to
present their successes and failures of the past year.
The opening remarks were made by the MC of the convention, and Armen Karo
Student Association member, Daniel Ohanian, who pointed out the existence of
many obstacles to the initiatives taken by Armenian Students' Associations
in various universities, as well as the importance of collaborative work in
ensuring the successful engagement of Armenian youth in all aspects of
University life.
The first speaker of the convention was Member of Parliament for Kingston
and speaker of the House, honorable Peter Milliken. He thanked the
organizing body for taking the initiative to bring together youth from
different provinces. He spoke about the important role university students
can play in the Canadian political arena, and how effective political
activism in universities can be. He noted the importance of being conscious
of politics in Canada, and being active, in order to influence the decisions
made by MP's such as him.
The Armenian Student Association from each university had prepared a
presentation of the work they had done over the past year, and were given
the opportunity to present them, bringing to light the difficulties they
faced, as well as methods they had found to overcome them. The existence of
mutual obstacles became clear, and allowed the students to become better
familiarized with the work of other ASA's. The main challenges faced were
noted, and were later used as topics for the workshop portion of the
convention.
The second speaker of the convention, Armen Karo Student Association
chairman Kevork Kazanjian, spoke about the role of Armenians students in
universities in terms of the Armenian Cause and active forces working
against it. He touched on the work being done by the active Turkish lobby
funded by the state of Turkey, bringing examples from genocide denial events
held in the Ryerson, McGill, and U of T.
The last portion of the convention was the workshop that allowed for
discussion of the major obstacles noted from the presentations of the ASA's.
The students were divided into groups to discuss possible solutions to these
issues, and presented them to the entire group. The importance of
collaborative work between ASA's became clear, as it became clear that the
events being organized in that manner were the most successful.
Daniel Ohanian concluded the convention by thanking everyone present on
behalf of Armen Karo Student Association.
In total 11 different university student associations were represented
including the Armenian Students' Associations at the University of Toronto
St. George Campus, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, York
University, Ryerson University, University of Waterloo, McMaster University,
McGill University, Univeristé de Montreal, Concordia University, University
of Ottawa, and Carleton University.
Armen Karo Student Association
397 Boul Des Prairies, 3rd Floor
Laval, Quebec
Canada H7N 2WP
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 450-505-1032
Web: http://www.armenkaro.org/
Second Canadian Armenian Students' Convention
Kingston - On Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, 40 students from universities across
Canada gathered in Kingston, Ontario, for the second annual Canadian
Armenian Students' Convention. The convention titled, the "Canadian Armenian
Student and his/her Challenges" took place in Kingston's Holiday Inn
Waterfront Hotel and was organized by Armen Karo Student Association. The
students were invited to represent the Armenian Students' Associations of
their respective universities, and each association had an opportunity to
present their successes and failures of the past year.
The opening remarks were made by the MC of the convention, and Armen Karo
Student Association member, Daniel Ohanian, who pointed out the existence of
many obstacles to the initiatives taken by Armenian Students' Associations
in various universities, as well as the importance of collaborative work in
ensuring the successful engagement of Armenian youth in all aspects of
University life.
The first speaker of the convention was Member of Parliament for Kingston
and speaker of the House, honorable Peter Milliken. He thanked the
organizing body for taking the initiative to bring together youth from
different provinces. He spoke about the important role university students
can play in the Canadian political arena, and how effective political
activism in universities can be. He noted the importance of being conscious
of politics in Canada, and being active, in order to influence the decisions
made by MP's such as him.
The Armenian Student Association from each university had prepared a
presentation of the work they had done over the past year, and were given
the opportunity to present them, bringing to light the difficulties they
faced, as well as methods they had found to overcome them. The existence of
mutual obstacles became clear, and allowed the students to become better
familiarized with the work of other ASA's. The main challenges faced were
noted, and were later used as topics for the workshop portion of the
convention.
The second speaker of the convention, Armen Karo Student Association
chairman Kevork Kazanjian, spoke about the role of Armenians students in
universities in terms of the Armenian Cause and active forces working
against it. He touched on the work being done by the active Turkish lobby
funded by the state of Turkey, bringing examples from genocide denial events
held in the Ryerson, McGill, and U of T.
The last portion of the convention was the workshop that allowed for
discussion of the major obstacles noted from the presentations of the ASA's.
The students were divided into groups to discuss possible solutions to these
issues, and presented them to the entire group. The importance of
collaborative work between ASA's became clear, as it became clear that the
events being organized in that manner were the most successful.
Daniel Ohanian concluded the convention by thanking everyone present on
behalf of Armen Karo Student Association.
In total 11 different university student associations were represented
including the Armenian Students' Associations at the University of Toronto
St. George Campus, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, York
University, Ryerson University, University of Waterloo, McMaster University,
McGill University, Univeristé de Montreal, Concordia University, University
of Ottawa, and Carleton University.