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AGBU Generation Next Mentorship Program Forges Local Partnerships

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  • AGBU Generation Next Mentorship Program Forges Local Partnerships

    AGBU Press Office
    55 East 59th Street
    New York, NY 10022-1112
    Phone: 212.319.6383
    Email: [email protected]
    Website: www.agbu.org

    PRESS RELEASE
    Monday, September 30, 2013


    AGBU GENERATION NEXT MENTORSHIP PROGRAM FORGES LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS
    NEW CURRICULUM TO CONTINUE SERVING CALIFORNIA YOUTH


    As students across the U.S. head back to their classrooms, teens in
    Southern California are filling their schedules with brand-new
    activities offered exclusively by AGBU's Generation Next Mentorship
    Program (GenNext). Ushering in the school year, GenNext has forged a
    number of local partnerships, expanding its reach to meet the needs of
    at-risk youth.

    This fall, GenNext will join forces with the Didi Hirsch Community
    Center, Glendale Community College, and Glendale Healthy Kids. These
    collaborations build on the program's 16-plus years of pairing
    Armenian youth with positive role models, and its existing
    partnerships with the YWCA and the Glendale Police
    Department. Glendale Chief of Police Ronald L. De Pompa praises
    GenNext's impact, remarking, "In society today there are so many risks
    that our youth encounter [and] mentorships play a critical role in
    [their] lives...Programs like the AGBU Generation Next Mentorship
    program provide alternatives and help our youth recognize what path to
    follow in order to have a successful future."

    In the coming weeks, GenNext will recruit students studying social
    work and education at Glendale Community College to volunteer as
    mentors. The YWCA is offering GenNext access to its computer lab,
    swimming pool and athletic facilities completely free of charge. While
    the mentees master digital media, their parents will have the
    opportunity to learn how to monitor and safeguard their children's
    online activities through bimonthly seminars at the nearby Didi Hirsch
    Center.

    With these new additions, GenNext will further strengthen the bonds
    between mentees and mentors, which lie at the heart of the program. By
    carefully matching participants, GenNext creates friendships that last
    long after mentees have graduated. This was the case for Armine
    Pogosian and Sona Avdalyan, who met when Sona was thirteen. As both
    women recall, over the past five years they've become more like family
    than friends. They-and all participants-have grown close through
    GenNext's one-on-one sessions and group activities, which include
    field trips, camping retreats as well as improv comedy classes
    designed to help mentees express themselves.

    Sona, like several mentees, moved from Armenia to California shortly
    before finding her place in the GenNext family. This year, GenNext
    will welcome more immigrants from Armenia, as well as refuges from
    Iraq. As GenNext Program Director Saro Ayvazians explained, mentors
    play a key role in helping those young people assimilate. "Our mentors
    relate to these kids by sharing their own experiences," he
    detailed. "More often, though, it's the mentors' ability to listen
    that is the most powerful. They allow mentees to feel safe, to open up
    and share things they normally would not."

    For mentor Arman Satchyan, establishing that trust has meant acting
    not as an authority figure but rather as a confidant to Alex, his
    mentee of five years. Arman is one of the many GenNext mentors who
    insist that the program has benefitted him just as much as Alex. He
    stated, "Over the years, watching Alex go through adolescence, I feel
    I've gotten the opportunity to grow up myself. He has a natural
    self-confidence that I always try to emulate."

    Instilling that sense of self-confidence in youth is central to the
    GenNext mission, and creates new opportunities for hundreds of mentees
    while inspiring them to give back. Had it not been for GenNext, former
    mentee Artin Arakelian believes he wouldn't have graduated high
    school. Now a college student pursuing his teaching credentials, Artin
    is looking forward to becoming a GenNext mentor himself this year. "I
    want to find someone who is heading down the wrong path, like I was,
    and open their eyes, just like my mentor did for me. Shaping the next
    generation of kids for the better-that would mean the world to me."

    This summer, GenNext received a record-breaking donation of $80,000,
    raised through AGBU FOCUS 2013 fundraising. The funds will help
    GenNext continue to serve local youth. Yet, there is an ongoing need
    for support and GenNext is continuing to recruit volunteer mentors and
    mentees to the program.

    Every donation makes a difference in the life of a young person. To
    learn how you can help GenNext have an even greater impact, please
    visit www.agbugennext.org or email [email protected].

    To hear more stories from GenNext participants, watch their video:
    www.agbugennext.org/video.

    Modeled after the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, the
    AGBU Generation Next Mentorship Program (GenNext) was established in
    1997 by the AGBU Young Professionals of Los Angeles. In its pilot
    year, the program enrolled eight mentees. Since then, hundreds of
    students ages 12-18 have benefitted from the dedicated service of
    qualified mentors, helping them reach their full potential.

    Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world's largest
    non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
    preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
    educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually touching the
    lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.

    For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please
    visit www.agbu.org.

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