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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 or email [email protected].
To hear more stories from GenNext participants, watch their 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 () 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