Gyumri Information Technology Center Director Yeghoyan Visits East Coast
ARMENIA, NEW ENGLAND, NEWS, WATERTOWN | OCTOBER 10, 2014 5:37 PM
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By Aram Arkun
Mirror-Spectator Staff
WATERTOWN, Mass. — The city of Gumri, Armenia’s second largest center
of population, suffered greatly during the 1988 earthquake, and even
today has not fully recovered from that heavy blow. Despite the fact
that it had many important institutions of higher learning, and was
able to prepare a new generation of educated young people, the
earthquake and the changes in Armenia’s economy after independence
left little opportunity for employment locally. Young people were
forced to emigrate to Yerevan and abroad in droves. The Gyumri
Information Technology Center (GITC) was created 10 years ago to
counter this negative trend. Its executive director, Amalya Yeghoyan,
visited New York, Philadelphia and Boston at the end of September and
early October in order to promote the center’s work. She had a number
of private meetings along with several public presentations, including
one at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown.
While at the Mirror-Spectator, Yeghoyan explained that Gumri (the
Mirror traditionally uses this transliteration of the name, while
Gyumri is the form used by GITC in English) was still in dire straits
in 2005. A group of young professionals visiting through the Fund for
Armenian Relief (FAR) witnessed the situation. Among them was Patrick
Sarkissian, the founder and chief executive officer of Sarkissian
Mason, a high tech design and marketing services firm in New York
City. Sarkissian saw the contrast between great human potential, with
great education especially in mathematics, and the desperate economic
situation.
Sarkissian quipped that the only thing which works in Gumri is the
human brain. He was confident that a technology center could become a
magnet to keep youth in Gumri. Meanwhile, according to FAR director
Garnik Nanagoulian, FAR also had been looking for ways to stop the
loss of talented youth there. FAR in a sense was born as a result of
the situation in Gumri and northern Armenia after the earthquake. It
decided to look at industries which could be nurtured locally to
provide employment. After deciding against textiles and fashion, FAR
consulted with Sarkissian and several others and became convinced to
focus on internet technology.
Armenian-American donors liked the idea of preparing the youth for
work in Gumri as specialists. The trained specialists no longer had to
leave for education or work abroad, and instead work would be brought
to Gumri. Internet technology work was expanding in Yerevan, and did
not require large amounts of capital to start, unlike other
industries. Private businesses in Armenia declared that the graduates
of educational institutions in Gumri were provided with excellent
general knowledge but still needed training to begin practical work.
FAR found out exactly what these companies were seeking in new
employees, and accordingly established a curriculum. Then it decided
on the best way to teach the curriculum. Instead of using the
universities, it decided to hire as teachers the most advanced
programmers and other young people in private firms in Armenia who
already had experience in dealing with clients in the US and Europe.
Nanagoulian said, “This became an extremely complex project. We had to
bring these people from Yerevan on weekends, when they were not
working at their regular jobs, provide them with hotels, and then
bring them back. We soon realized we had to develop our own faculty.
Patrick Sarkissian and some local organizations were instrumental in
this.”
Yeghoyan said, “At first, we had nothing — no internet connection, no
society that knew what was high tech, no curriculum, no teachers. We
had twenty ambitious students and the desire and ambition of our
three-person staff in Gumri. We started in 2005, teaching chip design,
then we began to teach website design and planning.”
The two-year post-baccalaureate program turned out to be highly
successful. In 2007, the entire graduating class of 20 was hired by
the chip designer Instigate Design, which already had a center in
Yerevan. Now Instigate Design established a second Armenian center in
Gumri.
Each year thereafter, new internet technology corporations opened up
in Gumri. The government started a technopark. GITC played a key role
in all this. Each year it produced 20 graduates, so that up to the
present there have been a total of 140 graduates, of whom 90 percent
work in Armenia, and 40 percent in Gumri.
GITC began to be sought after for projects in other parts of Armenia
and in Artsakh. In 2009, the Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF,
based in Glendale, Calif.) contacted GITC and asked that it prepare
teachers to use computers that it wished to donate. The AEF paid all
the costs of transportation and equipment, while GITC provided the
specialists. This turned into an ongoing program, and in different
years, GITC worked in different provinces of Armenia, such as Lori or
Tavush, and in Artsakh. Yeghoyan said, “We want donors to see that
what they do serves the entire community. Our graduates gift back with
their knowledge. We teach teachers, do free programs for children and
prepare websites for free for associations for the handicapped and
other benevolent groups.
GITC instituted rigorous procedures, starting with entrance exams for
students. Only 30 people are accepted for the first year, and
behavior, performance, speech and dress are all scrutinized in order
to prepare people for the western business mentality. Classes are
seven hours a day as in a regular place of work. Whoever fails is
expelled without the certificate of graduation. Usually only 20 out of
30 graduate.
Students who do not possess the proper education are sent to a summer
preparatory course before starting the two-year program. Students must
decide between the web and mobile technology divisions. After learning
the basics the first year, in the second year, the students are sent
out to different places with specialists for practical work
experience. Reports are sent back about their accomplishments, so that
GITC sees who can actually do the work.
Students pay $500 tuition per year. During the second year, the
students can work during the week for pay and come to classes on the
weekend.
In 2010 GITC’s board decided to strive to create sustainability for
its programs, and established a business department–GITC Solutions. It
would find work for GITC’s graduates. The new approach is, said
Yeghoyan, that “we will now ask our donors to find us work and
projects for Gumri instead of our asking donors to give us money
directly. We want to slowly become independent from donors. I am here
now for this purpose.”
Yeghoyan declared that GITC can deliver a higher quality product at a
cheaper cost than firms in Asia often used by US companies for
outsourcing work. She said, “We want to remain in Gumri. If we have no
work, we will all think of emigrating. Instead, we can do software and
web development work for people in the diaspora. We have a great
portfolio–we’ve worked for UNICEF (an e-learning portal), German
associations, USAID and New York firms. We can do search engine
optimization and mobile applications for IOS and Android.” She pointed
out that GITC specialists can communicate in English, and offer a team
to work on projects, not just individual specialists. She said,
“Moreover, we don’t just prepare websites. We have a creative approach
and can suggest new directions. Our flexibility is our strength.”
Yeghoyan’s own success story is a testament to both her native talents
and the opportunities that diasporan assistance can provide. After
graduating school in Gumri, she wanted to go to Yerevan but it was too
expensive for her parents. Instead, she worked as a volunteer as a
journalist and then at a psychology center. Then she studied at the
Gumri Pedagogical Institute while working part-time as a translator to
earn her tuition. After getting married and having children, thought
she would have to leave Armenia in order to economically survive. She
pointed out that “in Armenia, if you don’t have a lot of money or
great patronage, you can’t make it. And I had neither.”
Fortuitously, after taking her final exams, her English teacher told
her about a new center being founded in Gumri, which needed an
administrative assistant. She went to GITC, not believing that they
would accept somebody without connections. Yet after the interview,
they accepted her. The director, Narine Petrosyan, encouraged her to
overcome new challenges and helped her learn new computer programs,
but six months later left for the US. Soon Yeghoyan became coordinator
of the academic department, and began working closely with Nanagoulian
at FAR. Then she became assistant director. In 2011 she became
director. She said, “I was fortunate that American Armenians were my
directors. They helped me learn from my mistakes. Even our donors are
so modest and humble that when they call they ask first whether I have
two minutes to talk.”
Nanagoulian later said, “We wanted Amalya to come here to promote
GITC’s new approach. She is very impressive. She worked her way up to
become a leader. She can easily turn into a mayor or leader of the
province. And GITC proved to be an extremely efficient entity. It is
now a recognized name in Armenia, and provides advanced training to
business owners, academics and non-governmental organizations.
Armenian businesses here in the US will see that our people can
deliver at least as good service as the Indians on a continuing basis,
and at a lower price.” FAR likes the GITC model so much that it is
considering similar approaches in cities like Vanadzor and
Stepanakert.