During April, the Armenian Students Association (ASA) has come together to celebrate and educate the campus community about Armenian culture and to honor and remember those whose lives have been lost in the Armenian genocide. This year, ASA has decided to take the entire month of April, known as Genocide Awareness Month, to remember and commemorate those whose lives were lost and to celebrate Armenian history and culture through various on-campus events.
ASA started their programming with two fundraisers to support the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and AYF housing for the Artsakh Armenians Fundraiser in early April raising over $1,000. On Tuesday, April 16, from 8-9:30 p.m. in the Living Room, ASA will host a panel discussion to celebrate Armenian culture with the LMU community. The panel is comprised of several accomplished industry professionals in the Armenian community who will discuss their achievements within the community, offer valuable insight and advice, and share what being Armenian means to them. The Celebrating Armenian Culture panelists include:
- Karine Aslanian ’99 currently works for The Agency, a real estate agency in Beverly Hills. She is an expert in market analysis, customer relationship management, purchasing, and sales strategies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in management and information systems and was the founder of the Armenian Students Association during her time at LMU.
- Aram Ordubegian is a partner at ArentFox Schiff LLC and serves as the outside general counsel for the Armenia Fund. He also led the plaintiff counsel for the Artsakh ethnic cleansing lawsuit.
- Sareen Habeshian is a breaking news reporter at Axios and has previously worked at KTLA and the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. She focuses on delivering timely and accurate information and covers a wide range of topics, including politics, education, technology, and current events. She is dedicated to providing readers with comprehensive and insightful reporting on the issues that matter most.
- Haig Minasian serves as the chair for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation “Shant” Student Association, which works to raise Armenian students’ political and cultural awareness. He is also a geospatial data analyst and City Net Homeless Services census project coordinator.
- Lenna Hovanessian, J.D., is an attorney, activist, and advocate for human rights and Armenian issues in Nevada’s local, state, and federal political arenas. She serves as the co-chair for the Armenian National Committee of America, where her legal expertise has cultivated deep roots in the political landscape of the state, most recently in the 2021 legislative session, co-drafting, lobbying, and passing a bill for Holocaust and Armenian Genocide Education mandated in Nevada public high schools.
On April 24, ASA will host a candlelight vigil at Sacred Heart Chapel to remember and honor those who have been killed in the Armenian genocide. The day also marks both the 108th year since the Armenian genocide, a turning point moment in Armenian history, and what is now honored as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. In 1915, the Ottoman Empire killed 1.5 million Armenians in an attempt to annihilate Armenians from the world. More recently, according to Time Magazine, “September 2023 saw the tumultuous and traumatic departure of over 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. This mass exodus of an indigenous people from their homeland followed nine months of starvation-by-blockade, which culminated in a murderous military assault on Sept. 19.”
ASA comprises students from all majors who have come together as a group of scholars with the desire to reflect and celebrate the culture, educate on the country’s history, and raise awareness of the Armenian cause in the diaspora. Alex Guldjian ’24, a marketing major and business law minor, currently serves as ASA president and got involved with the organization during his first year at LMU. After graduation, Guldjian plans to attend LMU Loyola Law School while pursuing a lasting career in the sports and entertainment industry. He recently got the chance to visit Armenia for the first time. He reflected on his experience by sharing how he had been going to an Armenian school for 10 years of his childhood, where he was exposed daily to Armenian culture but could not visit the country itself during that time. “Visiting the country for the first time recently at 21 was the best decision I could have made,” said Guldjian. “It made me really appreciate the value that the country has and being away from it; it seems like it could be fictional; it just brought a whole new light to the community and brought light to the community and the life that Armenians have across the world.”
In fall 2023, ASA fundraised for the Armenian Lighthouse Charitable Foundation, which aims to strengthen women and families for a stronger Armenia. ALCF already serves many families in Armenia by providing necessary educational, financial, and emotional support. “They have a chapel within their facilities, a small room for sewing, a nursing room, a small preschool and different rooms for the mothers and children and a warehouse with a tremendous amount of donations that come in,” said Guldjian. “Recently going to Armenia this past summer, that was one of the first places I wanted to go to, and going to the actual facility and seeing the work they are doing and the impact it has had an impact on me and made me want to bring that back to LMU. I just wanted to allow the students to learn ways to give back to give other students and families within our Armenian community who need our support from across the world.”
Guldjian has a passion for sports, specifically basketball, which he played for all four years in high school, and currently works as communications game-night staff for the L.A. Clippers. During his visit to Armenia, he was inspired and desired to find ways to give back to the people of the country while sharing his passions on future trips. “I want to find a way to progress something forward in Armenia, whether it’s helping out in the communities and finding ways to give something back to this culture and its people,” said Guldjian. “There are many ways to connect with individuals or students there, and since I’m pursuing a career in sports, I would love to share my passion for basketball to help develop the game over there in Armenia and for all Armenians worldwide.”
Raffi Haroutunian ’25, a finance major and philosophy minor, wants the campus community to become cross-cultural aware of other cultures, people, and experiences to share those things. “We want to have a sense of belonging beyond LMU, and we want to feel like we have a shared experience,” said Haroutunian. “Armenia is going through very tumultuous times right now, and we are trying our best to do what we can to support them around the world. Our community continues to grow outside the shrinking borders of our homeland, and ASA continues to grow in terms of community, shared experiences, knowledge, and interconnectedness as a group here at LMU.”
As a biology major, Raffi Hovanessian ’26 wants to use what he’s learning at LMU to pursue a career in medicine or a biotech field to take that education and medical technology resources to Armenia. “My family has been very involved in medicine, and I’m a biology major,” said Haroutunian. “One of the clearest, night and day differences, comparing Armenia to the U.S. is the stark differences in the health care system. It’s something highlighted in documentaries that I have seen where people of Armenia are receiving medical care in places unsuitable for a sterile environment. Much of my work in biology is to pursue a career in medicine or biotech. I was working for a biotech professional here in the U.S., doing a lot of philanthropy and founding a foundation to bring technology back to Armenia. I want to take the development of drugs and medical hardware to transport them to Armenia to support the health and well-being needs of the people there. There are soldiers there who have passed away because of sepsis or infections from being in a non-sterile environment, and I hope to bring a more sterile environment for hospitals and bring new-age technology to Armenia to help save people.”
Vana Yepremian ’26, a marketing major and economics minor, shared how important being Armenian is to her sense of self, especially during her years at LMU. “I think about being Armenian every day, and it’s important for the larger campus community to know what we’re going through and understand our history of why it’s important,” said Yepremian. “I’m studying marketing with a minor in economics, and I’ve gotten a very good grasp of business. Armenia is like a developing country, and the number of businesses is always going up and down. I have always wanted to do something on a larger scale, so I have been applying for internships in Armenia this summer. I feel like I would be learning from the Armenian people and sharing my knowledge in many ways from things I have learned here at LMU with my academic work. I would love to have the experience of seeing that one day.”
In high school, Yepremian held a school supply drive and then sent supplies to sister schools in Armenia. “I’ve been to Armenia six different times, and each time has been a very different experience, whether it’s with family or I have gone with my school before, and at each experience, I have got to engage with different aspects of the country. I’ve gone before and seen the more rural areas or I have seen more of the rural areas,” said Yepremian. “And each time, I have become more connected to it, so I have just wanted to do more charity-based stuff. And even an internship, if that opportunity is available, I would love to go and contribute to their economy.”
