Marking TUMO’s 10 year anniversary and the inauguration of the new TUMO Gyumri building, the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies today announced a five year, $50 million initiative to make its leading edge educational program available to all teenagers throughout Armenia and Artsakh. With 110 satellite facilities called TUMO Boxes connected to 16 fully equipped TUMO Hubs in regional centers, the program will serve 80 thousand students and reach all young Armenians even in the most remote villages.

A $10 million seed fund donated by the Yemenidjian family will launch and support hubs in Vanadzor, Kapan and Koghb, along with TUMO Boxes that feed into these and three existing hubs. To raise the remaining $40 million, TUMO is kicking off an international fundraising campaign. The Armenian General Benevolent Union and Elie & Elzbieta Akilian have each pledged to match up to $10 million of funds raised in the first 2 years of the campaign. With $10 million in seed funding, a $20 million fundraising goal, and an additional $20 million in matching contributions, the deployment initiative is already underway.

The announcement was made during the anniversary celebration of the official opening of the new TUMO center in Gyumri in the presence of government representatives, local authorities, representatives of international organizations, partners and friends. TUMO founders Sam and Sylva Simonian joined via live video and gave opening remarks.

“Our vision has always been to empower all young Armenians to achieve their full potential,“ said Sam Simonian. “And now we are setting out to fulfill that vision throughout Armenia and Artsakh.”

Also attending were Armen Yemenidjian, representing the Yemenidjian family, Vasken Yacoubian and Vera Setrakian on behalf of AGBU, Elie Akilian, on behalf of Elie & Elzbieta Akilian, via video feed, and TUMO CEO Marie Lou Papazian.

“My family is extremely excited and proud to be a part of this vital initiative to arm the next generation of Armenians with the tools necessary to compete in the global technology marketplace, no matter where they live in Armenia,” Said Armen Yemenidjian. “We hope this initiative encourages our Armenian brothers and sisters in the diaspora to invest in the future leaders of our country and economy.”

“AGBU has supported the incredible mission and vision of TUMO since its expansion in Armenia and Artsakh, and this gift will solidify a partnership to benefit Armenian children for generations to come. It is an honor to be able to strengthen the relationship between TUMO, AGBU, and students and their families. I also wanted to thank the other generous donors who will be joining this important campaign” said Dr. Eric Esrailian on behalf of the AGBU Council of Trustees and Central Board of Directors.

TUMO centers contain all of the tools required to implement the TUMO educational program: self-learning, workshops and learning labs with globally acclaimed experts.
The TUMO box is a fully equipped mini-TUMO that is easy-to-build and transportable.
TUMO centers and boxes are connected through a specially organized transportation system through which students from TUMO boxes are able to participate in workshops and learning labs in the nearest center, after completing the self-learning portion of the program. The TUMO Armenia campaign will build 16 centers and 110 boxes, granting all teenagers across Armenia and Artsakh access to the TUMO program.

Donations in the United States are tax deductible, and can be made in the form of one time or recurring contributions to the general project or earmarked to specific hubs or boxes through https://armenia.tumo.org.

9,456 kilometers. That’s the distance between Yerevan and Detroit — the American city that animator and educator Gary Schwartz calls home and where he recently led a stop-motion animation lab for TUMO. Three times a week, Gary and a group of 18 TUMOians convened on Zoom from their home computers. With living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens as their backdrops, they discussed stop-motion techniques and how to turn their homes into animation studios.

While this was Gary’s 6th learning lab at TUMO, it’s the first one he’s led remotely. Like so many people dealing with the current pandemic, TUMO students and their workshop and lab leaders are hunkered down at home and working online. “We’re making it work, but I do miss being with students,” admitted Gary. “Sensing if they’re understanding something or not, so we can work through things together.”

Over the years, Gary Schwartz has led stop-motion learning labs at different TUMO centers.

In April, the group set out to create a single stop-motion animated film. Gary selected a theme, the crown that nobody wanted, and soundtrack, a 1940s era jazz recording. The piece was divided between students who devised plots with a conflict, a crisis and a resolution. The students then used home materials and their phones to animate and shoot their sections. Eventually, each piece was sewn together into a single film, an artistic method of collective assembly known as exquisite corpse.

A major theme of the lab was understanding the relationship between images and sound. “Gary is focused on feeling more than technique,” explained Mane Nersesyan, a TUMO student and aspiring animator who participated in the lab as a teaching assistant. “He tells us to think like musicians or dancers. To choreograph our animation to the music and match the hits with visuals.”

In this virtual lab with Gary Schwartz, students learned how to set up animation studios at home.

During the lab, students fashioned characters and props from an array of material — paint, pencils, paper, bottles caps, vinyl records, books and jewelry. They got them moving to the music in makeshift animation studios — smartphones and iPads taped to the edge of tables with their lights shining onto canvases below. Snippets of their surroundings even made cameos in their pieces — sponges in the kitchen sink, laundry pins on a clothesline, bathroom tiles, the edge of a table and a cat’s paw.

The final stop-motion animated film by students, “The Crown Nobody Wanted.”

The result of their hard-earned efforts is a kaleidoscope of sounds and images that tickle the senses. The storylines range from royalty and symphonies to spinning planets and menacing coronavirus molecules. According to Gary, “the worst thing you can possibly do is bore your audience,” a point he’d make to students when giving them feedback during the lab. Suffice to say, there’s nothing boring about “The Crown that Nobody Wanted.” Watch and enjoy!

As I see my dad smoking his cigarettes quickly one after another and the room filling with unbearable smoke, I imagine the dust mixed with the screams coming from a thousand directions on December 7th, 1988.

Rebuilding the stories I heard from people, mostly from my mom, I could see the grey sky slowly becoming black, bringing the cold wind that could harm no one. The surrounding pictures all around were black and white, but not the kind you find in your grandparents’ bags or wallets of smiling family members, but ones that had enormous amounts of pain in them.

It had been 40 minutes since the earthquake hit. Nothing was standing. People were running like deers do from lions, pushing each other, yelling and anticipating that another earthquake would come. Some were so shocked they didn’t even care what would come next, they were entering half-torn buildings and hoping to hear ‘help.’ Some already found the dead bodies of their loved ones, some wished they were dead.

My father Armen, a 14-year-old boy at the time, somehow made it out of school and ran to his friend’s house. He was a fast runner so he used his all energy to get as far from the voices and bodies as possible. Before reaching his family’s home, he remembered that his parents, both school teachers, were at school. He turned to run back to the school when a man shouted and told him to go home because his parents were there. Armen didn’t understand why they would be there, they were teaching classes that day, but he couldn’t be any happier that they were alive. He rushed home but found it empty and destroyed.

Khachatur and Arusyak Melkonyans had been living in Jrashen, a village in Lori province, Armenia, for more than 25 years. Khachatur was an Armenian literature and language teacher and Arusyak was a geometry and music teacher. They married in 1955 and raised three young boys –  Hrayr, Arayik and Armen. By 1988 Hrayr and Arayik were married and living in Yerevan, only Armen had stayed to finish high school.

Armen ran back to the school where he knew his parents would be. While the teachers were trying to lead the students out of half destroyed schools, huge blocks of stone were falling. Armen was one of the students who lost his group. He could feel the stones diving on him, covering his whole body. And the small light that showed his front was all covered with dust. He understood he wouldn’t catch up with the students and teachers but he had to find a way out of that place. He wanted to move his body but he was stuck, unable to move. A horrible pain shook his body. He was so panicked he almost lost his breath, when somehow he saw a small light next to him. He rolled his body and managed to escape from the building before it was all gone.

Armen’s parents died in the school that day, along with many other teachers and students. Because of a poorly organized help system implemented by the USSR many died waiting for help under blocks of stones, and many couldn’t find the dead bodies of their loved ones. Armen’s brothers arrived the same day to bury their parents and care for Armen.

Armen moved to Yerevan to live with his oldest brother Hrayr and his family. He was a senior in high school whose brown- red hair was already turning white. He became very scrawny, started drinking and smoking. Before the earthquake he had met a girl from Yerevan, Anahit, who was visiting her grandparents’ house in Jrashen. Anahit had long wavy hair, beautiful brown eyes, and her smile was what fired a spark in Armen’s eyes. He fell in love and won her over days before she went back to the capital again.

After the earthquake he tried to find her and due to the help of their mutual friends, they started talking again, nurturing their love. They dated for more than 7 years. Anahit’s parents didn’t want her to marry Armen because he had nothing but a distorted house in the village. Despite this pressure, they married and moved back to the village to start over from a new page.

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Hey dear Journal,

It’s a sad day again. I woke up and dad was already awake smoking his morning cigarette. As we had breakfast he told us some good stories from his childhood. How grandpa Khachatur beat him when he ran away from school , how gentle and caring grandma was with all the kids. He told us (me and Khachatur, my brother) how similar our characters were to theirs and how much we both reminded him of his parents. Dad never really talks about that day, I guess it was too hard or maybe too emotional. But me and my brother couldn’t help asking questions, which were always answered by mom. I know she’s the only person my dad tells everything to. He always says that only she stayed with him when he was all alone, and he would be no one without her.

Although he doesn’t talk much about his parents, he named both his children after them. And I know sometimes he sees us as them. And although his worst memories are connected with the village, he was the only one among his brothers, to decide to go back and rebuild their house. He is being criticized every single day, since he is still working on finishing the house. He is told to just move to Yerevan, to move on, to forget it all. And whether he stays to keep a connection between us and our grandparents or for him to feel close to them, I will never know. But I can’t help but feel connected to them in this place. When we went to visit their tombstones, I sat in front of my grandma’s stone and starting telling her about my grades, good and bad things. I don’t know if this connection came because people told me I looked exactly like her or if  I just felt something inside, but I always cared about her opinion. With every decision I make, I think about her reaction, as if she’s really next to me. Sometimes I wish she was alive, but I can’t wish it more than my dad does. We ended the day with evening conversations and went to sleep. Dad was still smoking. He smoked the whole night. I wish I could be in his head. I wish I could understand his thoughts and his pain. But is that what I really want?

 

Arus

Arus Armen Melkonyan is a girl with endless energy and dreams. She loves to write, draw, sing and listen to stories from old times. Her biggest goal is to become a human rights activist and lawyer and make the world just a little bit better.