Today at the press conference at the “Armenia Marriott” Hotel, Anna Hakobyan, the spouse of Armenia’s Prime Minister, the founder and chair of “My Step” foundation, presented the first accomplishments of the Foundation: 26 students enrolled in the top universities worldwide, were provided with partial scholarships due to the Foundation’s efforts. Most of these students were beneficiaries of “Luys” foundation that had suspended its activities earlier this year in May. Finding themselves in an uncertain situation after the termination of “Luys” foundation’s programs, 11 of those students had applied to “My step” foundation 2 weeks ago, asking support for paying the tuition fees.

“We didn’t expect that we will have to deal with such an issue. At the same time, we couldn’t ignore it and “My step” foundation spared no effort to address the problem in any possible way. However, since the Foundation is still in the process of formation, we turned to the other type of our declared activities – we tried to serve as a bridge, vouch for the applicants,” Anna Hakobyan told.

As a result, in a matter of days the Foundation’s staff reviewed the applications received, contacted other beneficiaries of the “Luys” foundation, clarified their statuses, found partners, and due to their support 18 beneficiaries of “Luys” foundation were provided with partial scholarships.

Anna Hakobyan expressed special gratitude to the “Vitaly Grigoryants” charity fund which was the first to respond to the call donating 222 thousand US dollars. She thanked the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), whose participation amounted to 200 thousand US dollars; Canadian-Armenian businessman Van Lapoyan, who made a donation of 70 thousand US dollars; and another benefactor, who had prefered to remain anonymous. She also extended her thanks to Serj Tankian and Arsinee Khanjian, “My Step” foundations’ trustees, whose assistance in finding partners was essential.

During this time “My Step” foundation has also assisted 8 other applicants, who weren’t beneficiaries of “Luys”, but were also accepted to high-ranking universities and were experiencing problems with tuition. Overall, 570,800 USD was mobilized for the reimbursement of the tuition fees, and only 53,800 of it came from the Foundation itself - the remaining amount was provided by the partners.

“However, I would like to ask everyone – we did this in the exceptional circumstances; it was an emergency situation that required extreme measures. “My Step” foundation cannot continue tackling problems in this way. We have already initiated discussions both with AGBU and other interested parties to figure out how to bring this issue to a solid and sustainable solution. Because, what happened in the last 2-3 weeks was just the most quick and harm free resolution, possible in the current situation,” Anna Hakobyan said.

This year 48 applicants have submitted their applications to “Luys” foundation before the termination of its activities; 24 of them were from Armenia and 24 – from Diaspora. “My Step” foundation was unable to lend a helping hand to Armenians from Diaspora. The foundation has established contact with 20 applicants from Armenia, but hasn’t received any feedback from the remaining four.

“We had a deadline for confirming to the university whether we were going to accept the offer or not; since we’ve managed to find only the small part of the necessary amount, I thought that there is no way to find the remaining sum. I had around 20% of the required funds and “My step” foundation provided the remaining 80%, for which I’m very grateful,” Mariam Ghazaryan said (she is going to study for a year on International Law at the Cambridge University master degree program).

Narek Chobanyan, who is going to study environmental law at the California University (Berkeley), says: “When we have received the letter, it was really unexpected. There were just 4-5 days remaining, before I should have given the final response and all our family was elated; I can say that it was one of the happiest days in my life.” Narek is confident that his chosen area of expertise will be quite relevant in modern Armenia.

Emilia Simonyan was accepted to Cambridge University and is going to study veterinary medicine. She plans to be enrolled in science after returning to Armenia. “One of my biggest dreams is to establish here an institution that will provide education in veterinary science. I like animals, plus I am also fond of natural sciences and veterinary medicine is the mixture of both of those, so it’s an ideal specialization for me,” Emilia says.

Symbolic agreements are signed with all the students, according to which beneficiaries commit themselves to return to Armenia after the end of their study and work in the country for at least 3 years. “Still, notwithstanding the agreement, I am confident that their connection to their homeland is so strong and so close, that upon returning they will use their knowledge to the benefit of their country and their people,” Anna Hakobyan said.