JFDP FELLOWS

JFDP Fellows Share Their Impressions and Thoughts About Their Four Months in the US

Sarhat Petrosyan is an Assistant Professor of the Architecture at the Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction, Department of Architecture and Town Planning and Executive Director at Boghossian Gardens Company. He is hosted by the University of Kansas, School of Architecture, Design & Planning.

 

“My first reaction was “No way… I’m not going to Kansas”, when I was informed I was going to spend my Junior Faculty Development Program at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning of the University of Kansas. When I arrived to Kansas, after the first week I started to realize that this is going to be one of the best times of my life. The school’s environment, beautiful and sometimes windy campus and cozy downtown of Lawrence made my days.

 

There was a lot to learn and discover a lot to share and think about, which I did with great pleasure by meeting many new people among school staff, new students and local people. The travel opportunities on the other hand added something very unique to my impressions about the diversity of this fascinating country.

 

Sona Manusyan is being hosted by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Department of Psychology. She teaches the same subject at the Department of Psychology at the Yerevan State University.

 

Sona Manusyan attended Psychology Day at the United Nations on April 14, 2011 in New York City. The theme was Universal Access to Education”. Psychology Day provides an opportunity to share with UN Permanent Missions, UN agencies, NGOs, and the private sector the activities of psychologists at the UN and the role of psychology in addressing concerns of global importance.

 

Sona Manusyan’s impressions about the US higher education system as well as her professional activities during the program.

 

Rita Gevorgyan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Economics, Organization and Management of the State Engineering University of Armenia. She’s also Head of Education Quality Management and Control Division at her home school. In the U.S. she is being hosted by the George Washington University, Department of Management.

“I want to mention that my visit to George Washington University (GWU) gave me an exceptional opportunity not only to update my knowledge, but also to establish new contacts with the faculty staff. These relationships were transferred into professional cooperation and friendship.

 

Another important result for me was the discovery of innovative aspects in the field of teaching.  I learned more about the current American educational system, as well as about the new techniques to strengthen curricula.  During my visit I cooperated with specialists in variety of fields including business, strategic and operation management, financial marketing, and of course with the staff specialized in education assessment field. I got acquainted with modern technologies implemented in knowledge distribution to the students. It was especially interesting to use this technology and introducing it to the American students during their HR management classes for them to know how the balance scorecard method can be used for human resource strategy.

 

There are so many differences between the American and Armenian students and similarities at the same time.  But I would like to share my thoughts concerning improvement of the quality of teaching in theory and practice. It is not right to think that there is only one teaching method that fits best to each and every student’s need. There is direct relationship between teaching and learning. We can teach using the best available teaching methods and get no good effect if our students are not willing to learn. In this case we must improve all basic factors involved in the teaching process.  So the Universities must develop comprehensive plan for quality enhancement and direct their efforts towards the implementation.  At the same time it is important to improve the engagement of students’ into the teaching process for further development of students’ progress. My suggestion is that the academic staff should be abreast of the new and modern teaching methods and introduce this knowledge to the students through their engagement into the teaching process.

 

In order to implement this we must follow the GWU experience and set up two offices: Academic Planning and Assessment and Institutional Research and Planning. Mentioned offices link five fields of assessment, which include institutional, program, course, general education, and co-curricular assessment.   The right use of assessment results can be powerful instrument for improvement of education quality”.

 

Edgar Marzpanyan is a visiting scholar at the George Washington University School of Business. He teaches at the Department of Economics at the Yerevan State University.

 

“This is the most interesting but also the most difficult experience I have ever had in my life. It is hard to belief that I am away from my family already for four months. My daughter was only 3 months old when I came to US and she will be over 7 months old when I’ll be back. I did imagine that this trip was going to be not the easy one, but I was sure that it would also be extremely important for me. And I was right.

 

Here in US I met with very famous professionals and specialists of my field. The knowledge and teaching experience I got during this period is indispensable for me. I found out that in our university students show more respect to their professors. For example, nobody will eat or drink something during classes and students always solute their professors when they enter to classroom while in US universities it is a common thing. But of course in US classrooms students are more responsible, more concentrated and they do not talk to each other during classes which is one of the main problems in our universities. When I will be back to Armenia I will try to combine all good things together.

 

I think I am one of the luckiest scholars, because surprisingly I found so many good Armenian friends in Washington that I couldn’t even imagine I would meet so many Armenians when I came here. I am going to miss these guys when I will be back to Armenia. Besides I am here with another scholar from Armenia, Rita, who became a very good friend of mine. Together we have shared many sad and happy days, participated in development of new teaching methodology with a group of professors from different countries, made very good presentation about Armenia and also presented some of Armenian meals during “Test the East” festival.

 

Now only few more weeks are ahead before I will back to my country, to my family and friends. I thank God for such a great opportunity and I wish all future scholars to have such a great experience in US although it is a little bit hard when you are away from your home”.

 

Nora Gevorgyan is a JFDP visiting scholar at the Florida State University, International Affairs program. She’s a lecturer at the Department of Political Science at her home institute Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University.

 

“I know that many JFDP participants will talk about what they gained professionally from this program, about current differences in American and Armenian educational systems, about teaching techniques and academic behavior, about how they were surprised with rich and developed environment at American university campuses, and how much they would like our students and faculty to have same opportunities. I would rather talk here not about my professional and academic gains from participating in the JFDP program but what I call “personal achievements”.

 

I realized that this is going to be professionally useful but also enjoyable experience when I found out about my US host university from the American Councils Yerevan office. I was placed at the Florida State University! What did that mean to me 5 months ago? Of course, sun, ocean, and golden sand, mainly because I had never seen ocean in my life and it was one of my cherished dreams. In reality it appeared to be even better experience, particularly thanks to my FSU academic adviser Dr. Lee Metcalf. Thanks to her I experienced not only ocean, beaches, gator’s nursery garden, Mardi Grass carnival, but also all varieties of sea food, and generally all attractions of Southern American life. No doubts, that close introduction to what we call “American culture” was really very exciting! Thanks so much JFDP.”

 

On April 13, 2011 Nora Gevorgyan participated in the International Affairs Colloquium at the Florida State University and made two presentations. Her first presentation was on Armenian history, culture and traditions and aimed to provide American student with information about the South Caucasus region countries, and Armenia in particular. The second presentation entitled “Armenian Higher Education System: Current Issues” was dedicated to description of existing challenges and needs in education sector that Armenia faces at present, and future challenges of implementation of Bologna process principles.

Iskuhi Mkrtchyan is being hosted by the Department of Economics at the South Dakota State University. Iskuhi teaches Econometrics at the Armenian State Agrarian University, Department of Agribusiness and Marketing, Statistics and Biometrics.