A semester at John Cabot University in Rome.

Dear all,

My name is Karen Melkomyan. I am 20 years old Junior(rising Senior) student at American University of Armenia(AUA). I study at Business Administration department and my concentration is on Marketing. In this academic year I got accepted to John Cabot University(JCU) in Rome as a visiting student for one semester at Marketing department(I enclose the acceptance letter here). This is a unique opportunity for me to take my academic and professional development one step higher. Unfortunately, I have a financial need of 4000$ to be able to attend JCU. Though I am working at Admissions office of AUA at a work-study position and at event organizing organization, it is impossible to gather enough money in three months. I can cover only my insurance and ticket fees. Tuition fee is partially covered by AUA, however, I have to cover the remaining part.

My family consists of 5 members: father, mother, sister, grandfather and me. Currently, the only working members of family are me and my father. I use my salary(86$ per month), which is a bit higher than minimum wage in Armenia, for my everyday expenses at university, and my fathers salary(530$ per month) hardly covers family expenses. My mother is a housekeeper, and my sister is at school yet.

I am more than happy to answer your questions about this project or about anything you think I can be a reference person.

Here are my achievements till today.

In 2009 I entered “Quantum” collage. After one year of general education I continued with concentration on economics. During my high school years I have participated in various youth programs, competitions and events. I won the first place of 7^th in-school chess tournament.

In 2011 I have participated in “Democracy Starts With You” program held by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and Yerevan school of political studies founded by European Union. The program was a four day simulation game on Democracy and it had three stages: local, regional and European selections. There were 600 participants at local stage and 20 of them were to represent Armenia at the regional stage. After the second four day simulations in 2012, 5 out of 20 participants were selected to visit European Council, Council of Europe, NATO coordination and military centers and BENELUX in Brussels, Belgium. I was one of the 5 members of Armenian Delegation to Belgium.

In 2013, I got admitted to AUA, faculty of Business Administration. The first two years of my studies I spent on general business and in my junior year I choose marketing as the general field of my future studies. Besides high-level education, AUA gave me an opportunity to create a network of intelligent youngsters which lead me to European Youth Parliament Armenia(EYP).

In February of 2014 I participated in my first EYP national event called BUS 2014. It was a business simulation game and our team’s resolution won “People’s Choice Award”. Later on, in May I participated in International EYP Forum Armenia(IEFA). IEFA gathered 250 young people from all over the world to discuss global problems concerning to different fields and try to give possible solutions. I was recognized as the best delegate of the IEFA and was given a white card to participate in 76th International Session of EYP in Barcelona, Spain.

In December 2014 I founded "Comeditacia" stand up group which is still functioning. I was in the group strightly one year and we managed to do several stand up shows in different parts of Yerevan. During that period of time we established ourselves at Armenian market and attracted attention to our shows. I quit "Comeditacia" in December 2015 to fully concentrate on my studies

Also, in 2014 I was a member of organizing committee of several EYP events; Active Youth for Sustainability: Obtaining and Rebuilding, Pan Regional EYP Session and few one or two-day-long events. In December of the same year, I was chosen to be the head organizer of IEFA 2015 which was going to bring together more than 300 youngsters from different countries in May. In 2015 I was also the local coordinator of EYP.

In 2015, I applied for the Study of the United States Institute for Undergraduate Student Leaders at Southern Illinois University, IL, US. After passing the stage of interview, I was in the best 5 applicants among those of 300. I spent 5 weeks at SIU in summer, where I studied public policy making and leadership.

All my previous social and educational activities mentioned above made me a multinational personality and now I am eager to experience myself in a new environment. Living and studying in Rome for 4 months will give me this opportunity. as well as, will strengthen my professional skills in the sphere of marketing. After coming back to my homeland I can invest my knowledge and skills in a process of developing the sphere of marketing in Armenia.

One of my friends once said "You give something to society, and like boomerang, it comes back." Once I was given the opportunity to be co-mentor of 30 youngsters in my school. It was brilliant experience for me because some of them had tangible success as a result of the training. Some time later, one of them "paid back" as he trained me for something else where he was better than me. At that moment, I was sure about the theory of boomerang. It works every time, because the Good can never get lost. I have plans about how I am going to "pay back" to the society after my education is complete. I have experience in organizing youth events such as trainings, forums, simulation games and I will use my knowledge gained in JCU to add value of the events I will organize. Another important point is that I will do events not only in Yerevan, but also in Gyumri, Goris, Armavir, with the help of my friends from those cities.

If required, I can show the certificates for every event mentioned here.

Sincerely,
Karen Melkomyan