Full name: Hrag Khatchig Dedeyan
Date and place of birth: 1996- Bourj Hammoud
University: Lebanese American University
Major: Political Science & International Affairs
Educational background: Melankton & Haig Arslanian College 2014
Interests/hobbies: Music, Movies, Politics, History, Playing guitar
Special awards and certificates: Al Bayan Award for distinction in Arabic language
> Why did I apply to the Jean Gouikian Scholaship and how has it helped
I first heard about the goguikian foundation in 11th grade when they visited my school for an orientation. At the time I had my mind set on studying business, but as the months went by I realized that I favoured politics over economics, and so decided to continue my higher education learning political science to eventually assist my country and my community. I recalled that the foundation offered a scholarship for that major and that the program represented my objectives and goals troughtout life, so I immediatly signed up.
The foundation has covered 100% of my tuition, it has also offered me leadership programs and courses to ameliorate my arabic. The foundation has also secured my future by offering me jobs in the public sector.
>My academic and professional aspirations
Since my childhood my family always stressed the concept of knowledge and education, and worked day and night to provide that education for me and my siblings. At first ,like most kids, I despised studying ,but as I grew I realized that witout education and high academic aspirations I wouldn’t become the man I wanted to be in life, a man that my family, my community and my country would be proud to call their own, so I immersed myself in my studies and will continue doing so to secure high grades and reach places in my field of study at LAU and in the future getting a masters and a phD in international affiars and geopolitics.
As for my professional aspirations I wish to work in the ministry of foreign affairs and advance to higher ranks in that ministry and represent my country on a diplomatic level.
>My hopes for the Lebanese Armenian community’s future
I am the 22nd member of The Goguikian Foundation, 21 students have gotten the scholarship before me therefore believe in the community as I do and believe in its potential and development ,so I am not the least worried about the community because I am certain that with my help and the help of my friends we will contribute in the development, the growth and the expansion of the Lebanese Armenian community, and aid its emergence and the emergence of the Armenian youth in the public sector and show the world that Armenians ,despite their past ,will have a bright future.
We are the future of the community, it is our duty and responsibility to protect it.
>My inspirations
My biggest inspiration has been Martin Luther King Jr. ,facing tremendeous adversity, he managed to stand for the rights of his people and their equality. He wanted blacks to accomplish themselves and wanted the whites to allow them to do so.
Altough he faced an uncertain future that didn’t stop him, it fed and fueled its aspiration and his peoples ambition. For me, I always felt that we could connect to that. we live in a country where the future is never certain, we face distress and tribulation everyday but we carry on always believing in ourselves and our future.
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree” – Martin Luther.
We invest in our community everyday, despite hardships we continue to believe in it.