“Miss Shushan, I’ve thought of something. You can come back in ten years and put forward your candidacy for the head of village administration. We will be grown-ups and allowed to vote. You have won over us all, so we’ll all vote for you!”

The remark is heartening for English teacher Shushan Manjikyan. Although she has no intention to work in the village administration, she’s happy to hear she has won over her students.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Shushan is a linguist specializing in English. She chose the corresponding department in the university to avoid the teaching qualification. “Nevertheless, a day came when I filled in the Teach For Armenia application and have became a teacher,” Shushan tells.

She always admired teachers that work in remote regions, but whenever it came to her personal choice, she would always say: “No, I can’t do that.”

At the conference “Empowerment of Girls and Women in Armenia” Shushan heard the speech of Teach For Armenia (TFA) Founder and CEO Larisa Hovannisian, which inspired her to think over what she personally did for Armenia and what kind of environment she wanted to see in the field of education. The answers to these questions brought Shushan to Debet village in Lori marz.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“The first two months were very tense, because I knew I was taking a big responsibility. Could I make all 45 minutes of the lesson meaningful? Would I be a good teacher? Later I realized that instead of mulling over these thoughts, I should just work to be a good teacher.”

It’s difficult to say differentiate Shushan and the students in the noisy school corridors. She carries a backpack and a tote bag, and younger students are following her like ducklings. Since arriving in Debet, Shushan learned the Lori dialect along with working as a teacher.

“When I first came, the kids thought for some reason that I was very strict. Whenever one of the students spoke, the others would shush them. One time this kid didn’t stop taking and the one sitting next said in a very heavy Lori accent: “I’ll tell the teacher on you, she’ll take your homework diary and give you an “F”, right, Ms. Shushan?” “Say that again, but slower so I can understand, and I’ll see what I will do,” Shushan tells the story.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

English lessons are in a high demand in Debet. The tourist flow has increased in the area and fluency in English, even basic knowledge, would make communication with guests much easier for the locals.

She opened an English club for the adults too, where most members are teachers from the same school where Shushan is employed, although Debet residents come too.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Shushan and Arusik, TFA fellow teaching English in Amrakits village in Lori, decided to join forces to make the learning process more entertaining. Now peers from the two villages exchange letters, using the vocabulary they learn in class. Shushan and Arusik perform as post carriers and plan a meeting between the students in the nearest future.

Two of Shushan’s students have applied to Flex program to go study in the U.S., and some others want to go to the American University of Armenia.

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Children know they can talk about anything with Ms. Shushan, share their opinions and decide how they want the lesson to go.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“We have rules and if we behave well until May, we might go to the Cityzen (interactive center with inner urban infrastructure that introduces children to various professions - Mediamax) in Yerevan. We can get no more than seven strikes,” a student says.

“We’ve got one already, so it’s six,” a boy from the 6th grade corrects his classmate.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

Shushan finds different ways to encourage her students. Although she doesn’t like colored paper, she often uses it now for posters, which she brings to the school. Shushan is trying to change the environment to make studying more enjoyable for kids.

She decorated the plain classroom and hang posters on the walls. Children noticed her efforts right away: “Ms. Shushan, you came and colored everything!” A few months later, they “forced” Shushan out of the classroom, cleaned it themselves and organized the cabinet.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“The classroom has become a nice place where children can be creative and have a good time. I thought that if a simple clean-up and a few posters could inspire them so, how much we could achieve by improving the conditions more drastically. That’s how we decided to renovate the classroom,” explains Shushan.

One day she showed the renovation plan to her students. “First of all, this designed classroom is too big, ours isn’t that big. Second of all, we can never have a classroom like that,” said one of the boys. Several months later the boy, other mates and Shushan were counting the money they had collected for renovation and planning fundraising campaigns.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

In the beginning, they decided to raise 700,000 AMD by selling pastry. Shushan and the students baked muffins at home and then sell them at school.

“At first I sold the muffins to my friends even when they didn’t want any,” Shushan says, laughing. “They would always recommend asking for help on Facebook, but I didn’t want any publicity. However, at some point I realized I had to try, because the muffins weren’t enough. I made just one post and the response was huge. We raised 500,000 AMD in ten days! Other teachers from our school helped too.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

I would get orders, bake the muffins on Saturday and deliver them to different points in Yerevan on Sunday. I was so happy to see that people believed in us and invested in our plan. It obliges me to do everything well, be a good person and a good teacher,” says Shushan.

“We made muffins and sold them, and we had a booth at fairs too,” the kids tell.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“Also, we made and sold some New Year decorations, St. Valentine’s Day cards,” others add.

The children tell how much they earned from each initiative, interrupting each other. They also describe enthusiastically what the new classroom will change in their everyday life.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“When it rains, Ms. Shushan’s posters go damp. After renovation, the classroom will look pretty and we’ll have fun while studying.”

“You will get what you want if you set a goal. We have to be a bit more confident.”

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

In the scope of the renovation initiative, Shushan organized a performance of “The Tailless Fox” by Hovhannes Tumanyan in English with their handmade puppets. They also invited representatives from the Armenian Educational Foundation to attend the performance. Shushan told the guests about their plans for renovating the English classroom, and when she applied to for the assistance, the foundation promised to provide furniture and finance the equipment purchase.

200 books in English have been donated to their initiative so far, and students can’t wait to read them. Ms. Shushan promised to let them take the books home.

“Kids from the 4th grade saw the books and started screaming “Hurray!” They immediately wanted to take the books home to read. I knew those books would be too difficult for their level, but the kids were so excited, so I said yes, sure,” Shushan tells.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“We hope the classroom will be ready before Ms. Shushan leaves,” one of the students says.

“But we still can’t say whether she will leave or no,” a boy objects with a sly smile and shares their plan. “The moment she walks out of the classroom, we snatch her and take her to a secret place. A month later it will be too late for her to go away, no one will hire her and she’ll have to stay here!”

Shushan’s Fellowship ends in a few months. She has spoken with children, explained that her departure doesn’t mean she abandons them. She will follow their activities and wait to hear about their achievements.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“My primary goal is to help them become independent so that they can take responsibility and make decisions on their own instead of relying on someone.

The kids’ achievements and mine go hand in hand: the more I teach them to be themselves, the more independent I grow myself. When we discuss lofty ideas, I think, “Do I actually act like that?” and I try to become a better person.”

Shushan wants to continue her education abroad and then return to Armenia to work in the cultural sector, because she believes that she has a lot to say in that field.

Photo: Vaghinak Ghazaryan/Mediamax

“Teach For Armenia is accepting applications now and one of the new Fellows will be assigned to Debet. I can’t wait to meet them! There is so much to tell and share.

I could name thousand reasons to apply and thousand opportunities this program gives, but the most important point is that you simply can’t miss the chance to teach these kids. They change  us as much as we change them. Apply to Teach For Armenia and come to Debet, whoever you are. We can’t wait to meet you.”

Lusine Gharibyan 

Photos: Vaghinak Ghazaryan (special for Mediamax)