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Stanford to host The Hidden Road Initiative presentation

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UCSB student Nanor Balabanian and others went to Armenia this past summer to run a camp teaching internet and computer use with The Hidden Road Initiative. The Hidden Road Initiative was started in 2010 by Balabanian, who made it a goal to serve villages in Armenia and connect them with the world using internet.

– Used with permission by The Hidden Road Initiative

The Hidden Road Initiative tries to give what Palo Alto and U.S. citizens in general take for granted to those who don’t have it — Internet, technology.

To people who have such privileges, internet may mean anything from the ability to use Facebook, talk with friends, play online games or send emails, but to the people in Akhpradzor, a small village in Armenia, it could mean more, at least according to Palo Alto High School Class of 2008 student Nanor Balabanian.

Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara will host two separate presentations on The Hidden Road Initiative and Balabanian’s trip to Armenia over the summer.

Stanford will be holding its presentation on Friday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at its Bechtel International Center; UC Santa Barbara will have its presentation on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. at its Student Resource Building. 

The presentation on Balabanian’s trip to Armenia this summer will include the screening of a movie made by children in Armenia and a Skype interview with the children.

“We will inform people on what happened in hopes of inspiring our viewer to take on their own initiatives and also help our project,” Balabanian added, saying that she would also ask for donations like clothing, school supplies and care packages.

Balabanian started The Hidden Road Initiative in 2010 after she won a grant from the Donald Strauss Foundation Paly English teacher and journalism adviser Esther Wojcicki also donated $5,000. The idea started, Balabanian said, however, after a trip to Armenia with Act for Armenia in 2009.

“The Hidden Road Initiative is a student-run initiative aimed to connect roads and bridge issues between students in rural villages in Armenia (in particular Akhpradzor village) and the rest of the world,” Balabanian said. 

According The Hidden Road Initiative website, the organization’s goal is to “establish Internet connection in the remote village of Akhpradzor, thus creating a ‘virtual’ road that would be a permanent and innovative solution to a key problem of the village – isolation.” In line with the goal, Balabanian went to Armenia this summer to run camps teaching villagers to use computers, the Internet and other various subjects such as “first aid, arts and crafts, English [and] science.” She was accompanied by her brother and Paly senior Azad Balabanian and UCSB students Alexandra Basmadjian, Astkhik Hakobyan and Nune Hakobyan. 

“Our camp taught students and some teachers basic word processing, Google search and using email,” Balabanian said. “The older students also got to learn how to use [Flip cameras] and edit a movie. They interviewed the elders in the village and created a short movie about the history and traditions of their village.”

However, she emphasized that the initiative was not an attempt to transition the Armenia village to the culture of the West, but rather an effort to teach them the benefits of technology so they can use it to preserve their culture and meet with the outside world. Balabanian added the Internet had even more possible benefits.

“Although bringing Internet connectivity to a village won’t produce results very quickly, it still provides them with the necessary tools to communicate with people outside their village, bring new educational tools into their classrooms and help them find jobs in the future,” Balabanian said. 

Furthermore, Balabanian said she feels that all Armenians should go back and serve their home country in some way, like she did with The Hidden Road Initiative. 

“Palo Alto High School opened so many new opportunities for me that I didn’t know existed when I lived in Lebanon,” she said. “I am grateful for all that my education has offered me here in America, and I think it is my duty to serve back.” 

For more information, check out the flier, the homepage of The Hidden Initative  or watch a  video  about the initiative. 

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