This summer, Ucom partnered with Teach For Armenia to implement a three-week long Virtual Student Leadership Camp that promoted local ingenuity, civic responsibility, and global connectivity among students. Ucom provided 370 campers from 24 communities across Armenia with data cards to participate. 

During the camp, students tuned into virtual career development workshops led by Ucom executives and worked in groups to design Community Impact Projects that meet needs in their communities. Ucom has selected to fund a Community Impact Microgrant for students from Bagaran village in Armavir Province to make their project a reality. Students from Bagaran Secondary School have proposed establishing a museum and accompanying student-developed website that celebrates their local cultural heritage. 

“In recent months, Ucom has had a hard time choosing all the new projects and programs to participate in. This is due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, including COVID-19, but we could not help but support the implementation of this program by “Teach For Armenia”. One  just had to see the enthusiasm of our managerial staff that conducted training to share their experience and knowledge with students. I thank both the “Teach For Armenia” team for this opportunity and my colleagues for interactive training”, said Ara Sergei Khachatryan, Director General at Ucom. 

“Since March, the educational landscape in Armenia has experienced seismic shifts, with many of our students left out of learning. We’re grateful to Ucom for providing our students with the internet connectivity to bridge the gap created by COVID-19 and the digital divide,” said Ruiz Clarke, Interim CEO of Teach For Armenia. 

Ucom’s support of the 2020 Virtual Student Leadership Camp is part of an ongoing partnership with Teach For Armenia (TFA), a nonprofit organization that aims to expand educational opportunity to all children in Armenia and Artsakh. TFA recruits and trains talented individuals to teach for two years in rural communities, for whom Ucom provides internet connectivity and smartphones.