My name is Robert and I am an Armenian who lives in Edmonton, Canada. I was born in a small village outside of Yerevan and at the age of five, my family moved to Canada. 

I grew up around Armenians who joined our journey to Canada and for a short while our community was tight knit. We often had community events for Easter, Christmas, and New Years, along with Armenian language lessons which were also regularly held. Together we also created an Armenian soccer team that brought together Armenians from three cities. The team played for three seasons, but it was the last remaining piece of our community and when it ended, our community did too. 

To bring our community together again, during the last year of my bachelor's degree, I organized the Association for the Study of Armenian Heritage. Within the first year of my Master of Science in Medicine program, the organization began to take shape with lessons in Armenian history, culture, and language, starting with its first youth students who piloted the 1 year program before the courses were released to the rest of the community. Today the Association for the Study of Armenian Heritage is also a forum for interaction for Armenian youth and a bastion of Armenian identity within our community.  

For the future, we are building the Association for the Study of Armenian Heritage to become the official representative of our community as a registered charity and hold community-wide events, such as holiday celebrations, cultural appreciation events, and opportunities for Armenians to meet one another among its other activities.

I am participating in the Diaspora Youth Ambassador program so that I can help my community realize its potential and connect it with the rest of the Armenian Nation.