Leaderboard

The Globe & Mail, CanadaJan 4 2019 At 21, this aerospace engineering student, former refugee has created her first invention LES PERREAUX Shoushi Bakarian, an aerospace engineering student at Concordia University, poses for a photograph with a ventilation device that she redesigned for Cessna Aircraft, at Stratos Aviation in Montreal on Oct. 30, 2018. Bakarian arrived from Syria in 2016. This is part of Stepping Up, a series introducing Canadians to their country’s new sources of inspiration and leadership. The distance from Aleppo to the lab at Montreal’s Trudeau airport where a young engineer-in-training is perfecting her first invention is 8,580 kilometres, but Shoushi Bakarian’s trajectory might better be measured in light speed. Three years ago, Ms. Bakarian was sitting in Lebanon, part of a family of four Syrian refugees facing an uncertain future with hope of making a new start in Canada. Fast-forward those 36 months: Ms. Bakarian is in her third year of aerospace engineering at Montreal’s Concordia University. She has learned her fourth language, French – in addition to English, Arabic and Armenian. She’s got two part-time jobs with promising prospects in her field: one in the parts department at Bombardier Aerospace and another at Stratos Aviation, a small aviation and flight simulation firm. There, she’s co-created her first invention in the lab she’s building. Oh, and she leads a Scout troop where she hopes to influence her young charges. She’s 21. “I want to reach girls and tell them they don’t have to limit themselves to traditional jobs, like teachers. Especially for girls from my community, they have a very limited idea of what’s out there,” Ms. Bakarian says. “I want to become an example.” On a recent late fall day, Ms. Bakarian tinkers with the tiny generator fan blades of her latest accomplishment: The Ventus, a 5-volt accessory charger for Cessna airplanes that runs off the aircraft’s air vents and as an added bonus cools the air by compressing it. The simple blue tube prototype seems likely to become a must-have accessory for pilots who rely on tablets and smartphones for aviation computation but fly aircraft that were mostly built long before the smartphone era. “I like clean energy, solar power, wind power, so we developed it further to add on the charger idea,” she says. “I spent my summer designing, drawing and testing until it worked.” Naor Cohen, the owner of Stratos Aviation, hired Ms. Bakarian within days of meeting her during an outreach program for women in aviation about a year ago. Ms. Bakarian started out as an instructor on the company’s flight simulators. One day he shared an idea he had to improve cooling small Cessna cabins by using a Venturi tube to compress and cool the air. He invited her to set up a lab with computers and 3-D printers and she ran with it. “I guess she must sleep very little,” Mr. Cohen says. “We’ve never seen her as an employee, and more as a partner in the team. She’s free to come whenever stuff needs to be done. Right now, she’s concentrating mainly on the lab. We want to put that imagination and creativity to work more.” Ms. Bakarian arrived in Canada on Christmas Eve, 2015, with her father, Antaranik, her mother, Ani, and her now-24-year-old sister, Meghri. The daughters had high school diplomas earned during the Syrian civil war with rockets flying overhead and bombs bursting not far from their Armenian school in Aleppo. Small details come back to Ms. Bakarian as she remembers the time. “Our school was in the firing line, so we had to study in a kindergarten in these tiny little chairs,” she recalls. “I always make jokes about it, but it’s not funny.” By 2015, the battle for Aleppo had settled into a stalemate and her family was stuck. “In Grade 10, the big bombs started, by Grade 11, we were without electricity or running water or internet. Some people started to leave but we didn’t know how to get out of Aleppo. We didn’t know who was on the road waiting to kidnap us. … Once the missiles started falling, we didn’t know where they were coming from or where they’d land.” A turning point came when her mother needed surgery that had to be performed in Lebanon. The medical issue combined with mounting violence forced the family to make a move. They spent a year in Lebanon while she recovered. Her parents concluded the family would have limited education and work opportunities in that country. That’s when Canada opened the doors to Syrian refugees. In those early Canadian winter days, the family enrolled in French classes while all four of them set about finding work. Ms. Bakarian got hired at McDonald’s, a job she kept as she enrolled at Concordia, which helped her family survive while her parents found work in the garment industry. It was a step down from her father’s previous job managing a tools warehouse. Meghri, meanwhile, is specializing in child studies at Concordia. Ms. Bakarian is grateful for the sacrifices her parents made, but she made some, too. She was almost crushed by workload as a first-year university student who was working 30 hours a week at her fast food job. “I was physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted,” she says. “But now I’m making up for it. My family is okay now, and it’s easier.” Arpi Hamalian, an education professor emerita at Concordia University, took the younger Bakarian women under her wing when they showed up at an orientation in early 2016. “They were looking a little lost,” Dr. Hamalian recalls now, but it didn’t take long for them to get on track. “Shoushi, well both girls really, know exactly who they are and where they are going. They are unbelievably talented, focused and team-oriented. There aren’t many like them.” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-at-21-this-aerospace-engineering-student-former-refugee-has-created/?fbclid=IwAR1v06Bci1ej4UKK5PCDrkushDi-Rh-Cb0iVpwcPWzHs4odfXRpHvJfPFu0

News.am, ArmeniaJan 6 2019 Armenian proverb engraved in most populous place in The Hague13:05, 06.01.2019 An Armenian saying has been engraved in The Hague, the Facebook page of the Embassy of Armenia in The Netherlands has informed. “Among 28 other languages, an Armenian proverb about way—‘Water will find its way’—has been engraved in front of the railway station, the most populous place in the city,” the embassy’s post reads, and a respective photo is attached. https://news.am/eng/news/489365.html

One IndiaJan 6 2019 Why Armenians celebrate their Christmas on January 6 and not on December 25By Shubham Ghosh| Published: Sunday, January 6, 2019, 11:34 [iST] Bengaluru, Jan 6: While the rest of the world celebrates the Christmas Day on December 25, the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates it on January 6. It also observes the Epiphany (the revelation that Jesus was God's son). Epiphany is now the time Churches remember the Visit of the Wise Men to Jesus. It is frequently asked why don't the Armenians celebrate Christmas on December 25 with the western world. First, it is said the birth of Jesus is not established. Historically, Christian churches have celebrated Christmas on January 6 until the 4th century. As per Roman Catholic sources, the feast day was moved from January 6 to December 25 to cancel a pagan holiday denoted to the birth of the sun. The church hierarchy began to be appointed on December 25. As for Jesus' baptism, January 6 was left as its commemoration day. Some Armenians fast in the week ahead of the Christmas. The Christmas Eve meal includes rice, fish, yogurt/wheat soup and nevik. Desserts include dried fruits and nuts, rojik and bastukh. Children take presents of fruits, nuts and other candies to their elders. https://www.oneindia.com/international/why-armenians-celebrate-their-christmas-on-january-6-and-not-on-december25-2832612.html

Philippine StarJan 6 2019 The story of the Three Kings comes from Armenia FROM A DISTANCE - Carmen N. Pedrosa (The Philippine Star) - January 6, 2019 - 12:00am The feast of the Three Kings today ends the long Christmas season in the Philippines. Although it is much celebrated in Spain and Latin American countries it is not so in the Philippines. Although there is an obligatory mass and it is a public holiday it is anti-climactic. With thousands of overseas Filipinos working abroad it was chaos in the airports. It is the day Filipinos prepare to go back to work in different countries. In a way, it is also a departure from the influence of colonial Spain. In other countries colonized by Spain like Mexico, celebrations of this feast are big. As far as I can remember as a child we hang socks for Santa Claus but for Three Kings we put our shoes out when it is said they will put money in the shoes. That is not practiced anymore in most families. Like Christmas itself the story of the Three Kings varies but the generally accepted version comes from the Christmas story of the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12. “After Jesus was born, Wise Men came to look for Him, probably from an area which is now in either Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia or the Yemen. Although they are often called the ‘Three Kings,’ the Bible does not say how many there were, or that they were kings. One theory is that they might have been Kings of the Yemen, as during this time the Kings of Yemen were Jews. Three is only a guess because they brought with them three gifts: but however many there were of them, they probably would have had many more servants with them. They were certainly men of great learning. The word Magi comes from the greek word ‘magos’ (where the English word ‘magic’ comes from). Magos itself comes from the old Persian word ‘Magupati’. This was the title given to priests in a sect of the ancient Persian religions such as Zoroastrianism. Today we’d called them astrologers. Back then astronomy and astrology were part of the same overall studies (and ‘science’) and went hand in hand with each other. The magi would have followed the patterns of the stars religiously. They would have also probably been very rich and held in high esteem in their own society and by people who weren’t from their country or religion. They had seen an unusual new star in the sky, and knew that it told of the birth of a special king in Israel. No one really knows what the new star in the sky was, and there are many theories including comets, supernovas, a conjunction of planets or something supernatural! Find out more about the star in the Star of Bethlehem page in the Christmas Customs section. The Magi would have known about the prophesies of a special Jewish Savior (also known as the Messiah) from when the Jews had been held captive in ancient Babylon several hundred years before. Legends are told about them and they have been given names. This is how they are often described: Gaspar (or Caspar), who has brown hair and a brown beard (or no beard!) and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels on it. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar represents the Frankincense brought to Jesus. Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard and wears a gold cloak. He is the King of Arabia. Melchior represents the Gold brought to Jesus. Balthazar, who has black skin and a black beard (or no beard!) and wears a purple cloak. He is the King of Tarse and Egypt. Balthazar represents the gift of Myrrh that was brought to Jesus. Herod asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and tell him where he was, not so he could go and worship him as he said, but so he could kill him! He thought that Jesus sounded like a new King that could come and take his power away. When the Wise Men found Jesus and Mary, they would have been living in a normal house, probably in Bethlehem or Jerusalem, because by this time Jesus would have been aged between one and two. Then they gave their gifts to him. The gifts seem quite strange to give to a baby, but Christians believe that they had the following meanings: Gold: is associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings. Frankincense: is sometimes used in worship in churches and showed that people would worship Jesus. Myrrh: is a perfume that is put on dead bodies to make them smell nice; Christian believe that it showed that Jesus would suffer and die. The gifts are also all things that come from east of Israel in Arabia. When the wise men were about to go to tell Herod where Jesus was, they were warned in a dream not to, so Herod could not carry out his horrible plan.” Some scholars have written that the story of the Three Kings comes from Armenian tradition. It is from Armenian stories that the three men are identifies as Balthsar of Arabia, Melchor of Persia and Gaspar of India. The identification of the three kings or three Magi gives a universal aspect for Christmas. It is believed that they journeyed following the Star of Bethlehem which is now in either Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia or the Yemen. https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2019/01/06/1882626/story-three-kings-comes-armenia