AGBU is pleased to announce the addition of ANI to its growing AGBU Education Innovation platform. The program—founded in September 2015 by Australian Armenian siblings Ray and Meline Nazloomian—joins English-speakers in the diaspora with English-learners in Armenia to help improve English proficiency in the country. Seeing their program grow exponentially in its first year, the Nazloomians chose to partner with AGBU to help further grow and develop ANI.
This partnership is the latest initiative to reach the program’s goal of connecting students in Armenia with native English speakers across the globe. ANI connects coaches and students for a free, once-a-week, 30-minute to 45-minute, one-on-one Skype session, during which students have the opportunity to practice and improve their English outside the classroom. The curriculum is broken into 12-week blocks and students and coaches can continue their work together for as many blocks as they choose. “We were startled by the fact that only 4% of Armenians in Armenia could speak English fluently. Knowing how important speaking English is in an increasingly globalized world, we were interested in leveraging modern technology to mobilize the over nine million Armenians in the diaspora to improve English proficiency in Armenia. Our vision is that by 2020, 100% of Armenian students can speak English fluently,” said Ray Nazloomian.
By April 2016, the program included 60 students from across Armenia and 60 coaches from Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. ANI also has a rich connection with the AGBU New York Summer Internship Program (NYSIP), with co-founder Meline and many of the current coaches being NYSIP alumni. Now with the support of AGBU, the program is in the process of increasing its number of coaches and students. AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) has already begun work in Armenia to encourage more students to participate in the program. To register as a coach or a student, please visit www.myani.org.
