1998_05 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper May 1998

              May 1998
Hye Sharzhoom
3
1998 Graduates
Jacqueline Arikian
BS Psychology
Jacqueline is a psychology major who plans on going to
graduate school to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. The
four years Jacqueline has spent at Fresno State have been rewarding
and memorable. Her involvement with the Armenian Studies Department, the Psychology Department, and Vintage Days have left her
with much experience and many memories. Her most rewarding
educational experience was conducting independent research through
the Psychology Honors Program under the guidance of her mentor. Dr.
Paul Rice. Jacqueline would like to thank the Lord and her friends and
family for their strength and guidance.
Cristina (Crissi) Jelladian
BS Family Law
Crissi is graduating with a special major in family law which
involves five different departments. She plans to attend law school and
receive her Juris Doctorate. Crissi has always found time outside of
schoolwork to be a part of the Armenian Students Organization. In
1996 she was President ofthe club and has been active in it her entire
college career. She also was a part of the Republican club on campus
and has written for Hye Sharzhoom a number of times. She looks
foward to bigger and better things but she is saddened that she will most
likely be farther from her close and personal friend, 'Aznive
Tchapadarian. She wants Az to know that, " Wherever our paths take
us in life, Az, I hope and pray that we remain close. I wish you a lifetime
full of happiness and good times."
Karen Karabian
BA Mass Communication and Journalism
Karen Karabian, daughter of Russell and Georgette Karabian,
is a 1998 Magna Cum Laude graduate of California State University,
Fresno. She will use her bachelor of arts degree in mass communication and journalism to pursue a career in the entertainment indutry.
Karen's four-year college credits include Vintage Days director and
graphic designer Hye Sharzhoom writer, and Orientation program
director.
David Razmik Melikian
BS Business Administration-Finance
Minor Armenian Studies
David is a finance major who plans on finding a good job here
in Fresno. He also is graduating with a minor in Armenian Studies, a
very important accomplishment. On April 11th he married a wonderful
girl, Anna Atashkarian. The most memorable thing about college for
him was the great times he had in the Armenian Students Organization.
He has been a member since his first year and has been a very helpful
part of many events. He feels school has prepared him for the pressures
and stresses of the real world.
So You've Got A Sabbatical?
By Dickran Kouymjian
Haig and Isabel Berberian
Professor of Annenian Studies
American Universities initiated
long ago a system whereby professors
would receive paid time off every seventh year to conduct research usually
leading to publication of a major work.
The "sabbatical" year or semester is
not automatically given. A program of
research must be presented to a university committee specially constitute to
review sabbatical proposals.
My research project for my 1997-
1998 sabbatical year was on Armenian
paleography, the study ofthe development of the Armenian script as used in
manuscripts from the fifth to the twentieth century. A joint project to prepare
an Album of Armenian Paleography
which would present an abundantly
illustrated series of manuscript pages
showing how Armenian script changed
over the centuries was undertaken in
1990 by Professors Michael Stone, Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, Henning Lehmann, President of Aarhus University. Denmark,
and a specialist in early Armenian religious texts, and myself.
At the invitation of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies at
Wassenaar this past February. I was
able to work with Prof. Stone on the
organization of the volume. In March
both of us went to Aarhus, Denmark
for discussions with the publisher. All
of this after a number of research and
photography expeditions in Erevan,
Jerusalem. Venice, Paris, London.
Dublin and American cities during the
past seven years. A completed draft of
the book, which will be more than 500
pages with some 200 color .plates in
folio was turned over to the Aarhus
University Press. The volume is supported in large part by the Carlsberg
Foundation of Amsterdam. The volume should be released at the end of
next year.
However, the work is far from
over. Because we have tried to use
recent computer technology in compiling precise alphabet tables for each
of the more than 200 dated manuscripts selected for the Album, by scanning slides and photographs and then
cutting out alphabets letter by letter
using special software, there are a thousand and one details to check and re-
check. During the sabbatical 1 have
spent most of my time finishing research on the history of Armenian paleography from the earliest medieval
manuals on writing to pioneering eighteenth and nineteenth century studies
and the more modern approaches of
the twentieth century. This work has
been helped over the past three years by
grants from the Bertha and John
Garabedian Foundation of Fresno and
the Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon.
But the sabbatical has not been
just the Album of Armenian Paleography. I have also been able to make
progress on the study and decipherment
of the only known Armenian papyrus, a
single leaf probably from the late sixth
century, discovered in 1892, but then
lost to scholarship. I relocated this
valuable document among the
uncatalogued Armenian manuscripts in
the Bibliotheque nationale de France in
Paris. The papyrus has a Greek text but
is written entirely with the Armenian
alphabet. The presumption is that it
was an exercise sheet of an Armenian
soldier or merchant in Byzantine controlled Egypt trying to learn Greek. It
represents the oldest surviving example
of handwritten Armenian known. The
papyrus and a discussion of it will appear in the Album of Armenian Paleography, but I am also preparing a separate monograph on the papyrus with a
team of specialists including a scholar
of Greek from Cambridge University,
James Clackson. who studied Armenian with the late Charles Dowsett of
Oxford.
A sabbatical leave also allows professors the freedom to participate in
international conferences which would
Garo Nakashian
BA Graphic Design
Minor Mass Communication and Journalism
.Garo would like to thank:
his family for their support, his
adviser Dr. Arndt for helping him
through the first rough semesters,
his graphic design professor Mr.
Charles Shields for his inspiration for teaching him not to settle
for "just good," and his friends in
and out of school for their friendship and support through the years, "You
know who you are." Originally from Beirut, Lebanon, Garo wanted to be
an artist from day one. In college Graphic design was his calling. After
graduation Garo wants to work for a graphic design firm in Fresno and
later move to Los Angeles for bigger and better things. In Garo's words,
"I thank God for blessing me and helping me complete another chapter of
my life. College was the best years of my life, I shall never forget it. But
I still have a lot more to learn."
Aznive Tchapadarian
BS Mechanical
Engineering
Aznive has been very active in her major as she was Mistress of Ceremonies for the Industry and Student Awards Banquet,
She also has received two more
certificates for her exemplary efforts, including an award from
Senator Jim Costa. In addition to
her activities in her major, Aznive
was  extremely involved in the
Armenian Student Organiztion and 1996 she was the Vice President.
Currently she is a DJ for Armenian radio every Saturday on KFSR (90.7)
from 9am - 12pm. She has written for Hye Sharzhoom and has been a
valuable asset to the Armenian Studies Program. She also reminds us all
to "never give up on your dreams. If you work hard enough, you can
accomplish everything. She is effectionately known to many of her
friend as ASO Mama, AZ, and Ozzie.
A Farewell to Professor Krekorian
On behalf the Armenian students at Fresno State, we would
like to thank you for all the hard work and dedication you
have given over the past year. It was a pleasure having you
at Fresno State, and we wish you the best of luck in your future
endeavors. We will MISS YOU!!!
be normally difficult to do, especially
from California, during the academic
year because of heavy teaching and
administrative responsibilities. Thus,
in June 1997,1 was invited to conduct
a two week seminar for graduate students on medieval Armenian art and
history at the Central European University in Budapest, a school founded
and supported by George Soros. Also
while in Budapest I was able to present
a paper at the 35th International
Orientalists Congress. The theme of
the congress was great orientalists of
the past and I spoke about Sirarpie Der
Nersessian, the first to put a scientific
foundation to the history of medieval
Armenian painting. Because I was on
the International Advisory Committee,
I had a chance to meet with the President of Hungary, the head ofthe Academy, the Crown Prince of Jordan (the
keynote speaker on the opening day),
and Prof. Edmund Schutz. a member of
the Hungarian Academy, a leading
Armenologist who, as some readers of
Hye Sharzhoom may remember, was
invited to Fresno State jointly by former
Librarian Henry Madden and myself in
the late 1970s.
In September I was asked to lead
a panel on Armenian miniature painting in Apocryphal Bible manuscripts at
an international conference held in
Geneva on Armenian Apocrypha sponsored by the Universities of Lausanne
and Geneva. While in Geneva, I had
special meetings with His Holiness
Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, who was
in the city in his capacity as President
ofthe World Council of Churches. Our
meeting involved planning of the
1700th anniversary of the conversion
of Armenia to Christianity to be celebrated in 2001 and the years leading to
it. The following month, while in
Erevan. I also met with His Holiness
Karekin I at Holy Etchmiadzin to discuss the same issue, and once again this
April in Paris with Aram Catholicos. I
See SABBATICAL, Page 7