


BY KYLE KHANDIKIAN
The All-Armenian Students’ Association (All-ASA) held its first general body meeting of the 2015-2016 academic year on Sunday, September 13, 2015 at Glendale Community College, bringing together representatives of twelve Armenian Students’ Associations (ASAs) from universities and community colleges across Southern California.
Lead this year by President Mikael Matossian (UCLA’14), the purpose of the All-ASA for years has been to unite the various ASAs of Southern California for the benefit of their members and the Armenian-American community at-large. According to Matossian, ASAs are dynamic components of the Armenian-American community in California and serve to both develop their members to be the next generation of leaders, and to inspire Armenian high school students to pursue higher education.
The largest confederation of ASAs in the country, the All-ASA began the new academic year by identifying a new, three-point roadmap that it will use to guide its cultural, social, and activist programming throughout the year: unity and collaboration among constituent ASAs, leadership development of its members, and community service.
The meeting brought together Armenian students from a wide variety of Southern California schools, including UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, USC, Pepperdine University, Occidental College, Glendale Community College, and Pasadena City College.
Public relations director Nare Kupelian, treasurer Anna Kupchyan, IT director Lolita Gabrielyan, and social and fundraising director Emily Samvalian were also present at Sunday’s first general body meeting.
To continue maintaining an Armenian presence on their respective campus communities, the All-ASA members, together with the board, finalized the organization’s formal mission statement, established the rules and guidelines for their meeting space, and began planning cultural, social, educational, and activist events for the upcoming semester on Sunday.
Matossian noted that the All-ASA is “always changing and moving,”