2004 Annual Report of the College Ministry Program

In its first year of operation, the College Ministry Program hit the ground running in its mission to encourage Armenian college students to explore and celebrate the richness of their Christian heritage, and strengthen their connections to the Armenian Church.

Highlights of 2004 Activities

Armenian Student Database: The first step in ministering to college students is finding out who they are and where they attend college.  Amassing such information is useful to the college ministry program, local parishes, and other church youth programs.  Accomplishments in this area included: the design, printing and circulation of 3,000 college student registration postcards; the addition of 2,000 college students and their contact information to the Diocesan database; the distribution of lists of local Armenian college students to 15 local parish communities.

Internet Outreach: Bringing students into the life of the church sometimes means bringing the church into the life of the student.  The Diocese’s new college ministry website, “College 301”—www.college301.org—is an invitation from our church that reaches Armenian students across the nation in their own dorm-rooms.  Accomplishments in this area included:

• The creation of a college ministry website featuring news and events, a discussion forum, job/internship opportunities, sections on faith in college and the Armenian heritage, and other resources.  In less than half a year, the site was used by over 500 unique visitors and surpassed 5,000 hits.
• The creation of an electronic college ministry newsletter, “Eh-mail,” received monthly by nearly 2,000 Armenian students across the Diocese.
• 50 college students registered on the college ministry web forum and posted over 100 entries discussing matters of heritage, faith, and college life.

Campus Outreach: The most direct way to reach college students is to hold gatherings on campus.  In 2004, the College Ministry program organized 15 campus visits in cooperation with local parishes.  Events were held at these colleges: State University of New York, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Siena College (Albany, NY); Tufts University, Northeastern University, Boston College, Harvard University (Boston, MA); Michigan Sate University, Wayne State University (Detroit, MI); Brown University (Providence, RI); Northwestern University (Chicago, IL).

Youth Outreach: The College Ministry program joined several other Diocesan youth-related programs to speak about staying connected to the church in college.  Presentations for high school juniors and seniors and college students were held for the following: St. James Sunday school graduating class (Watertown, MA); St. Nersess Seminary winter and summer conferences (New Rochelle, NY); ACYOA Leadership Conference (Stony Point, NY); ACYOA General Assembly and Sports Weekend (Dallas, TX); Midwest Hye Camp (Ingleside, IL); St. Vartan Camp (Greenville, NY).

Parish Outreach: The College Ministry Program arranged 12 presentations at local parishes to discuss how to do improve outreach to college students.  These presentations were held at the following churches: Church of Our Saviour (Worcester, MA), Holy Trinity (Cheltenham, PA), Holy Ascension (Trumbull, CT), St. James (Watertown, MA), Holy Resurrection (New Britain, CT), St. Peter (Waterveliet, NY), St. John (Detroit, MI), St. Leon (Fairlawn, NJ), St. Peter (Watervliet, NY), St. James (Evanston, IL).  Similar presentations were delivered at the New England Clergy Conference (Cambridge, MA), and a New England Regional Planning workshop (Watertown, MA).

Personnel: Jason Demerjian was the College Ministry facilitator in 2004.