AIWA’s Olga Proudian Scholarship to Benefit Women in Diplomacy

BOSTON, Mass.—The Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA) has established the Olga Proudian Scholarship to encourage young women to enter the field of diplomacy and international relations. A reception on Fri., Nov. 6, from 7-9 p.m. at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) in Arlington will benefit the scholarship.

Special guests at the reception will be Rouben Shougarian, Armenia’s first ambassador to the United States, Elizabeth Prodromou, professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and pianist Lilit Karapetian-Shougarian, who will provide a musical interlude.

Olga Proudian, one of AIWA’s founders, is a native of Bucharest, Romania, and grew up in Europe and the Middle East before coming to the United States, where she has been active in both Armenian and non-Armenian community organizations. With her international and cosmopolitan background, she is particularly aware of the advantages of having women play a more active role in diplomacy and international relations.

With an extensive background in diplomacy, Ambassador Shougarian served as Armenia’s deputy foreign minister and as ambassador to Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Now on the faculty of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, he is the author of West of Eden, East of the Chessboard.

Prodromou teaches in the Program on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Fletcher School. A graduate of Tufts University (B.A.) and MIT (Ph.D.), she has held various diplomatic appointments (including as vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom) and publishes widely on the rights of religious minorities under secularist and non-secularist regimes, with particular focus on comparative religious-political regimes in the Near East.

Karapetian-Shougarian is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and has performed extensively abroad as well as in the United States.

AIWA has previously focused on Armenian women in diplomacy. Several years ago, the association, along with Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives and the Armenian Cultural Foundation, sponsored an exhibit about the pioneering Armenian diplomat Diana Apcar. A native of Burma (Myanmar), Apcar was living in Yokohama, Japan, during the Armenian Genocide, and helped hundreds of genocide survivors escape to the United States. A prominent author, she pleaded the cause of Armenia in publications and in correspondence with leading political and religious figures. The First Armenian Republic named her honorary consul.

The Olga Proudian Scholarship in Diplomacy will be added to a number of grants that AIWA makes annually to female students of Armenian descent enrolled as undergraduates or graduate students in various academic fields in higher educational institutions in the United States and around the world.

For more information or to make reservations for the Nov. 6, contact AIWA by calling (617) 926-0171 or e-mailing info@aiwainternational.org.

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