USC Alumni launch mentorship program for Armenians
Project Yeraz seeks to foster career networks through lessons, events and mentors.
By FRANCO GUTIERREZ
UscTrojan.com
Project Yeraz seeks mentors who fall within the age range of their mentees to make sure they understand their challenges and can relate to them. (Project Yeraz)
This January, Project Yeraz officially launched with the aim of empowering young Armenians in their new careers through its mentorship program, networking opportunities and educational lessons. The project was co-founded by Melvin Dilanchian and Lena Tavitian, USC alums who began work on the program in 2022.
“We felt that many [young Armenians] were not fulfilling their professional potential,” Tavitian said. “That led us to do a lot of research. We did surveys, and then I did interviews with two dozen young Armenians to understand what their needs and their pain points were, and from that, we uncovered insights that led to this idea to do something about it.”
The pair faced challenges in creating the project, from verifying the need for career mentorship among the young Armenian community to determining the ideal program size. Their primary concern was creating engagement and quantifiable value in their events while simultaneously offering the intangible, in nurturing Armenian identity and community, Tavitian said.
“Having events that are actually quite thought out in terms of what they look like and how they feel,” Dilanchian said, “It really helps our participants — both mentors and mentees — feel a connection to us and that sense of community that we’re trying to build.”
Following an application, potential new members undergo an interview process before joining a cohort. Unlike other mentorship programs, in which mentors are selected and mentees matched with that pool, Yeraz seeks out individualized mentors for each applicant.
Tina Ter-Akopyan, a freelance production assistant and USC alum, was near graduation when she learned about Project Yeraz through the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Institute of Armenian Studies. As a first-generation college student, Ter-Akopyan said she found going into a creative field “daunting.”
“Throughout college, you think once you graduate, it’s going to be easy to find a job,” Ter-Akopyan said. “Unfortunately, usually it’s not [the] case. It can be a very isolating period. But being part of Project Yeraz, I was put into a community and given a sense of structure again in navigating the bumps of postgrad and how to find what steps I need to take in my career.”
Through Project Yeraz, Ter-Akopyan was matched with a mentor working in production within the entertainment industry. The two meet monthly to go over goals and progress, and Ter-Akopyan said the relationship has been helpful in opening doors within the industry.
Dilanchian and Tavitian took care in refining the membership experience for Project Yeraz, ensuring that their mentees were exposed to potentially beneficial aspects of industries different from their own.
For the mentorship process, the pair leveraged their networks to find mentors. Tavitian said they follow a “near-peer” model, meaning they seek mentors who fall within the age range of their younger mentees in order to ensure that their mentors are familiar with the challenges members might face and can relate to them.
Alexa Youssefian, a USC alum and communications specialist for companies such as TikTok and IBM, worked with Project Yeraz as a mentor. Youssefian said she didn’t have a system of support or a network when she first started her own career.
“I really navigated a lot of career firsts on my own,” Youssefian said. “So I really leaned on the mentors I discovered along the way who were able to give me guidance and help me navigate the early stages of my own career. That’s why it’s been incredible to be a mentor as part of Project Yeraz and have an opportunity to give back through the program.”
Youssefian said she’d return to mentor at Project Yeraz “as many times as they’d have [her].” She said the Armenian community is close-knit, and the project’s focus on representation has been “really powerful.”
Eduard Ghazaryan, a mentee of Project Yeraz and a senior majoring in international relations, global business, said Yeraz cultivated an environment in which everyone is empowered to contribute.
“Environments that have been made by Lena and Melvin, [they] are just perfect contributors to the creation of that [learning] community and making sure that the community aspect shines through all the professional skills and leadership skills,” Ghazaryan said.
Ter-Akopyan said collaboration is an important part of Yeraz, where individuals in tech, medicine, film and marketing could all come together as young Armenians to build their network within their community.
“Like in any immigrant community, there’s a pressure on kids to take a conventional path in their career,” Ter-Akopyan said. “Parents just want something stable for their kids, but that can be very restrictive. At Project Yeraz, there’s such an emphasis on encouraging young Armenians to think outside of the box.”.
