UWC Dilijan’s Armenian Students Dedicate Armenian Cultural Evening to Ruben Vardanyan
Students at UWC Dilijan always remember with gratitude the school’s co-founder, Ruben Vardanyan, who is currently being unlawfully held in an Azerbaijani prison.
For them, Ruben Vardanyan is not only the person who put the small town of Dilijan on the international education map, but also someone who showed by his own example how to follow a dream, turn a seemingly impossible idea into reality, and stay true to one’s values and principles.
This time, UWC Dilijan’s Armenian students dedicated their Armenian Cultural Evening to Ruben Vardanyan:
“Armenia isn’t only the place where this school was built. It became the place where Armenia meets the world. A place where people who might otherwise have never met can sit at the same table, share a classroom, become friends and understand each other’s stories.
So when we talk about Ruben Vardanyan here, we’re not only talking about someone who helped build a school. We’re talking about someone whose story is now connected to a much bigger story about Armenia, Artsakh, and education.
A person who helped bring the world to Armenia is now being held in another country, separated from the world he once worked to connect and bring peace to. He cannot return to Armenia. He cannot walk through the school he helped create. And he cannot see, firsthand, what that original idea has become.
The world he dreamed of bringing together is right here in Dilijan — and that is a legacy we should never take for granted.”
Watch the students’ tribute to Ruben Vardanyan in the video below.
