Nanor Balabanian, a senior honors student in the political science department, has received a $10,000 public service scholarship from the Donald A. Strauss Foundation.  The Strauss grants fund public service projects to be carried out in the students’ senior year.

Nanor’s project will establish an Internet connection in the remote village of Akhpradzor in the mountains of Armenia, where people are isolated for six months of the year due to harsh winters and a lack of roads.  The project also includes training the local students and teachers on how to use the Internet, and thus will provide the village people a virtual road to connect them to the outside world during the winter months.  For her senior honors thesis in political science, she will also study the effect of this project on the younger generation of students in Akhpradzor.  

Nanor’s project funds have been supplemented by assistance from the UCSB Community Affairs Board, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of UCSB, the Armenian Student Association of UCSB, and the Armenian General Benevolent Union, among others.  Her project team includes students from UCSB, Palo Alto High School, Yerevan State University, and Stanford University Faculty.  The project, now called “The Hidden Road Initiative,” has its own website detailing the progress of the initiative.