The Hasmik Nikoghosyan Education Memorial Scholarship, established in April 2015, is endowed with a $500 donation each calendar year. The Scholarship is earmarked exclusively for orphaned Armenian adults with disabilities.
Hasmik Nikoghosyan was a vibrant member of the Armenian community in Colorado, instrumental in founding SOAR – Colorado, an active member of the Genocide Commemoration Committee, and one of the founders of the Armenian Professional Network of Colorado. She was a truly exceptional person who will be deeply missed by so many. She had the ability to energize and inspire everyone around her, to lead, to achieve, and to dream big. Despite being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer five years ago, Hasmik continued to pursue her many passions: arts and promoting young Armenian artists, literature, and travel. Above all, she valued education, dreamed of taking her niece and nephew to school, teach them the joy of learning and curiosity, and share her love for reading and exploring. She enrolled in graduate school, which sadly she was never able to complete, as her life was cruelly cut too short by her illness. The Fund that bears her name is a perfect continuation of Hasmik’s passions, allowing disadvantaged adult orphans with disabilities to get the education she so dearly valued and cherished.
The Hasmik Nikoghosyan Education Memorial Fund will provide ongoing art education funds to some of the most socially vulnerable individuals in Armenia — orphans with disabilities. Hasmik dedicated herself to Warm Hearth, a long-term group home in Armenia for adult orphans with disabilities. The residents of Warm Hearth outgrew the orphanages but due to their disability, were destined for psychiatric institutions. Warm Hearth provides a safe and lifelong home for these orphans with holistic care. The Hasmik Nikoghosyan Education Memorial Fund will contribute to the wellbeing of these individuals, by providing them with quality art classes, art materials, carpet weaving classes and opportunities to exhibit their work thus carrying on Hasmik’s work. Her life inspires this ongoing gift that provides a life and a hope-filled home for the residents of Warm Hearth, outside of the psychiatric institutions in Armenia. For more information, see www.friendsofwarmhearth.org.