The "Georgetown Boys" were part of a group of more than 100 Armenian orphans who survived the genocide and were brought to Canada in the 1920s. "Canada's Noble Experiment' was considered the country's first humanitarian act on a global scale. (Ontario Heritage Trust) In 1915, when Armenians were targeted in a devastating stain on our collective human history, my mother's grandfather was left an orphan. My dad's grandfather was too. More than 1.5 million Armenians living in th

On December 9, 2025, I hosted an event at my school, Upper Canada College, in collaboration with the internationally recognized non-profit organization, the Zoryan Institute , timed to coincide with the International Day of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide. Rooted in the recognition that intergenerational trauma is one of the tragic legacies of genocide, I approached the Zoryan Institute with my idea to bring their program to my school and designed a graphic to promote th

During my Year 10 English class, one of our assignments was to make a podcast by interviewing someone - anyone - of interest. For this course, we had been listening to the podcast “ Stolen ,” which explored intergenerational trauma, and I realized that I could share my own family history by speaking to my grandparents. I interviewed my grandmother, whose grandparents were Armenian Genocide survivors as well as my grandfather, whose father Vartan Nersessian was a survivor. Thi

Over the past six years, I have designed hundreds of NBA 2K concept cards, blending photo editing, animation, and design as part of my creative process. I first started making these NBA 2K concept cards — images designed for the popular basketball simulation video game — on the drive home from my uncle's cabin. It was a seven-hour ride, and I wanted to try my hand at something new. I thought it would be fun to flex my creative muscle, so I started out simply: pulling basic pl

Hi, I’m Ara Sagharian and I’m in Year 11 at Upper Canada College . I started this blog to showcase my experiences as I enter the diploma...

If a boat with 1,000 planks of wood had one plank replaced every year for 1,000 years, is it the same boat at the end of those 1,000...