RecrearMagnify kicked off today in the mysterious land of Armenia – 

Meet the extravagant team we brought together!

Organizing Team

This conference would not be possible without the formidable partnership with the Stepanavan Youth Center (SYC), a non-profit based in Stepanavan, Armenia.

SYC was established in October 2001 by active young people of Stepanavan with the aim to assist in the development of their home town and country. Their main goals are to assist in the exchange of experience, knowledge and skills of young people from Stepanavan and Armenia with their peers across the world, increase information accessibility and opportunities for cultural exchange.

Lilit Simonyan  – Armenia – simonyanlilit@gmail.com

Lilit has joined Recrear’s board of directors in 2013/14- she is a programs manager with 10 years of experience in project management, human resource development, grassroots and international youth work, community development, girls education and leadership, volunteerism and international development.

She is a certified trainer and consultant with over 7 years experience on adult education, workplace conflict management, leadership development, fundraising and grantwriting, international volunteerism, and European youth programs.

Arsen Simonyan – Armenia – 

At age of 15, Arsen lived in United States for one year as an exchange student. Being a young person from a small town in Armenia, who had never travelled outside of his country, this experience changed his life. As the president of Stepanavan Youth Center, he is currently working to create similar possibilities for young people living in rural areas of Armenia. Arsen has been working in the youth field for 8 years. He has worked locally, nationally and internationally. He enjoys multicultural environments and meeting new and interesting people. He mentions his friends as the thing he is most proud of. His hobbies are photography and psychology.

Susanna – Armenia

Susanna was born in Yerevan, Armenia and is currently working as a leading specialist in a bank. Since she graduated from Yerevan State Linguistic University, she has been involved with Stepanavan Youth Center representing Armenia and SYC in many training courses and youth exchanges.

Kirsten Williams – Canada – kcwilliams@recrear.info

Kirsten`s life passions center her despite her nomadic tendencies. Time overseas and a mixed background make her wince at the question “where are you from?” All the same, her story has brought her to appreciate the value of participatory development practices and the power of self-expression through creative platforms.

Since Recrear was launched, she has enjoyed piloting projects for Recrear across the globe.

Gioel Gioacchino – Italy – gioel@recrear.info

 Gioel is an intercultural explorer. She hates small talk and gets a kick out of cohabiting and having endless chats. As the ED of Recrear, she works to make youth’s experience and voice part of international development logics. She is passionate about exploring innovative ways to improve cross cultural and cross sector collaboration. Gioel speaks several languages, but she only has one accent: the Italian accent. If you can’t understand what she is saying, you can use her hand gestures as reference.

Datin Tarina Alysa Bachtiar – Indonesia – datintarinaalysa@gmail.com

Alysa comes from Indonesia, a truly multicultural country; her experiences living abroad allow her to possess strong adaptive and communication skills with new people across different cultures. In 2009, she started her bachelor degree in Communication Studies at Universitas Indonesia. 

She recognized herself as a third culture child because she lived in Egypt for 4 years when she was a little girl. In the summer of 2014, she finished her masters degree in Intercultural Communication at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge in the UK. Which lead her to study at Jyväskylä Finland as part of the European Masters in Intercultural Communication program for 6 months.

Alysa’s feels that formal education is not enough. She needs more training to learn about ‘life’ and to reach her dream.

Marina Chernova – Russia – marishka.4ernova@gmail.com

Marina is studying economy at plelkhanov university while working as process consultant at PriceWaterHouseCoopers Audit. Her two big hobbies are sports (she`s a volleyball superstar) and travelling. She has a motto – Don`t step back, don`t get stuck, just step forward together.

Khadiga Muhamad – Egyptian/American – Khadiga.Muhamad@gmail.com

Khadiga is a recent graduate of liberal arts and sciences who is passionate about community development and political activism. Prior to her joining the Cairo institute of liberal arts and sciences, she pursued a BSC in Business at Cairo University. Khadiga has been part of several NGO’s and student activities both inside and outside Cairo university’s campus such as Safe, Resala and SIFE, along with interning in the social marketing department at Alashanek ya balady for sustainable development ( AYB-SD), aiming to gain experience in the field of community development. Prior to that, she has worked as an international account advisor for Vodafone UK alongside with completing human resources, leadership and development courses. She is a passionate reader, sketches and does photography. Constantly pursuing her interest, she completed a social media marketing course and keeps an active eye on new learning opportunities

Jonas Sylvester Kaspersen – Danmark – jonassylvesterkaspersen@gmail.com

Jonas  enjoys multicultural environments and believes that the best solutions are found through co-operation. Jonas is Danish, but he does not spend his time there. He has lived in Swaziland, Spain and currently in Colombia. He has a passion for football and he finds that sport is a great way of bringing people together.

He has studied Intercultural Marketing Communications – Spanish and seeks to combine his knowledge with his passion for sports to develop meaningful youth engagement initiatives in Colombia. He hopes to fufil to this vision by launching a project called Fun & Fit: promoting healthy eating habits among young people in Medellin. Jonas is spontaneous, open-minded and curious. He is always up for getting inspired by new ideas.

David Shatakishvili – Georgia – shatakishvili95@gmail.com

David studies economics at Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He loves getting to know new people, and believes that ‘the more friends you have, the wealthier you are’.  He likes to pay attention to other peoples’ traditions, customs, lifestyles and compare them with his culture.  His hobbies are fishing, cycling, camping and swimming.

Katrine Aaroee Mathiesen – Danmark – bfq139@alumni.ku.dk

A native Dane who’s been around. Katrine has travelled from an early age: she moved to Venezuela at 15 and to Vietnam when she was 18. She considers Vietnam her second home and has studied and worked there several times. She plans to continue to work there in the future. Katrine is into music and probably the most enthusiastic audience you’ll ever find. She also loooves food and is known by family, friends and colleagues to be at great cook.

Currently Katrine is studying Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen while spending a lot of time volunteering. She is also on the board of trustees of the Danish-Vietnamese Association where she works hard to help under privileged children in Vietnam to increase cultural understanding through numerous events in Denmark.