“It’s time to launch a Renaissance!”
Hovhannes Ispirian is the Senior Manager at 42 Yerevan. He shares with us his vision of 42 and the state of education today and tomorrow.
What do you like the most about your position?
“I like to be useful to the students! It’s great to see them becoming more mature, self-confident and experienced by overcoming their difficulties, fears, and setbacks… Being among them and being their friend in those moments makes me happy. 42 is a network of helpers all over the world where everyone tries to do their best to help each other. I’m glad to build a new community with another educational approach where we are all peers and friends regardless of our titles and roles.”
What were you doing before 42?
“I used to live in Moscow for 25 years. After graduating, I started programming, then working for a management consulting and investment fund. I moved to Armenia three years ago with an agency, with a project for bringing senior developers and companies to the country. After the 2020 war, I was very stressed out. I tried to figure out how I can change the world to not let such things happen. I understood that I should be part of the educational transformation of society worldwide. I took the step, joined 42, and I’m very happy with that!”
What do you mean by that?
“In the very beginning of education, it was a way of being more developed and to be a better person. It was a very holistic approach, with the goal of self discovery and to be more perfect in every way. Then came industrialization and more specialization. I think now is the time to launch a Renaissance. Education has no ultimate goal higher than to help people in discovering themselves and the world. Of course, it’s important to find and secure higher rewarding jobs, but I think it’s only a byproduct. We should be more focused on how we educate and the community we are building globally. At the end of the day, we do education for humans. We shouldn’t eliminate them from the process: we need to continuously look for a balance between productivity, new technologies and a human-centered approach. That’s what 42 does with its global network.”
Finally, what are the core principles you value the most at 42?
If I had to choose, it would be honesty and transparency. Scientists say that we lie to others 20 times a day — but no one counts how much we lie to ourselves. We lie about what we really want, who we really are, where we want to go. That’s the first value: honesty with yourself. The second is to be transparent: let others know who you are without playing mind games. Together, they allow us to work and live together in a little perfect world.”
