About Us

Mission and Impact

Mission

The Hidden Road Initiative (HRI) is a student operated, charitable non-profit organization, that provides educational and leadership opportunities to underprivileged students living in remote villages in Armenia.

HRI aims to enhance the social capabilities of village children and empower a new generation of students by providing college scholarships, running youth-led educational summer camps with volunteers from across the world, and ultimately training the youth of the village to run service programs themselves. HRI also works to promote the economy and social equality of remote villages by conducting various development projects, such as renovating schools, installing computer rooms and constructing kindergartens.

The Hidden Road Initiative was founded in 2011 by a group of Armenian students at University of California Santa Barbara; the organization currently has chapters at the University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Los Angles, and University of California Berkeley. Read about our organization's history here.

Impact

College Completion Rate
To date, 100% of our scholarship recipients have completed their college degrees or are on path to graduate university.

Computer and e-Literacy
Since 2011, one of the major focuses of HRI has been to promote computer education and e-literacy. Since then, many of our camp graduates have majored in Computer Science, or been able to find job opportunities in the tech world.

New Job Opportunities
HRI works closely with village communities to source temporary and permanent workers for development projects. For example the Jrashen and Tsaghkaber kindergarten projects created various new jobs opportunities for young professionals. The kindergartens are entirely operated by professionals from these villages.

Civic Engagement
All of our projects have been facilitated through the collaboration of the locals. This partnership has empowered many young students to take ownership over the projects by partaking in the development projects and facilitating annual summer camps.

Young Women in Leadership
Both in the USA as well as Armenia, 95% of the leaders in HRI have consisted of women in their early twenties. This has been an encouraging and empowering number that has given many young women in both countries an opportunity to learn from one another and change traditional misconceptions about women.

Mission and Impact

Mission

Impact

Learn More About Our Activities

Summer Camps

Development Projects

Scholarships

Get in Touch With Us

Mission and Impact

Mission

​Impact

Learn More About Our Activities

Summer Camps

Development Projects

Scholarships

Get in Touch With Us

Impact