Larisa Hovannisian, the Arizona special education teacher who founded Teach for Armenia.

Sometimes a classroom teacher can make the most incredible strides for positive social change. One such educator is Larisa Hovannisian, an Arizona special ed teacher of Armenian descent who founded Teach for Armenia.

Larisa was born on October 21, 1988, in Yerevan, Armenia. Her mother is Armenian and her father is Irish American. When she was just a baby, Larisa’s family moved to California, where they lived for several years. Then the family spent several years living in Russia.

After her high school graduation in Moscow, Larisa returned to the United States, where she enrolled in St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts college located in De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Business and French, with a minor in Graphic Design. Her goal was to pursue a career in advertising.

But then the path of her life took a different turn. “My best friend from college, who graduated a year before I did, told me about a program called Teach for America,” Larisa once revealed. “Its goal was to recruit young and passionate college graduates and to place them for two years into the most disadvantaged schools in the country. That is how I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona,” she continued. There she worked with special education children with moderate to severe disabilities. Her placement lasted from June, 2010, until May 2012. While teaching, Larisa also earned a Master’s degree in Special Education from Arizona State University.

Once her two-year obligation for Teach for America was fulfilled, Larisa returned to her native Armenia. She became inspired to found a program similar to Teach for America in her homeland. Larisa founded and became the Chief Executive Officer for Teach for Armenia, a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in Armenia’s poorest schools. “I have long believed that change—true, meaningful change—begins in our schools,” Larisa once declared.

Larisa Hovannisian: a true chalkboard champion.