{"id":50,"date":"2011-10-13T13:15:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T13:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/sites\/gsm\/?p=50"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:55:12","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:55:12","slug":"professor-begins-service-in-armenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2011\/10\/13\/professor-begins-service-in-armenia\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor begins service in Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"armenia\"<\/a>
\nMichael Braz has proven that music is truly a universal language.<\/p>\n

While the retired Georgia Southern music pro\u00adfessor was completing a 10-week Peace Corps training course to teach English as a Foreign Language in several Armenian villages, he still found a way to squeeze in several musical teaching opportunities. Not surprising for a man who has been interested in music educa\u00adtion since the age of 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI taught piano to several trainees and language instructors in our villages, as well as arranging the music and rehearsing and conducting the trainee chorus for our swearing-in ceremony,\u201d said Braz, who was sworn in at a ceremony in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.<\/p>\n

While many people would be overwhelmed at beginning a new phase of their life in an unfamiliar country, Braz has taken it all in stride. During training, he lived with a host family who helped with his transition to a new culture. \u201cMy host family has been friendly, welcoming and sensitive to the fact that I am acclimating to both the country and to a new language with a distinct alphabet,\u201d Braz said.<\/p>\n

Braz began his teaching assignment at a local high school in Gyumri \u2013 Armenia\u2019s second largest city \u2013 a perfect environment in which to share his musical knowledge. \u201cGyumri has at least a half-dozen music schools and institutes, and I foresee a certain amount of secondary musical collaboration while I am here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Peace Corps is fond of describing service as \u2018The toughest job you\u2019ll ever love,\u2019\u201d said Braz. \u201cCertainly, the concept of 27 months\u2019 training and service requires insight, adaptability and often a keen sense of humor. Though I\u2019m just beginning my real work here in Armenia, I\u2019ve begun to discover much more about myself that will serve me well these next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Braz Proving that Music is a Universal Language<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-fall-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}