Dr. Arzumanian is the long-time Director of the USC College Advising Corps for the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice (CERPP) at the USC Rossier School of Education. For twenty years he has been a youth worker in the areas of mentoring, college access, after school, juvenile justice and street outreach. At USC, he has overseen the growth of the program to directly serve over 10,000 students annually in multiple school districts across Los Angeles county. In its ten years of existence, USC CAC has directly assisted over 70,000 students to enroll in college. During that time Ara earned his doctorate in higher education administration from the Rossier School of Education, earned the staff recognition award “for creating a culture of community,” was a fellow of the Los Angeles Scholars Investment Fund Young Men of Color 2019, and was awarded USC’s Order of Arete medal for excellence in leadership and community service.

Prior to joining CERPP, Ara oversaw three youth programs and the development of a new mentoring program in Boyle Heights. Previous to that experience, he was the Vice President of Programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles overseeing several programs and managing mentoring for over 1,500 matches. He developed a new corporate partnership model with Union Bank winning the National Rising Star Award. Before joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, Ara had been tapped by the international non-profit, Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), to direct the Generation Next Mentorship Program (GenNext). As the director of GenNext, Ara assembled the team that grew the program five times in size and increased its services to students with the award of a prestigious US Department of Education Grant. During his tenure at GenNext, Ara served as the chair of the Glendale Healthy Start Collaborative and sat on Glendale Unified School District’s Student Attendance Review Board and the violence prevention committees of five schools. It was his experience as a youth outreach worker with the City of Glendale’s Youth Outreach Program that brought Ara to AGBU’s attention. He was a member of the three-person team that developed it from the ground up, providing intensive case management to students facing high risk factors. Specializing in violence intervention/prevention, direct street outreach, runaway recovery and cross-cultural peace-making, Ara and the team worked with over 1,800 students in five years. Due to his experience and expertise in the field of youth development, he has been invited to guest lecture at USC, UCLA, CSUN and CSULA on youth development and challenges facing America’s youth.