Meanwhile... in Yerevan, Armenia, a young woman hopes to help jump-start education

And in Najaf, Iraq, Ahmad Shukor, an engineer and vintage car enthusiast, plans to open a vintage car showroom, while in Giza, Egypt, scientists from the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute and the French National Institute for Computer Science and Applied Mathematics are hoping that tiny robots will help them solve one of history’s great mysteries.

In Yerevan, Armenia, a young woman hopes to help jump-start education.

Larisa Virginia Hovannisian was born in Yerevan and attended college in the United States. After graduating in 2010 she joined Teach for America, a nonprofit that recruits some of America’s best students to teach in some of its lowest performing schools. “I have long believed that change – true, meaningful change – begins in our schools,” she told Repat Armenia. 

So when Ms. Hovannisian moved back to Armenia in 2013 she founded Teach for Armenia. The group has the same goals as Teach for America, but while Teach for America often focuses on bringing teachers to struggling urban schools, Teach for Armenia works to recruit top students to teach in the country’s more remote rural schools, where Hovannisian says the need is greatest.

This year Teach for Armenia sent teachers to 11 regional schools. The group is now one of 46 members of the worldwide Teach for All network.

In Najaf, Iraq, Ahmad Shukor, an engineer and vintage car enthusiast, plans to open a vintage car showroom within the next few months.

Vintage car collectors flourished in Iraq beginning in the 1920s and continued to through the oil-rich years of the 1970s. But Mr. Shukor told The Associated Press that he thinks that, after decades of violence and war, only about 100 vintage cars remain in the country today.

Now that Islamic State forces have been driven out of Iraq, Shukor says, in a sign of optimism, the owners of 60 vintage cars have agreed to show their treasures in his proposed showroom after it opens. “We want to prove that Iraq is not done yet,” he told the AP. 

In Giza, Egypt, scientists from the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute and the French National Institute for Computer Science and Applied Mathematics are hoping that tiny robots will help them solve one of history’s great mysteries.

Inside the Great Pyramid of Giza – one of the Seven Wonders of the World, built around 2560 BC – there are two voids that have never been explored. Scientists now hope to send in little robots equipped with cameras to explore. “The goal is to survey what is on the other side of the wall and get high-resolution pictures,” senior researcher Jean-Baptiste Mouret told LiveScience. 

The group is waiting for approval from the Egyptian government.