Empowering Future Shepherds Scholarship Banquet April 26, 2009

MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR TO KEYNOTE
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA SCHOLARSHIP BANQUET
A New York City narcotics prosecutor will be the keynote speaker at a spring scholarship banquet in the City of Fresno.
Peter Mark Kougasian, Assistant District Attorney of the County of New York, will deliver the main address at the 64th Annual Scholarship Banquet of the Armenian Theological Students’ Aid, Inc. (ATSA).
The Banquet will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, 2009, on the campus of First Armenian Presbyterian Church, 430 South First Street at Huntington Boulevard, in Fresno. The event is open to the public and reservations are $15 per person, with proceeds going to graduate scholarship programs of the Fresno-based nonprofit corporation.
The April 26 event will feature the vocal music of the Chamber Singers of Fresno Pacific University, under the leadership of Dr. Roy Klassen. Fresno attorney Robyn Esraelian will be the Master of Ceremonies. Banquet reservations may be made by calling (559) 433-0548 or (559) 260-3357.
A native of Rhode Island, Kougasian received his undergraduate education at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He completed his legal education at the Yale University School of Law, where he serves as Secretary of the Class of 1979.
He is leading member of the Office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor under New York County District Attorney Robert Morris Morgenthau, who recently announced his retirement after 35 years of service. Morgenthau’s father was Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1934-1945) and his grandfather was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the administration of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1916).
In addition to his prosecutorial duties, Kougasian is a Vice-President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a member of the House of the Delegates in the New York State Bar Association, Moderator of the Armenian Evangelical Church of New York City, and Vice-President of the New Jersey-based Armenian Missionary Association of America. He is married to Elizabeth Edds Kougasian, Esq. and they have one son.
Incorporated in 1945, the Fresno-based, non-profit ATSA provides scholarship assistance to graduate students of Armenian descent around the globe, granting more than $650,000 in financial aid in a span of seven decades.
The late Fresno attorney, Gasper H. Magarian, incorporated the organization in his historic Mason Building office and served as its first counsel. Reverend Arsham K. Yeramian, Reverend Doctor Hagop A. Chakmakjian, and Ezras Tellalian were the charter directors.
The current directors are: Rafi Balabanian, D.D.S., Ann R. Karagozian-Sarafian, Ph.D., Edward Saliba, Hrant Darakjian, Arnold H. Gazarian, D.D.S., Reverend Ara R. Guekguezian, Harry Halajian, Reverend Karl Vartan Avakian, and Philip Tavlian.
ATSA is a recognized organization of the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America, an ecclesiastical confederation of Armenian Protestant churches, missions, and fellowships in the United States of America and Dominion of Canada.