“Since we started using WorldView, it feels like the lessons are etched into my memory”: A Conversation with Student Samvel Galstyan

“All students—even those who struggle academically or have trouble remembering—grasp and retain lessons more easily when they can visualize the topic.”

Fourteen-year-old Samvel Galstyan is an eighth-grade student at Nor Ughi Secondary School. At the beginning of the academic year, thanks to a project he and his classmates developed, their school received a smart board. Their participation in the Smart Boards for WorldView Schools program brought them not only a valuable prize, but also a deep sense of pride.

“We felt like real heroes,” Samvel recalls with excitement. “It was a very meaningful gift for our school.” A top-performing student, Samvel has a particular love for the humanities. He enjoys literature and is drawn to the philosophy of Avetik Isahakyan, but his greatest passion is history. The arrival of the WorldView educational platform has only deepened that interest.

“Learning through WorldView is easier and more engaging. We understand the subject matter more deeply,” he explains. “Before WorldView, I would read the lesson and try to memorize it—but after a while, I’d start to forget. Since we began using WorldView in class, it feels like the knowledge is etched into my memory. Now, I can clearly visualize each topic, see the cause-and-effect relationships, analyze events, and recall the material with ease.”

Samvel has been using the WorldView platform for three years. In addition to history, he also studies geography, literature, and other subjects through the platform. “It offers more information than our textbooks. We can read supplemental materials, watch videos, and explore all kinds of interactive tools,” he says. “For instance, when we studied the Russo-Turkish and Russo-Persian wars, we could actually read the treaty articles. We explored the historical context and what was happening around the world at the time. That made it much easier to understand why certain events occurred—because in history, everything is interconnected.”

For Samvel, learning through the online platform is not only effective—it’s also genuinely enjoyable. He’s confident that every student at his school knows how to use the basic features of WorldView, but he’s one of the few who has mastered all of its tools—and often helps his classmates navigate them. Even outside of school, Samvel continues to explore the platform at home, using it in his free time. He keeps up with every update and sometimes learns about new features before his teacher—whom he then assists by demonstrating new tools and their functions.

“My favorite tool is the ruler,” he says. “I use it to measure the distance between different countries. For example, in sixth grade, when we were studying the Roman Empire—which aimed to conquer all of Asia—I was curious how far it was from Rome to Parthia. I wanted to understand how long the army would have had to march to get there.”

Samvel is also fascinated by the platform’s interactive maps. “We can zoom in to see the exact location of a battle or understand a country’s historical borders,” he adds. “All students—even those who usually struggle—can understand and remember lessons more easily when they see and visualize the topic.”

He has just one request: the development of a WorldView mobile app. “If we had an app, we could access the platform even faster and more easily from our smartphones.”