It takes an effort for Doris Melkonian to not finish her sister Arda’s sentences, and vice versa.
Whenever it does accidentally happen, the sisters break down, laughing.
“This is how we work,” Arda Melkonian said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Their sister dynamic has helped both of them to better serve on the Graduate Students Association, the governing body of graduate students on campus.
They are the first sisters to serve as officers on GSA, and their positions in the association allow them to increasingly reach out to graduate students. In their roles ““ Arda Melkonian is the vice president of internal affairs, and Doris Melkonian is the vice president of academic affairs ““ they often work together.
The sisters’ involvement in GSA began in 2008, when the two first served as forum representatives for the association’s tri-quarterly meetings, and they continued to participate in the forum over the next several years.
Last spring, they were separately approached and asked to consider running for an officer position in GSA.
“We did have a discussion with each other about it,” Arda Melkonian said. “As graduate students, it’s really hard to add something to our already busy plate, but we thought it was worth it.”
The sisters have jointly focused on reaching out to the 13 graduate student councils that come from each UCLA graduate school in order to increase GSA participation. The focus of previous GSA officers has not been to make the association more visible to graduate students, Doris Melkonian said.
In the past, the association’s visibility has been low, said David Chilin, vice president of external affairs for GSA.
The sisters’ goal is to attend all of the graduate councils, not only for GSA’s presence to be noticeable, but also to address any concerns the graduate students might have.
Many of the questions the Melkonians answer at these meetings are about funding for graduate student programming.
“We want them to know that there is someone here for them,” Doris Melkonian said.
The two have each had the chance to meet many graduate students while attending the councils, sometimes up to 60 students at one council, Doris Melkonian said,
Outside of these meetings, the sisters also hosted dinners last quarter for graduate students on various councils in order to meet them and also help train them.
Arda Melkonian has focused on reaching out to student interest groups and encouraging them to attend GSA meetings.
Doris Melkonian, meanwhile, has focused on increasing graduate student participation in the eight-year review process, in which departments undergo a rigorous examination of their faculty and curriculum to determine their effectiveness.
Possibly the sisters’ greatest advantage in GSA is their level of communication. Other members do not see each other on a daily basis, said Michael Weismeyer, president of GSA.
“The fact we are sisters (means) the communication is great ““ no emails or meetings,” Arda Melkonian said.
The two sisters work as well as live together. Arda Melkonian said she and her sister often find they cannot discuss GSA business at home with their family because of the detail it involves.
Instead, they have discussions about GSA with each other and their friends at UCLA, she said.
“We’re always brainstorming (with each other),” Doris Melkonian said. “We have already collaborated on research studies and (have presented) research together, so it transfers to this.”
The sisters are students in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, where they are working to translate memoirs of survivors of the Armenian genocide.
The sisters are still debating whether to run for re-election in GSA next year. While they only need to submit a petition with 50 graduate student signatures to be eligible to run, the sisters have their doctorate degrees to finish, Doris Melkonian said.
Either way, the two plan on collaborating in their work ““ both in GSA and their independent academic research.
“It’s great to go through this journey together,” Doris Melkonian said. “We complement each other.”