Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University’s campus became a Bee “Mela” during Aug 29-30 with 1300 bees (contestants) and their parents from all over U.SA coming to the 2015 National Championship Finals organized by North South Foundation.
These contestants achieved top scores during regional contests held during March-April representing their chapters in various categories including Spelling, Vocabulary, Geography, Math, Science, Essay Writing, Public Speaking and the Brain Bee. All participants got trophies as NSF believes that every child is a winner. Top ten placements received special trophies, while the top three rank holders, in addition, received college scholarships ranging from $1,000 to 250, redeemable during their freshman year.
NSF organizes educational contests in the US that are designed to encourage academic excellence among Indian-American children.
The 2015 NSF Finals turned out to be a grand success. Key members working behind the scenes were the Zonal Coordinator Srinivas Reddy Gudeti; Convener, Srivital Choppara and National Team members like Raj Jayachandran.
Additionally, Meet-the-pro sessions were organized during the national finals to provide an opportunity for kids to learn how to excel in academics from pro trainers as well as meet with previous Bee Champions. Professionals, along with previous year’s bee champions, who were kind enough to come all the way and share extensive knowledge were Mirle Shivshankar, Coach Kumar Nandur, Dr Krishnaiah Revuluri, Dr Anil Sethi and Dr Chenchal Subraveti. Other useful sessions were held to help all age groups in the audience such as the memory and cognition workshop hosted by Dr Medasani Mohan and Venkat Kosaraju and the Rubik’s Cube Workshop led by Sreeram Venkatarao.
This prodigious national finals event turned out to be most memorable with the presence of Dr H. Rao Unnava, Senior Associate Dean for Students and Programs at Ohio State and Dr Balu Natarajan, the first Indian-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985 and Sports Medicine specialist at Chicago Primary Care Sports Medicine
NSF offers scholarships to poor students in India. The funds are raised in USA through Bees and direct donations. NSF has provided over 13,000 scholarships for college-bound meritorious students since inception with each scholarship at $250 per student per year. NSF recently started working with Jawahar Nayodaya Vidyala Samiti to provide scholarships to the needy students and conduct educational contests among 126 schools across the country.
Surendra Ullal
