North South Foundation, Massachusetts Regional Contests A Huge Success!

North South Foundation (NSF), Massachusetts successfully conducted its regional contests for 2015 at its two chapter locations Worcester and Cambridge, during the month of April. Over 700 kids in grades 1 through 12 participated in the various bees including Math, Science, Geography, Spelling, Vocabulary, Public Speaking and Essay writing bees. Across the country over 16,000 children have participated in the regional contests across 82 chapters.

NSF is a volunteer-driver non-profit organization established by Dr. Ratnam Chitturi in Chicago, back in 1989. The organization provides a model for excellence in education like none other in the country. Our mission is to organize educational contests for kids in the US, to raise funds and provide scholarships for kids in India.

The NSF Scholarship program in India is designed to eliminate money as a barrier for higher education, especially for those who excel in academics. It takes $250 for a student to attend college for one year. Starting with one scholarship in 1989, NSF gave out over 2,500 scholarships just last year, exceeding a cumulative number of over 10,000 scholarships to date.

True to its motto, â€œBee the Best you can Beeâ€, NSF children have created success stories. They have achieved a 7-year winning streak at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and a two-year winning streak at the National Geographic Bee. As the Foundation celebrated its 25th Anniversary, children made 2014 a signature year by garnering championships in four major national competitions: Spelling Bee, MATHCOUNTS, Geography Bee and Science Bowl. Sriram Hathwar became the co-champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee by breaking the record of 52 years where Scripps Officials ran out of Championship words. Eighth grader Swapnil Garg emerged as the victor in the 2014 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition in early May. Swapnil is the first NSF participant to claim the MATHCOUNTS National championship. NSF participants Akhil Rekulapelli, an 8th grader, and Ameya Mujumdar, a 5th grader, captured 1st and 2nd places respectively, in the 2014 National Geographic Bee. NSF participants were part of the team that won the 2014 Middle School National Science Bowl Competition conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Energy. Snigdha Allaparthi and Abhijeet Sampangi of Massachusetts captained their team to 1st place, winning round after round and showing off their thorough scientific expertise in a variety of categories.
NSF Massachusetts was established back in 2001 with one chapter and 25 kids participating in the bees. Today, we have two chapters, and over 700 kids participated in the various bees. The Cambridge chapter contests headed by Chapter & Zonal coordinator Savitha Rajiv was held at Tufts University on April 26th while the Worcester chapter was led by Chapter coordinator Julie Lyson over the April 11-12 weekend. Under the able guidance of Dr. Meledath Govindan, the Chief Technical Coordinator for Massachusetts, our contests were a huge success.

AcceptU sponsored two contest days and conducted free College Admissions workshops that was well attended by parents and kids. MathScience21 sponsored one contest day.

Raja Selvakumar is a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was the youth speaker of the day. He shared his experiences about participating in the NSF bees since he was in Kindergarten. He advised kids to listen to their parents, as parents know best, and to not be afraid to try new things! He is a Chemical Engineer major and plans on getting his MBA after completing his degree at MIT. Raja is a part of the MIT Think Tank organization that is working on implementing an interactive audio learning (IAI) system for kids in Guatemala. He has also done research in electrochemistry and will be a part of the NASA sponsored SPHERES lab at MIT during the upcoming summer.

Gaugarin Oliver, President of TiE Boston, an entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor and philanthropist, presided over the Awards ceremony on April 11th at Fitchburg State University. Currently the Chairman of OliverG Foundation, a non-profit promoting economic growth in underdeveloped areas in India, Mr. Oliver has a bachelorâ€™s degree from Government College of Technology in Coimbatore, a Masters degree from the University of Oklahoma and Executive Education from the Harvard Business School. He lives with his wife Madavi a long time NSF volunteer and two high school children, who are also NSF alumni in Littleton, MA.

Ranjani Saigal, Executive Director of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, presided over the Awards ceremony on April 12th at Fitchburg State University. Ekal is an organization that brings education to nearly 1.5 million children living in 54,000 rural remote villages in India. Prior to joining Ekal, she worked in the field of educational technology at MIT. She is also the co-founder of a very popular South Asian e-magazine, Lokvani.com which has over 40,000 subscribers in New England. She is also the founder of Eastern Rhythms, an Indian Classical dance school. A very active member of the Indian American community and strong supporter of philanthropic activities, she has been recognized by the Governor of Massachusetts and won the India New England Woman of the Year award.

Geeta Aiyer, CFA, President and Founder of Boston Common Asset Management â€“ presided over the Awards ceremony on April 26th at Tufts University. With over 25 years of investment experience, Geetaâ€™s unique leadership has been demonstrated in founding two successful investment firms: Boston Common Asset Management(2003) and Walden Capital Management. Under her leadership, Boston Common has built a strong investment record and received a Human Rights Award from the Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project, and the firm was named among the top 100 women-led firms in Massachusetts (2013, 2014). Geeta was honored with the SRI Service Award at the SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing) Conference (2013) and the Women's Venture Fund's Highest Leaf Award (2010). In 2014, India New England named her "Woman of the Year".

The 2015 NSF National Finals will be held at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, during August 29th-30th. Qualifiers for the NSF National finals will be notified during the month of May.

If you are interested in participating, donating or volunteering for NSF, please contact NSF Northeast Zonal Coordinator : Savitha Rajiv (Savitha_usa@yahoo.com), or visit our web site: www.northsouth.org.

Below are the winners from the contests.