"All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent", said John F.Kennedy. The NSF 15th national annual finals of the educational contests held at the Ohio State University, Columbus gave equal opportunity for the Indian kids all over the country to improve their minds, enabling them to think, question, improve their spelling, vocabularies and learn concepts which would help them all through their lives.

The finalists were invited based on their regional cut-off scores held in various parts of the country earlier in March, this year. NSF has had a tremendous growth over the last four years from 1,600 in 2003 with over 7,500 participants at the regional level this year. About 960 contestants from all over the country competed at this year's finals held at the OSU and is said to be the largest finals in NSF so far.

About 26 contestants were from the New England area that did remarkably well. The educational contests took place in various halls of the world's one of the largest Universities at Ohio, on August 25th and 26 th of 2007. The contests included junior and senior spelling bees, vocabulary bees, math, essay writing, geography, and public speaking and brain bees. The spellers in both junior spelling bee and the senior spelling bee were awesome. They were so confident and seemed to have studied the Merriam Webster's dictionary thoroughly well. Taking a water break at the end of round 7, Akshat Shekhar of Quincy, MA whom most of the spectators wanted to give the "speller of the day" award for his brilliance in analyzing the etymology of the word even before the pronouncer could look for it on the computer, said, "I think it's easy if you really study the words carefully." There were many spellers like him who couldn't win the championship, but put up a good show.

Smitha Gundavajhala, Sanjose, CA, going onto 7th grade, the Champion speller of NSF 2007 finals, who didn't make a single mistake in her judgment of the words, said, "It was very tough since everyone was really good. But I am really very happy I could make it." She was actually getting ready for a homemade "Schnecke" from her mom since that was her championship word.

Nikash Pasnoori of Connecticut secured the 9th place in junior spelling bee and junior vocabulary bee and Priyanka Nadar of Mechanicsburg, PA and Anamika Veeramani of OH bagged the 2nd and 3rd place in the senior spelling bee category.

Nivedha Ram from Mass. who was with me on the flight from Portsmouth, NH had to spell 2,500 words from her dad Ram's list before we arrived at the Ohio airport. After the bee was over a little disappointed Nivedha said, "I prepared really well. The words were very tricky."

Avvinash Radhakrishnan, a contestant from Nashua, NH mentioned that anxiety made him lose his way to the championship. But he was very happy for his sister Anjitha Radhakrishnan who got the fourth place in the Senior Spelling bee. Anjitha Radhakrishnan, who had also participated in the Scripps Spelling bee earlier this year said, "We quiz each other in the family and it's kind of fun."

"I have to really work hard on the homonyms", said Madhumitha Sriram, a junior spelling bee finalist from Dover, NH and "I want to participate in more bees", she added. "Actually I knew all the words in the final round", said Vaibhav Shrishail, a senior spelling bee contestant," And it's bad luck that I couldn't get into the final round," he added.

"My sister [younger] has a better memory than me, but she cannot win contests," said Nisha Devasia, who won the third place in Math bee level 1. She also participated in junior vocabulary, geography and spelling bees. Anupa Murali of Concord, NH won the 1st place in Math bee level 3 held on Sunday, August 26th. Going on to the 9th grade, Anupa has participated in many nationwide contests like the Math Counts and AMC.

Lasya Thilagar of Hollis, NH, who won the 8th place in Math bee level 3 said, "Math is nothing but logistics and its only practice which makes you get better with facts."

Surabhi Iyer and Nikhil Srinivasan from Mass. bagged the 7th and 8th position in the junior vocabulary category. Raghav Ranga of Connecticut secured the first place in junior geo.bee and Karthik Karnik and Abinav Kurada of Mass. won the 4 th and 6th place respectively. Sarough Jaleel and Shyam Vasudevan from Mass and Nashua, NH won the 3rd and 7th place in the senior geography bee.

NSF had introduced the public speaking bees last year in order to help the youth of today to improve their communication skills. Aditya Rajagopalan of Connecticut has won the 2nd place in this year's NSF national public speaking bee. He has also secured the 3rd place in the Senior essay writing bee as well.

The first three winners from all the contests will receive scholarships from the NSF of $1000, $500, and $250 respectively, redeemable in the freshmen year of their college. About 15 kids -- Nikhil Srinivasan, Priyatham, Prashant Vennapusa, Iris and Ethan Oliver, Malavika Perincherry, Nivedha and Naveen Ram, Ravi Betzig, Mallika and Ramesh Govindan, Harshita and Vivek Nadimpalli, rupesh Jayaram, Rupayan and Chirantan Neogy collected $1500 (6 scholarships) through NSF's Dollar-A-Square program. "These kids are winners in their own way since they took time to raise money for their counterparts in India," said Madavi Nathan Oliver, NSF nationals' coordinator for Dollar-A-Square program. "NSF has also started a green initiative at the Finals and hopes to promote 'Green Bees' from now on", she added.

Various enrichment programs were provided for the kids as well as the parents during the two-day event at the Ohio State University, Columbus, like the open forum to discuss internet as medium to Math teaching and learning, DVD presentations of the movie Akheela and the Bee, about Sir C.V. Raman and Yoga and meditation session by Shivani Kadakia. Indian vegetarian food, Pizza and vegetarian sub were provided for the participants and the families. The organization also provided the T-shirts for the participants with the NSF logo and a bee book.

Chancellor Eric D.Fingerhut, who was the guest of honor for the event, highlighted the importance of education by saying "Every single path to success in this world leads through education", for the young minds to carry it home.

Mr. Chandra Shekhar Rayala, one of the technical coordinators of the NSF finals team, attributed the success of the organization to the commitment of the volunteers. "Most of us had only 2-4 hours of sleep for the past 5 days", he said.

"The purpose of the North South Foundation's educational contests is to create more opportunities for educational prospects not only to the Indian children in USA but also to help the needy students in India," said Dr.Hanumantha Rao Unnava, a coordinator of the NSF finals team.

As a parent, myself, I was so delighted to be amidst so many inspiring well-rounded individuals demonstrating their skills. Congratulations to all the winners, participants, parents and the NSF team.

Junior Spelling Bee Senior Spelling Bee Math Bee Level 1 Rank Name Center Rank Name Center Rank Name Center 1 Malavika Perinchery Austin, TX 1 Smitha Gundavajhala Cupertino, CA 1 Nilai Sarda Marietta, GA 2 Varsha Ramakrishnan Pleasanton, CA 2 Priyanka Nadar Mechanicsburg, PA 2 Ankan Bhattacharya Canton, MI 3 Swetha Jasti Olathe, KS 3 Anamika Veeramani North Royalton, OH 3 Nisha Devasia Nashua, NH 4 Debolina Ghosh Solon, OH 4 Anjithaa Radakrishnan Nashua, NH 4 Sankalp Gupta Overland Park, KS 5 Surabhi Iyer Franklin, MA 5 Sameer Mishra West Lafayette, IN 5 Akshaj Kadaveru Fairfax, VA 6 Venkatesh Sivaraman Saint Louis, MO 6 Akshat Shekhar Quincy, MA 6 Chaman Kumar Terre- Haute, IN 7 Pranay Vemulamada Alpharetta, GA 7 Jahnavi Iyer Enola, PA 7 Nikhil Reddy Ccary, NC 8 Manasa Muppirala Irving, TX 8 Sameer Kailasa Delray Beach, FL 8 Rohun Vora Cerritos, CA 9 Karthik Karnik Plainville, MA 9 Aishwarya Pastapur Olathe, KS 9 Manasa Muppirala Irving, TX 10 Nilai Sarda Marietta, GA 10 Akshayraj Aitha Dublin, CA 10 Teja Veeramacheneni Fremont, CA       Junior Vocabulary Bee Intermediate Vocabulary Bee Math Bee Level 2 1 Vamsi Varanasi Dayton, OH 1 Aamani Paturi Barrington, IL 1 Nihal Gowravaram Acton, MA 2 Malavika Perinchery Austin, TX 2 Sakethnath Are Herndon, VA 2 Keval Yerigeri Copley, OH 3 Achuth Nair Solon, OH 3 Anamika Veeramani North Royalton, OH 3 Apurva Shrivastava Novi, MI 4 Varun Prasad Chapel Hill, NC 4 Pavan Yalla St. Louis, MO 4 Sreenath Are Herndon, VA 5 Sithara Kumar Palo Alto, CA 5 Jahnnavi Madiraju Maassas, VA 5 Vivek Miglani Sunrise, FL 6 Nilai Sarda Marietta, GA 6 Nikhil Desai Fremont, CA 6 Suruchi Ramanujan Overland Park, KS 7 Surabhi Iyer Franklin, MA 7 Vijay Jayaram Schaumburg, IL 7 Varun Mohan Sunnyvale, CA 8 Nikhil Srinivasan Acton, MA 8 Debnil Sur Sunnyvale, CA 8 Pavan Patamalla San Antonio, TX 9 Nikaash Pasnoori Trumbull, CT 9 Anirudh Dasarathy Broadview Hts, OH 9 Anshul Ramachandran Cupertino, CA 10 Rohit Balachandar San Antonio, TX 10 Divya Siddarth Encino, CA 10 Madhurima Das Canton, MI       Junior Geography Bee * Senior Geography Bee * Math Bee Level 3 1 Raghav Ranga Wethersfield, CT 1 Vivek Hansalia Smyrna, GA 1 Anupa Murali Concord, NH 2 Manasa Muppirala Irving, TX 2 Nitin Krishna Corbin, KY 2 Ramya Rangan San Jose, CA 3 Nilai Sarda Marietta, GA 3 Zaroug Jaleel Lexington, MA 3 Kritaarth Mahankali Sugar Land, TX 4 Karthik Karnik Plainville, MA 4 Keval Yerigeri Copley, OH 4 Shubhangi Arora Novi, MI 5 Pranav Rekapalli Atlanta, GA 5 Akanshu Srivastav Loudonville, NY 5 Divya Pillai Oak Brook, IL 6 Abhinav Kurada Littleton, MA 6 Nikhil Desai Fremont, CA 6 Shikha Garg Plano, TX 7 Abhijit Rao San Antonio, TX 7 Shyam Vasudevan Nashua, NH 7 Sandya Subramanian Grand Rapids, MI 8 Anmol Nigam Hawthorn Woods, IL 8 Parth Parihar Sewell, NJ 8 Lasya Thilagar Hollis, NH 9 Aditya Ronanki Rosemount, MN 9 Arjun Kandaswamy Portland, OR 9 Meena Boppana New York, NY 10 Ajay Balaji Troy, MI 10 Jaysel Shah York, PA 10 Ajit Unnam Princeton, NJ       Senior Vocabulary Bee * Senior Essay Writing Bee Brain Bee 1 Sivakumar Sundaram Rockford, IL 1 Sarvesh Rajasekaran Ballwin, MO 1 Rajiv Tarigopula St. Louis, MO 2 Kritaarth Mahankali Sugar Land, TX 2 Sivakumar Sundaram Rockford, IL 2 Aditya Kalluri N. Olmsted, OH 3 Sathvika Ramaji Miramar, FL 3 Aditya Rajagopalan Glastonbury, CT 3 Ashwin Bharadwaj Ann Arbor, MI 4 Ashley Thakur Searingtown, NY         5 Srivarsha Koripella Troy, MI Senior Public Speaking Bee 6 Amar Mehta Bear, DE 1 Samita Mohanasundaram Nashua, NH 7 Mythili Mandadi Rockville, MD 2 Aditya Rajagopalan Glastonbury, CT 8 Trisha Jain West Bloomfield, MI 3 Harika Rayala Columbus, OH 9 Aparna Ghosh Chelsea, MI       10 Pooja Pendri S. Glastonbury, CT

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