North South Foundation, Massachusetts held its final round of regional contests on April 27th at Tufts University. Close to 300 kids in grades K through 8 attended Math, Science and Spelling bee contests.

North South Foundation (NSF) is a non-profit organization established by Dr. Ratnam Chitturi in Chicago, back in 1989 to provide scholarships for bright kids in India, to pursue a college degree. These kids come from really poor families, many below the poverty line.
What started with one scholarship back in 1989 has today expanded to over 10,000 scholarships. A $250 scholarship will fund one year of college, and the organization provides financial support to the kids who qualify, all the years of college in any field they choose.

Each year, NSF holds regional contests in various bees including Math, Spelling, Science, Geography, Vocabulary, Public Speaking, Essay Writing and Brain bees. 2/3rd of the registration fee goes towards the scholarships in India. In 2014, nearly 18,000 kids registered across 85 chapters in the US.

Kids who participate in the NSF competitions in the US greatly benefit from the fact that they have an opportunity to compete in various bees, and many of them move on to compete and win in several National and International competitions. In doing so, they are supporting their counterparts in India, giving those kids the gift of education!  

NSF Massachusetts was established back in 2001 with one chapter and 25 kids participating in the bees. Today, we have two chapters, and over 600 kids participated in the various bees. The Cambridge chapter contests headed by Chapter coordinator Vijay Savla, and Technical Coordinator Dr. Meledath Govindan was a huge success with hundreds of kids participating in the contests.

Dr. Anil Saigal and AcceptU conducted an informational seminar about the College Admissions process that was well attended by all the parents.

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.  

Dr. Manju Sheth presided over the awards ceremony. Dr. Sheth a well known figure in the Indian community, has a tremendous passion for women’s causes and community service. She was voted Woman of the Year in 2011 as well top 50 most influential Indians in New England for the past three years. She has been a big advocate for empowerment of women and serves on the advisory board of Saheli, an organization dedicated to supporting and empowering South Asian women and families in the Boston area.
 
Previously, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence. Dr. Sheth is very dedicated to the education of the community about health related issues, and is also the producer and chair of the annual free mega Health & Wellness Expo. She has received numerous awards for her work and community service.
She counts writing as one of her biggest passions and her popular “Chai with Manju” celebrity series is one of the most read news features. Dr Sheth is married to a physician, Dr Dipak Sheth, and has a 16 year old daughter Shaleen.

All the participants and winners of the bees received medals and trophies from Dr. Sheth.

The University of Texas, Dallas will be hosting the NSF National Finals this summer. The contests will be held during August 16th - 17th. Qualifiers for the National Finals will be notified by mid-May.

NSF is run by volunteers, who believe in the goal of NSF.  Dr. Sheth summarized it to the kids on Sunday, “Education is the best gift in life. It will keep on giving!”  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.

 
SPELLING BEE                                                                          

MATH  BEE                                                                                                                                                                                              

|