India Post News Service

ST. LOUIS: India Association (IA) of St. Louis in association with North South Foundation (NSF) hosted the regional educational contests at Mahatma Gandhi Center last month. IA is a no profit organization of Indians in St. Louis and has been organizing a number of community oriented activities like celebration of India Nite, Republic Day, Spring Festival, Indian Independence day.

It hosted with NSF a Spelling Bee and educational contests recently with a great aplomb and success. This year, as many as 180 entries were received in spelling, vocabulary, geography, math, essay writing and public speaking, with kindergarteners to 10th graders participating.

Raja and Bharati Rajashekharan helped coordinating the event with the support of volunteers, many of whom are IA members. NSF is a non-profit voluntary organization that awards scholarships to qualified and needy students in India entering colleges regardless of religion, gender, caste or creed.

The Scholarship program in India is designed to encourage excellence among the poor. It is targeted at qualified, needy students entering college. Over 2,500 scholarships have been awarded to date. Each scholarship is $250 per student per year.

India Association with Soorya Dance Company has announced holding a dance concert presenting Parma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj on June 15 at COCA;

The result of NSF Regional Educational

Contests Senior Public Speaking: 1st - Radhika Jain

Junior Public Speaking: 1st - Pavan Yalla

Math Bee Level 3: 1st - Ravali Gummi,

2nd - Srinivas Panchamukhi,

3rd - Vivek Vallurupalli

Math Bee Level 2: 1st - Amudha Porchezhian,

2nd - Poornashri Malarvannan,

3rd - Sanjay Elangovan

Math Bee Level 1: 1st - Yatin Chandar,

2nd - Prathishtha Pitchyaiah,

3rd - Mehul Divecha

Senior Spelling Bee: 1st - Prasanna Rajasekaran,

2nd - Sathwik Katragadda,

3rd - Vivek Vallurupalli

Junior Spelling Bee: 1st - Balaji Cherupalla,

2nd - Yatin Chandar,

3rd - Prathishtha Pitchyaiah

Intermediate Vocabulary Bee: 1st - Pavan Yalla,

2nd - Vijay Umashanker,

3rd - Venkatesh Sivaraman,

3rd - Praveen Bagavandoss

Junior Vocabulary Bee: 1st - Yatin Chandar,

2nd - Abinaya Lakshmanan,

3rd - Nandini Jain

Senior Essay Bee: 1st - Radhika Jain,

2nd - Ramya Natarajan

Intermediate Essay Bee: 1st - Meera Zassenhaus,

2nd - Harika Kankipati

Junior Essay Bee: 1st - Avani Yaganti,

2nd - Bharadwaj Jilakara,

3rd - Aparna Kasinadhuni

Senior Geography Bee: 1st - Mukund Subramanian,

2nd - Srinivas Panchamukhi,

3rd - Sravya Ainapurapu

Junior Geography Bee: 1st - Arjun Devraj,

2nd - Shreya Nair

3rd - Ananth Panchamukhi