Surendra Ullal
CHICAGO: The Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago hosted its eighteenth annual “Punjabi Youth Graduation and Scholarships Awards Night” on Sunday, June 10 at Viceroy of India Banquet Hall, Lombard, a South side Chicago suburb.
PCS Scholarships were awarded and Punjabi class of 2018 graduates was honored. More than 250 attended the celebration. Avijit Singh Nandra of Fremd High School Palatine, Illinois won the first place $1000 scholarship and Simer Singh of Lake Zurich High School won the second place $750 scholarship. All the Punjabi class of 2018 graduates were honored and presented with certificates of accomplishment and a cash gift check.
The celebration included an inspiring keynote address by globally recognized Professor Mohanbir Singh Sawhney, the McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois.
“An enterprise requires a unique product to be successful in the market place, lo and behold you already are unique due to your appearance, family values and hard work ethic, don’t sell it short,” said Professor Sawhney during his keynote address.
Kevindeep Singh Atwal, a past board member, and now a Business Development Program Management professional at a large Bay Area technology company, was the motivating youth speaker and shared his journey to success.
Rajpreet Kaur Dhaliwal was the Chief Guest. The PCS Scholarship fund and the event was sponsored by Mohina Ahluwalia in the memory of Diljit Singh Ahluwalia; Dr. Diljeet Kaur Singh and Dr. Karamjeet Kaur Singh in the fond memory of their father Dr. Pritam Singh; Bhupinder Singh Dhaliwal; Kevindeep Singh Atwal; Harinder Singh M.I.T.S.; Jasbir Singh Bhalla; Amrit Mittal; Gurdeep Singh Nandra; Dr. Jasvinder Singh Chawla, and Surinder Kumar Jain of Viceroy of India Banquets.
Punjabi cuisine appetizers and sumptuous dinner was served. All the participants, young and old relished the food and danced to the Bhangra DJ music as a typical Punjabi family celebration.
The participants of “Rangla Punjab 2018,” a PCS Annual Vaisakhi cultural program that took place on March 31, received their appreciation awards. The item coordinators were awarded special gift cards as a token of appreciation for their hard work to prepare the teams for performances.
A cake cutting ceremony for the graduates was held to honor and celebrate their graduation. The attendees had fun dancing to the DJ music, and networking.
An independent panel of judges selects the scholarship winners from the applicants according to a marking criterion established by PCS, which is based on academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and community service volunteering.
PCS Chicago is an a community service organization devoted to promoting Punjabi culture, language, performing arts, healthy life style, sports, education, and good citizenship in the metropolitan Chicago area and beyond.
