North South Foundation

Encouraging Excellence in Education

NSF Newsletter

Volume 5, Issue 2-3, February/March 2007

Namaste!
Bee 2007 is officially open. The registration count is over 4,100 and growing. As you know, approximately two-thirds of the registration fees are used to fund scholarships in India as well as scholarships to NSF contest winners in the United States. Online registration will close soon. So, hurry! Register your child today. And remember, 2/3rds of your 2007 registration fee is tax-deductible.

This Bee season, we're happy to announce that we have secured the Ohio State University campus for the 2007 National Finals during August 25-26. Take note OSUers, NSFers are coming your way!

In This Issue...

• NSF News
• NSF-India News
• Contest Feedback
• Articles
• Faces in Places

NSF NEWS

Here's a glimpse of NSF happenings.

Bee 2007

Online registration for Bee 2007 is open. This year, we are offering the following grade-based categories at a center near you:

• Spelling - Junior (grades 1-3); Senior (grades 4-8)
• Vocabulary - Junior (grades 1-3); Intermediate (grades 4-7); Senior (grades 8-12)
• Math - Level 1 (grades 1-2); Level 2 (grades 3-5); Level 3 (grades 6-8); Level 4 (grades 9-10)
• Geography - Junior (grades 1-3); Senior (grades 4-8)
• Essay Writing - Level 1 (grades 3-5); Level 2 (grades 6-8); Level 3 (grades 9-12)
• Public Speaking - Junior (grades 6-8); Senior (grades 9-12)

Note:Children in grades below 1 can also participate in the lowest grade groups (grades 1-2 or 1-3).

The regional bees have already commenced at many centers and will continue through April. NSF will publish finalists' names by the end of May to enable parents to begin planning for their participation in the 2007 National Final. Please visit the NSF Web site to read eligibility/enrollment requirements and become familiar with general contest rules.

Preparation

Resources are aplenty and listed on the NSF website, which is a one-click stop for all your needs from Rules to Preparation to Sample Words/Problems to FAQ. For spelling/vocabulary, if you have already registered and would like to download practice words, simply log in at the online registration site and click the link to download words.

Workshops

Mark your calendars for workshops that will help your children prepare for the upcoming bees. Here's how your child could benefit by attending a workshop:excellent workshop material complete with rules, mock bees and tips for improving performance in a contest; an opportunity to interact with and learn from other like-minded kids; a deeper understanding of NSF's India scholarship program; easy registration and nominal fees.

The National Finals

The 2007 National Finals will be held at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, during August 25-26. Look for more information in an upcoming newsletter.

NSF-India NEWS

NSF-India's main office is based in Hyderabad and accessible by email. NSF-India has 17 chapters throughout the far reaches of India: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhavnagar, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Katihar, Kochi, Kolkata, Madurai, Mau, Pune, Sibsagar, and Trivandrum.

NSF volunteers are building a database of allNSF scholars dating back to 1989. In addition to building an alumni directory, the objective of the project is to enable alumni to participate in rural development and other community service activities, develop IT support for NSF-India, coordinate the scholarshipprocess, and conduct educational contests for children in rural India. We expect this database to go online sometime in 2008. Contact us if you'd like to volunteer for NSF's latest cause.

Kolkata chapter recently awarded 17 college scholarships totaling Rs.1,47,500 to financially needy children in the state of West Bengal. In this article, Kolkata Chapter Coordinator Anil Kumar Ghosh chronicles the challenges and successes of the program. Parents, if you'd like to learn more about the NSF-India scholarship program and/or want to help or meet the volunteers when you visit India, we encourage you to contact us.

P.S. If you or your friends/family know of economically disadvantaged but academically aspiring students in India, please direct them to contact NSF India regional chapters. NSF-India chapters generally solicit applications for scholarships following the publication of 12th grade/Intermediate results.

CONTEST FEEDBACK

If you have suggestions/comments about NSF contests, feel free to share them with us at any time.

Read what one parent had to say about the 2006 National Finals held in Evanston, IL, during August 26-27:

We attended the finals in Chicago this and were there for the entire first day. First I want to thank all of you who put this together. Eventthough I volunteered as a room emce, my effort is miniscule compared to the enormous effort you have all put in.
I think this is better than two years ago in Phoenix and I hope you continue to improve these. Among improvements I would list the following:
1. Online training materials for judges, room monitors and clear role deliniation of the people manning the contest halls. There was some confusion who was supposed to what.
2. Scripting the process a little more for each role will help ease the confusion.
3. A more coordinated effort at result tabualtion will avoid the confusion that ensued on the first nights prize distribution. This is just a lesson learn(ed), given that it was the first time grade level prizes were awarded which complicated the event.
4. Since it (is) hard to get judges/volunteers together before the event, a web demo or presentation/ training would be more appropriate for an all volunteer organization such as NSF with geographically diverse pool.
5. The one area I would suggest you can really improve is judges for public speaking and essay writing. There are lot of debate coaches and experienced debate students at colleges that are better judges of the type of pulic speaking that is practiced in this country.
For writing essays, try to get a couple of english/history teachers to judge. These are the people who judge the SAT writing sections also. Similar to SAT exam you can have two judges and average their scores. SAT does a 1-6 scoring scale for each grader and then averages. You can also have additional criteria to filter the essays further. This will really go a long way to help the kids prepare for their college essays and SAT testing.
These are not major so don't get discouraged by any minor setbacks. There is always something better to do next time.
Volunteer forces are hard to assemble and manage, so this is an outstanding achievement to pull such a large event off !!!!

ARTICLES

Math World and Math Loss

The world of Math, as perceived by an 11-year old.

Life Lessons

The architect of Wipro Technologies on the architecture of life.

Cn U Rd Ths?

Read this fascinating guide to invented spelling.

US-based Patels Turn Santa

Oddly modeling NSF's mission, this article illustrates the simplicity of the art of giving.

The Nobel Lecture

Mohammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, rendered this stirring speech on solving poverty.

FACES IN PLACES

Eleven-year old Akshat Shekhar of Quincy, MA, and Chirantan Neogy of Acton, MA, savor the sweet taste of success.