BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

North South Foundation (NSF) Georgia chapter hosted the annual regional academic contests for Children of Indian Origin at Emory University, Atlanta on May 1st and 2nd. Over 460 registrants ranging from Pre-K to High School competed in Spelling, Geography, Essay Writing, Public Speaking, Math, Science and Vocabulary. 

The competitions at Emory attracted over 700 attendees. Competitions included written and oral rounds. Following the competitions, each contestant is individually communicated his/her score and rank through their personalized view into NSF website. Children who score above a certain cutoff established by the national committee will proceed to compete with Children from other chapters in US that meet the cutoff in the National Level competitions held in August. Over the years NSF children have gone on to compete and win in various mainstream competitions such as Scripps Spelling Bee, National Geographic Bee, USA Brain Bee, and Math Olympiad. “NSF provides an excellent platform for Children to compete in a manner that is fun and engaging” said Mrs.Devi Selvakumar, GA Chapter coordinator for NSF. “Thanks to the selfless efforts of all our volunteers, in spite of record number of registrations for the GA chapter, we had a very successful event” said Mrs. Selvakumar.

Dr. Abdul Jabbar, Renowned Philanthropist, Department of Medicine, Emory University addressed the children on May 1st during the prize distribution ceremony and presented trophies to the children. On May 2nd, the children and the parents were joined for the trophy presentation by Captain Rohan Bhatia, CEO and founder of Centennial Aviation Club.

Founded in Illinois in 1989, NSF aims to provide college scholarships in India to children who excel academically but have financial needs to support ongoing education. Academic workshops, Walk-a-thons, family picnics/events, online spelling and vocabulary games are few avenues NSF uses towards raising funds. The registration fees paid by participants at the academic contests form a significant portion of funds raised by NSF. To-date NSF has awarded over 4,500 scholarships in India.