On August 25 and 26 the North South Foundation (NSF) held its fifteenth Education Bee final at the Ohio State University (OSU) Columbus campus. These contests offered an opportunity for the Indian-American children of different age groups to sharpen their academic skills through participation in a competitive environment.
Participants from different regions of the USA and Canada were selected on the basis of their cut-off scores in the regional contests which were held between March and May. Over 7,500 participated in the regional contests this year. Twenty six contestants from NH region were invited to take part in the finals.

Contests were held in junior and senior spelling bees, vocabulary bees, three levels of math, two levels of essay writing, and geography, public speaking and brain bees. Spellers in both junior spelling bee and the senior groups were awesome.
While everyone from New Hampshire who participated in the finals performed very well, Anupa Murali, Lasya Thilagar, Nisha Devasia, Samita Mohanasundaram, Anjithaa Radakrishnan, and Shyam Vasudevan excelled by securing ranks in various competitions. A comprehensive list of finalists is published in NSF web site (www.northsouth.org).
Avvinash Radhakrishnan, a contestant from Nashua, NH mentioned that anxiety made him lose his way to the championship. But he was very happy for his sister Anjitha Radhakrishnan who secured the fourth place in the Senior Spelling bee. Anjitha Radhakrishnan, who had also participated in the Scripps Spelling bee earlier this year said, "We quiz each other in the family and it's kind of fun."
"I have to really work hard on the homonyms", said Madhumitha Sriram, a junior spelling bee contestant from Dover, and "I want to participate in more bees", she added. "Actually I knew all the words in the final round", said Vaibhav Shrishail, a senior spelling bee finalist," And it's bad luck that I couldn't get into the final phase of the SSB," he added.
"My sister [younger] has a better memory than me, but she cannot win contests," said Nisha Devasia, who won the third place in Math bee level one. She also participated in junior vocabulary, geography and spelling bees. Anupa Murali of Concord won the 1st place in Math bee level 3 held on Sunday, August 26th. Going on to the 9th grade, Anupa has participated in many nationwide contests like the Math Counts and AMC.
Lasya Thilagar of Hollis, who won the eighth place in Math bee level three said, "Math is nothing but logistics and its only practice which makes you get better with facts." Zarough Jaleel from Lexington MA and Shyam Vasudevan from Nashua won the third and seventh place in the senior geography bee respectively.
The first three winners from all the contests will receive scholarships from the NSF of $1000, $500, and $250 respectively, redeemable in the freshmen year of their college. Various enrichment programs were provided for the kids as well as the parents during the two-day event at the Ohio State University, Columbus, like the open forum to discuss internet as medium to Math teaching and learning, DVD presentations of the movie Akheela and the Bee, about Sir C.V. Raman and Yoga and meditation by Shivani Kadakia. Indian vegetarian food, Pizza and vegetarian sub were provided for the participants and the families. The organization also provided the T-shirts for the participants with the NSF logo and a bee book.

Chancellor Eric D.Fingerhut, who was the guest of honor for the event, highlighted the importance of education by saying "Every single path to success in this world leads through education", for the young minds to carry it home.

Mr. Chandra Shekhar Rayala, one of the technical coordinators of the NSF finals team, attributed the success of the organization to the commitment of the volunteers. "Most of us had only 2-4 hours of sleep for the past 5 days", he said.
"The purpose of the North South Foundation's educational contests is to create more opportunities for educational prospects not only to the Indian children in USA but also to help the needy students in India," said Dr.Hanumantha Rao Unnava, a coordinator of the NSF finals team.

As a parent, myself, I was so delighted to be amidst so many inspiring well-rounded individuals demonstrating their skills. Congratulations to all the winners, participants, parents and the NSF team.