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It's the season of the NSF Education Bees again and the India Association of New Hampshire conducted the regional educational contests at the Manchester NH Community Technical College, Manchester, NH for the past three Saturdays starting from March 22 to April 5th of 2008. The IANH educational chair, Prithvi Kumar and the team's commendable efforts has have made it happen again.

"I always document the 'lessons learned' when memory is fresh. This will be used to make improvements to 2009 Education Bee. Yes, I am beginning to think about it now", said Mr.Kumar, the NSF regional coordinator, who was kept on his toes for several weeks organizing the Bees.

About 150 children participated in various contests such as Essay Writing, Math and Geography Bees, Spelling and Vocabulary Bees and the Public Speaking Bees that were held on March 22, 29 and April 5th respectively. The contestants will qualify for the National finals which is to be held in August, based on the national cut-off scores. IANH sponsors these contests to support North South Foundation's education scholarship programs in India. IANH provides volunteer help as well as pays all expenses associated with conducting these contests. Thanks to Kumon Center of Nashua for sponsoring trophies for the winners, and Shishubarathi for sponsoring breakfast for volunteers.

All the three Math Bee toppers, Ankita Devasia (Level 1), Nisha Devasia (Level 2), and Anish Thilagar (Level 3) were participating at their level for the first time. They all said they enjoyed math all year round and did not have to specifically spend time studying for the contests. It was Ankita's first bee experience.

Nisha, who was also the winner for the 3rd year in a row in the Junior Geography said the preparation for this was very easy. Zaroug Jaleel, the SGB Senior Geography bee winner, a 7th grader who is doing this for the 3rd time, said he studies physical and political geography as well as current events for about 3 hours a day. We definitely have many future math and geography bee champions in the making.

Mallika Iyer, a 7th grader and a consistent prize winner in the Essay Bees in previous years, studied about 30 minutes a day for the Geography Bee. She was rewarded with a 2nd place in the Senior Geography Bee this year.

Sarika Chawla, a 7 year old in 1st grade, won the Junior Spelling Bee for the second year in a row. She studied for about an hour a day. Avvinash and Anjitha Radhakrishnan, veteran siblings who tied for first place, both thought the contests were easy this year. Small wonder since they have both competed and won locally at the Scripps Spelling Bees. They also came in first and second respectively in the Intermediate Vocabulary bee.

Public Speaking contests were held in at the Southern NH University on April 5. There were fourteen contestants in the Junior Group and one in the senior group. Each contestant was allowed to make a three-minute speech before the audience. Contestants were judged by a panel of three judges. Speakers in the Junior group spoke about their proposed ideas to the UNICEF committee on helping to better the food situation for the poor children in the world. Anirudh Dwarakanath, the sole participant in the senior group captivated the audience by sharing the actions he would take to protect earth's environment if he were elected the President. All participants were presented with medals and certificates. Anjithaa Radhakrishnan, Arjun Shah, and Mayank Dubey were awarded the first, second, and third place medals respectively.

The association had also arranged for the an Immigration clinic on March 22nd by Ambassador George Bruno giving an overview of the recent changes to the Immigration Law. He also summarized the availability of immigrant visa numbers during April. On March 29th, a skit on "Unveiling Domestic Violence", by IANH-Saheli team was well appreciated by many. Ms. Dawn Reams, Executive Director of bridges have held an orientation of the type and scope of services offered by them in the area of domestic violence. These programs reduced the anxiety of the participants as well as their parents who were waiting outside for the results of the various contests that were going on.

All the adult and youth volunteers were thanked by the IANH administration with a volunteering certificate. NSF provided participation certificates and medals to all the participants. Prithvi Kumar, President of IANH made an enlightening presentation on the first day about the extensive community service activities performed by IANH. Pratheek Kalyanapu, President of the youth group of IANH, also gave a presentation, explaining the role of the youth group in the community and informing other teenagers who might be interested in joining.

At the end of each day, everyone left the venue tired, but feeling good about their accomplishments of the day.