Kulkarni wins top college award
SUMAN GUHA MOZUMDER
Kishore G Kulkarni
Kishore G Kulkarni, professor of economics at the
Metropolitan State College of Denver, Colorado, has been
awarded the Extraordinary Service to the College Award,
2010.
‘This honor speaks highly of the quality of your continued
commitment to Metro State and the admirable level of exceptional service you have demonstrated over the years,’ said
Steven Jordan, the college president.
Kulkarni, chief editor, Indian Journal of Economics and
Business, has received honors in the past, including the
Golden Key International Honor Society’s Outstanding
Teacher award, the Outstanding Researcher, and the Faculty
Senate’s Distinguished Service to the College award.
The Metropolitan State College of Denver is a big college
with 600 faculty members and 22,000 students.
“The criteria for selection were very strict, and only one person has received this honor before; so it feels even more special. In the 30 years of my academic life this is clearly the most
coveted recognition,” Kulkarni said.
Pune-born Kulkarni, who holds an MA and PhD from the
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is also a tennis buff
and has won several local and state tennis championships.
“I manage to mix tennis and other recreational activities like
travel with academic work partly because of the tremendous
support I receive from my family members. My wife Jayashree
is the number one ranked tennis player in the state in her age
division, so we both understand the complementary value of
athletics and academics,” he said.
California eighth graders ace debate contest
Yogathon, August 29
SHALINI KATHURIA NARANG
Adarsh Battu, Arjun Kumar,
Claudia Tischler, and Shilpa
Yarlgadda, all eighth graders
at the Harker Middle
School, in San Jose,
California, won the Public
Forum debate section at the
eleventh annual National
Middle School Forensics
Tournament held June 25-
27, 2010, at Des Moines,
Iowa.
The topic in the Public
Forum round was ‘Current
Trends in American
Political Dialogue
Compromise Meaningful Democratic
Deliberation’.
The event and was co-sponsored by
the International Debate Education
Association and the National Junior
Forensic League.
Harker Middle School offers debate as
an elective beginning in seventh grade.
Based on the overall school performance
across all debate events, Harker also
won one of the five Excellence in Debate
awards.
All the students expressed their gratitude to their coach, Steve Clemmons, for
his guidance and encouragement.
“I chose to be the second speaker,
since there is an additional impromptu
speech section that the second speaker
gets to do and I love thinking on the
spot. The Harker Middle School offers
two forms of debate, Lincoln Douglas
and Public Forum. I chose Public Forum
because the topics are very relevant to
our current environment. We have a
great faculty that supports the students,”
Arjun Kumar, Shilpa Yarlgadda and Adarsh Batta
says Shilpa.
“Debate provides me a means to dig
into the intricate details on some of the
common topics that make me feel more
connected to society. More importantly,
given that we need to present both a pro
and a con case, I get to understand multiple perspectives on the topic,” she
adds.
“I enjoy Public Forum, as it is developing into a strong evidence-based debate
that focuses on speaking and persuasion
techniques. I am happy to spend hours
researching topics, as it is very stimulating and in the process, helped me be
more organized. My partner (Claudia
Tischler) and I spent a lot of our lunch
breaks and time left after homework for
debate preparation,” Shilpa says.
The couple of months leading up to
the national tournament were hectic for
the debaters.
According to Adarsh, “We spent a lot
of time preparing and working on mock
debates. We do extensive online
research in school and at home to write
our own speeches. About 10 days before
the finals, Mr Clemmons sends us a lot
of evidence to support our arguments
and Harker High School debaters
helped us train. I am better at prepared
speech, so I went first and Arjun is bet-
ter at refuting and so he was the second
speaker in our group.”
“Claudia and I tried to get our hands
on every newspaper article relating to
this resolution. We watched the Fox
news, MSNBC, and CNN news channels
daily to get more background informa-
tion on politics,” Shilpa says.
Yoga has become a universal language of spiritual
exercise in the United States, crossing the many
lines of religions and cultures.
In the spirit of President Obama’s ‘Active Lifestyle
Challenge,’ the Dharmic community, with help from
Hindu American Seva Charities will combine faith
and health through a Yogathon focused on youth,
accompanied by adults, in a nationally coordinated
open house event, August 29.
The open house will include an introduction of the
temples to the community, explanation of yoga and
its connection with philosophy and tradition, with a
workshop on yog asanas for youth and adults.
The Yogathon will be a part of the ‘United We
Serve – Let’s Read, Let’s Move’ campaign and will be
featured on the serve.gov Web site.
The Yogathon will offer free introductory yoga
workshops with help from temples across America
and other partners including the Points of Light
Institute, the Institute for Faith & Service. Trained
yoga teachers are available from Art of Living, Baba
Ramdev’s Patanjali Yoga Peeth and others.
“Our community has been expanding the role of
temples and ashrams beyond worship,” said Anju
Bhargava, Hindu American Seva Charities co-
founder and convener. “It is time for us to collec-
tively leverage our strengths to create sustainable
seva centers through which to serve all communi-
ties. We hope the August event will enhance health
and raise awareness through active participation of
Yoga.”
Temples across the country are invited to partici-
pate and register through:
http://www.hinduamericanseva.org/yogathon.
Honoring teachers,
desi style
Pathak reappointed trustee
The City Council, Sunnyvale, reappointed Narendra Pathak to
the board of library trustees.
His term to the five-member board that acts as an advisory
body to the City Council expires in 2014. Library trustees also
serve as advocates for library service in California, participating in the annual library legislative day.
Pathak, who has a law degree, has been active in the Santa
Clara County as commissioner, Council on Equal Employment
Opportunities. He was a board member on general plan consolidation advisory committee for California and a board
member of California Association of Library Trustees and
Commissioners.
The Shree Yoga Vedanta Ashram of Matawan, New
Jersey celebrated Guru Poornima, paying homage to
spiritual leader Asaram Bapu. Over 400 people
from all over the US participated.
The guru-shishya (teacher-student) tradition is
unique to India, in which the teacher hands over
knowledge to disciples. Ashaad sud poornima is celebrated as Guru Poornima throughout India. On the
day, devotees gather and pay homage to their
teacher. The program began with guru vandana
followed by a satsang by Asaram Bapu through live
streaming from Ahmedabad.
