COMMUNITY NEWS
With a little help from Arun Alagappan
;Page A46
United Nations official Alagappa Alagappan, who championed the building of Hindu temples in America over five
decades ago by getting blueprints and artisans from India.
The senior Alagappan, 86, is known as the father of the
Hindu temple movement in America.
“I grew up in New York, the world’s most diverse city, in
Queens, the world’s most diverse county,” Arun Alagappan
reminisced. “I attended the United Nations International
School, the world’s most diverse school. Consequently, faith
in diversity is in my heart and in my blood.”
Fifty years ago, Arun remembered his father vowing — as
he gazed over the New York City skyline for the first time —
to bring more to the United States than he would take out
of it.
“It is in many respects in his honor that I try to give back
to this country that has done so much for us as a family,”
Arun Alagappan said.
His desire to reach out to the minorities and economical-
ly disadvantaged began quite early in his life, he said.
“Every two years, my family would travel to India on the
biennial home leave the UN used to grant its employees,”
he continued. “On one such visit, I found myself with my
siblings squeezed into in the back seat of my grandparents’
car. We drove through the unpaved streets of a small village
(in Tamil Nadu). At a crossroads, I heard a rapping on the
glass and rolled down the window. I was startled to find
another boy my age. Hand outstretched, he stood outside
our car wearing only a tattered pair of khaki shorts.
Otherwise, I might as well have been looking into a mirror.
As I stared into his unblinking eyes, I saw a glimmer of
recognition; he too had grasped our remarkable likeness
and for a moment, neither of us stirred. Then I handed him
a coin my grandmother had given me and he moved on
without a word. “
For over five decades, he has thought about that boy, he
said. “Whatever challenges we may have faced as an immi-
grant family in New York seemed minor when compared
with the daily struggle for survival that that boy, and mil-
lions like him, undertook each day. I am well aware that
whatever successes and accomplishments I have been priv-
ileged to enjoy are a product of the opportunities I have
been granted,” Alagappan said.
‘Dispel this absurd,
dismaying stereotype that
girls have less to do with
math than boys’
ARTHUR J PAIS
Dr Ravi Boppana, co-director of the Math Prize for Girls, always tells tudents that the $49,000 in prizes
are not just what the contest is about.
“The best part of the Math Prize was def-
initely connecting with this community of
girls and women in math and science,”
agreed Sheela Devadas from Massa-
chusetts, who took home $1,000 in prize
money. “I have always been one of the few
girls on the math team in middle and high
school… I was thrilled to see such a large
community of girls who liked math too.
There was an instant connection between
everyone there, even if it’s just: ‘What did
you get for problem 14?’ The math compe-
tition is a vehicle to meet other girls who
love math, who are usually pretty hard to
find. Of course, the contest itself is also
fun and pretty challenging. The math is
much beyond traditional high school
math… It’s a great learning experience.”
She continued: “It’s amazing to see
women who are successful in math-relat-
ed fields and to imagine that I might be
one of them someday. The talks last year
and this year by Professor Priya Natarajan
and Professor Shafi Goldwasser, respec-
tively, were both very inspiring, not just
because of the subject matter… but
because the speakers have succeeded in
male-dominated fields. President Susan
Hockfield of MIT also gave a speech that
motivated many of us to pursue careers in
engineering, science, and mathematics.”
COURTES Y: CASE Y HENR Y/ADVANTAGE TES TING FOUNDATION
Boppana, who is like a big brother to the
contestants, said, “The professions that
drive innovation and prosperity depend
on knowledge and ability in science, tech-
nology, engineering, and math. In recog-
nizing these girls, we aim to
advance STEM education and
encourage even more young
women to pursue fields in which
historically they have been under-
represented.”
Bopanna, a software developer
in the finance industry, is an
alumnus of MIT and the
University of Maryland. He has
served as a tenured professor of
computer science at New York
University and Rutgers University
and received the Golden Dozen
teaching award at the NYU and
Excellence in Teaching award at
Rutgers.
“He is passionate about math
and helping the girls excel,” says
AT Foundation founder Arun
Alagappan about Bopanna. “He is
extremely modest; did he tell you that he
got his PhD from MIT at age 22?”
This year at the Math prize, Sheela was
the only Indian-American cash prize win-
ner (sixth in the top 10). Five other desi
students got honorable mentions: Monica
Agrawal from Georgia, Saroja Erabelli
from Virginia, Nitya Mani (California),
Anupa Murali (New Hampshire), and
Ramya Rangan (California). Harini
Kannan from California, who goes to
MIT President Susan Hockfield congratulates the
top 10 winners of the Math Prize for Girls; right,
Sheela Devadas. Left, Dr Ravi Boppana
COUR TES Y: CASE Y HENRY/ADVAN TAGE TES TING FOUNDATION
school at the Phillips Exeter Academy in
New Hampshire, was invited to take the
AT Foundation’s follow-up contest called
the Math Prize Olympiad. Among the 277
contestants, there were plenty of other
Indian-American contestants. One of the
youngest students was Meena Jagadeesan,
an eighth grader from Illinois. In the past,
Ramya Rangan has represented the
United States at the China Girls Math
Olympiad.
It is not easy to enter the competition,
now in its third year, Boppana said: “Some
students have taken the tests three times.”
To qualify for the Math Prize, girls must
be in 11th grade or below. They must also
have taken one of the American
Mathematics Competition exams given in
February. The application deadline is June
15. There is no application fee for the con-
test, which is a two-and-half hour exam
covering algebra, geometry, trigonometry,
and number theory. ‘The topics may be
standard for high school, but the problems
certainly aren’t,’ Boppana, primary author
of the exam, said at the first competition.
‘Even our simplest problem is too hard for
a test such as the SAT.’
“The United States continues to rank
among the lowest of developed nations on
international student assessments in math
and science,” Alagappan said. “If we are to
keep pace with the rest of the world, we
must dispel this absurd, dismaying stereo-
type that girls have less to do with math
than boys.”
