COMMUNITY NEWS
The brightest desi children
shine at NSF contests
The NSF winners
RITU JHA
About 1,300 Indian-American children from across
the country participated in the annual North South
Foundation National Championship finals, held at
San José State University, California, September 3-4.
India-born mechanical engineer Dr Ratnam
Chitturi founded the North South Foundation in
1989, to help poor children in India excel in higher
education. Then, the members decided to also help
educate Indian children in the US by offering contests
in categories like spelling, vocabulary, math, science,
geography, essay writing, public speaking and brain
bee.
“Our original idea,” explained Chitturi, 67, “was to
eliminate money as a barrier for higher education,
especially among those who excel in academics in
India. In 1993, the members asked what we can do for chil-
dren in the US.”
So at the time, Dr Murali Gavini, who now lives in
Mumbai, came up with the idea of a spelling bee for
Indian-American children to help improve their English
skills and SAT scores. “The idea was to help our children
excel in English,” said Chitturi.
This year was the first time the North South Foundation
National Championship finals were held in Silicon Valley.
Students who qualified from the regional contests were
invited to compete at the national competition. The NSF
Spelling Bee is the most popular among the contests at the
championship.
“For the past four consecutive years (Sameer Mishra,
2008; Kavya Shivashankar, 2009; Anamika Veeramani,
2010; and Sukanya Roy, (2011), NSF Spelling Bee winners
Shohini Stout
Stuti Mishra
have gone on to win the Scripps Howard National Spelling
Bee,” explained Dr Sharvari Dixit, adjunct faculty, department of psychology, San José State University, and co-con-vener of the NSF contest.
Stuti Mishra, 13, of Melbourne, Florida, won first place at
the NSF Spelling Bee this year with the winning word feretory. She said she was “extremely happy” to win. Her
father Tapas Mishra said Stuti started participating in
spelling bees in the fourth grade but had a natural passion
and ability for spelling since childhood. She has participated in the NSF Bee for the last three years. Stuti was the first
runner-up at this year’s South Asian Spelling Bee, conducted in New Jersey in August. She was a national semifinalist
this year at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, representing
central Florida, and tied for the 19th place.
“We all are very proud of her accomplishments,” Tapas
Mishra said.
