IACA’s 13th Annual Scholarship Banquet By Mahadev Desai The India American Scholarship Fund of IACA held its 13th annual graduating seniors banquet at the Hilton Atlanta North East, on June 5. The banquet hosted over 200 people including, high school students with their families, college students, donors and guests. The banquet was organized by Dr. Suvrat Bhargave, Chairman of the India American Scholarship Fund (IASF), Dr. Anuj Manocha, with the support of Dr. P. Ravi Sarma, founder and past Chairman of IASF, and other IASF committee members. Dr. Suvrat Bhargave with some of the Awardees Dr. Bhargave welcomed all and gave a brief history of the IASF. The Fund was established in 1993, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Sarma, to serve the educational needs of the Asian Indian community in Georgia, he said. Over the past 13 years, it has awarded 155 college scholarships totaling over $155,000 to high school seniors who would be attending an accredited four-year college and university. It has thus lived up to its motto, “Honoring excellence in learning”, he added. “The awards are one-year and four-year scholarships that are based on financial need, academic merit, SAT score, extracurricular merit and community service. (3) four-year scholarships were awarded this year and were sponsored by the Darshan Bhatia family, Ravi Sarma family and the Bhupendra Patel family including Satyajeet, Amisha and Rina Patel. This year, the IASF recognized 45 graduating seniors and awarded 27 scholarships totaling $35,000, he said amidst cheers, and then referred to recent articles in ‘USA Today’ and ‘New York Times’. He said it was heartening to note that out of the 20 ‘All USA High School Academic Team’ listed by the former newspaper, 4 were from the Indian-American community(applause). The article in the ‘New York Times’ had highlighted the disturbing rise in the drop-out rate among the high school and college students and he cautioned that the community should not be complacent and it should ensure that everything is done to prevent drop-outs among its students. He quoted his grandfather, “Talents are given by God. What you do with those talents is your determination” He advised the graduates to achieve their goals and then give back to the community. He thanked the IASF committee and all the volunteers for their help in the College Fair. Next, Dr. Ravi Sarma recognized IACA’s strong foundation, that despite it’s growing diversity, it is still forging ahead after 34 years past its inauguration. He lauded Dr. Suvrat Bhargave and Dr. Anuj Manocha, sons of the illustrious founding members of IACA, Mr. Jagan Bhargave and Dr. Sohan Manocha respectively, for spearheading the IASF, and demonstrating their prowess and leadership qualities. He congratulated the 2005 Graduating Seniors and exhorted them to do voluntary work and also make a mark in performing arts and other diverse activities. Referring to the high National drop-out rate of 20 to 30%, he said he felt proud to inform the audience that of the IASF awardees there was only one dropout so far in their 13 years (applause). He thanked all the individual, corporate donors as well as the organizational donors, especially mentioning Telegu Association of Metro Atlanta and the Hindu Temple of Atlanta for their generous help. He hinted that the IASF is planning on a new initiative of helping students who are beginning their senior year, but are in the middle level of SAT performance. Those students needing help in english, math and essay writing skills, will either be given fully sponsored or subsidized tuition with nationally recognized Kaplan or Princeton Review coaching institutions, so that they may improve their SAT scores and strengthen their chances to obtain admission to college and win more scholarships. He concluded by praising three IASF awardees who after completing their studies had begun working and immediately began donating funds to the IASF. IACA President Tushar Sanghvi, V.P. Seetha Vallurupalli, with awardee Tabby Khan. Dr. Manocha highlighted some impressive performance statistics relating to ‘Class of 2005’. Among the 66 graduating seniors, ten had scored 1400 or better on their SAT, including a perfect 1600. 14 students were placed in top 5% of their class including 3 valedictorians. He went on to stress that in addition to academic excellence, they had achieved notable successes in dance, music, literature and sports. So phenomenal has been the success of the Indian-origin students in the National Spelling Bee, National Geographic Bee, American Math Olympiad, and Intel Science talent search, competitions that it has garnered the mainstream media’s attention and helped increase the profile of the Indian-American community. He concluded by congratulating the ‘Class of 2005’ and wished them well in their studies. IACA President Tushar Sanghvi advised the ‘Class of 2005’ to stay focused in achieving their goals. He told them that the current job market is very competitive, so to strive, not just to graduate, but graduate with honors and pursue graduate degrees as well. Dr. Bindu Manocha requested the awardees to line up as she and other committee members recognized the class of 2005. Mr. Sanghvi and IACA Vice President Seetha Vallurupalli greeted and handed a gift to each member of the ‘Class of 2005’. Mr. Sanghvi recognized IACA’s Board member, Paddy Sharma and invited her to participate in the Awards ceremony. There was a poignant moment when IACA’s past President Giriraj Rao was recognized and requested to present the Darshan S Bhatia Memorial Award. In his brief address, Giriraj informed the audience about Mrs. Kuldip Bhatia’s steady recovery in California. He said the seed that the late Dr. Darshan S. Bhatia, a close friend and also a mentor, had planted was coming to fruition. He promised to convey the audience’s good wishes for a speedy recovery to Mrs. Bhatia. Introducing Shyam Reddy, Dr. Manocha invited those with political aspirations to meet with him. Shyam Reddy, who is a corporate attorney plans to run for Georgia Secretary of State, in 2006. ‘Class of 2005’ would do well to remember, “Good. Better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.” The IASF banquet is an annual event sponsored by IACA and held on the first Sunday of June. Next year’s banquet will be held on June 4th, 2006 at the NE Hilton and all rising seniors (class of 2006) are encouraged to attend. For more information and to be added to the email list, please contact Anuj Manocha at manochaa@bellsouth.net  or Suvrat Bhargave at bhargavesk@yahoo.com.