Happy Thanksgiving
SILC WEEKLY DIGEST : WEEK ENDING 11/24/2013 Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers,
I want to thank all of you from the SILC Community who made a charitable donation to SILC on November 14th through GiveMN.Org. As you are aware, we charge a modest annual membership fee which helps pay for the school rent and school supplies. Your valuable contribution further helps us to give back to our community in a better fashion. As we move into the Thanksgiving week, I look back at the years that I have been part of SILC and think of the numerous volunteers putting in countless hours from their 2 personal time for the sake of our community.
Did you know that a regular volunteer teacher puts in anything between 55 to 65 hours per year to prepare for a class and then to teach as well. Add to it the average commuting time, which puts a volunteer committing at least 95 to 105 hours per academic year, spanning 26 weeks (half year). Extrapolated to a full year, this is 10% of time of a normal work year for a full time salaried employee!!! A SILC Board member needs to be active for the entire year, planning for events / new opportunities around the Twin Cities, as well as showing up for these events, over and above being involved in the regular functioning of SILC. Typically a board member puts in an average of 350 hours of volunteering time over 12 months. This is 17% of time of a normal work year for a full time salaried employee!!! 3 All of this just to make a difference for the SILC Community.
Then we have the casual volunteers who step in to ‘substitute’ when a regular volunteer teacher cannot make it or there is the volunteer who helps clean up after the snack break or a potluck……and during many other casual opportunities. As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, it is but natural that we give our thanks to all of our volunteers, who are the bed rock of our organization. Without all of our volunteers, SILC would not have been able to sustain itself and would not have been able to grow to what it is today. This digest is dedicated to our volunteers and we showcase the bios of all our volunteers in it. Do take the time to go through the rest of this newsletter to know your volunteers 4 better who strive to contribute their best towards the
Meet Your Volunteers Abhishek Nayar – Cricket Teacher Abhi a junior at Edina High School. He joined SILC four years ago as a student of Malayalm, and co-taught cricket. He has since then become the main teacher for cricket from the past two years.. He loves playing and watching cricket and hopes to pass on his passion for this amazing sport to the kids at SILC.
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Meet Your Volunteers Aditi Kulkarni – Dance Teacher Level 1 (6 – 7 years) Aditi Jariwala is currently a senior at Woodbury High School. She has been learning Bharatanatyam under Neelam Malhotra (SILC’s Dance Teacher) for almost 12 years and performed her Arangetram during the summer of 2012. A few years ago Aditi and a group of friends choreographed a dance together and performed it at a Gujarati Samaj event. Music is a big part of her life and she has been learning the piano for about 10 years. Aside from music and dance, she loves volunteering through the school and the community. She is looking forward to co-teaching the littlest kids’ dance class with her friend Divya PIllai and is excited to see what the year 6 brings them.
Meet Your Volunteers Anand Iyer – Chess teacher Anand grew up in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and has lived in Nagpur, Chennai, Alabama, South Carolina and MN. Actively involved in sports for most of his life, he now relives his life through the eyes of his two boys, Nikhil and Rohan. He came to the US in 1997 for his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he met his lovely wife Tila. He works for a major Medical Device Company in the Twin Cities in the Clinicals arena. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, reading, and Taekwondo with his older son 7
Meet Your Volunteers Anil Kumar: Tabla Teacher Anil has been teaching tabla at SILC for 7 years now. He has breathed life into the tabla program and co-teaches with Krishan. Anil is doctor by profession. His wife Kartika teaches Hindi at SILC. Anil and Kartika's two sons Jyotirmya and Anjaneya are students at SILC.
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Meet Your Volunteers Ari S Anand : Hindi Adults Teacher Originally from Mumbai, Ari Singh Anand has also lived in Chandigarh, Delhi and Shimla, as well as the midwestern, northwestern, and southwestern United States. While he was once a fluent child-speaker of Punjabi, and his Punjabi-Gujarati ancestry along with his Maharashtrian birth have left him incompetent at several languages simultaneously. He completed a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Arizona, and currently teaches courses in socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. This is Ari’s second year volunteering at SILC, where his wife Rachel and their daughter Gita are also now attending classes. 9
Meet Your Volunteers Deepa Namboodiripad: Dance Teacher Level 2 (8-11 years) Deepa was born in Kerala and brought up mostly in Delhi. She completed high school and college in India. She completed training in Secretarial Practice from YWCA. She worked in a private company for 5 years before getting married and moving to USA in 2006. She is married to Krishnan Nambudiripad and has a son, Godhun and a daughter, Soorya. She enjoys cooking, dancing, singing among other things. She is currently a homemaker. She is considering taking up a course to better her job prospects. She has been associated with SILC for almost 5 years now. She started attending SILC regularly from 2007 and has taught Hindi 10 and Malayalam.
Meet Your Volunteers Devi Prasanna Patnayak: Hindi Level 1 teacher Devi is originally from state of Odisha in India. He moved to the United States in year 2000. He completed his Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine (virology) in 2005 and is currently working as Assistant Clinical Professor at University of Minnesota. He lives in Shoreview with his wife, Kasturee and two daughters Shriparna and Sejal. He loves to be involved in social activities and that is what prompted him to volunteer to teach at SILC. This is his second year of teaching and third year at SILC with his elder daughter attending classes. He loves to spend time with his family11 and friends.
Meet Your Volunteers Dinesh Natamai – SS Level 1 A Teacher Although Dinesh belongs to Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, he was born and bought up in Delhi - the capital of India. A Post graduate in Business with working experience in multiple industries, migrated to USA after working over 11 years in India. Presently working with a Health & Insurance Co. in Plymouth, MN. Dinesh lives with his wife - Jeyanthi and two sons – Vasisht & Jaiesh in Shoreview, MN. Dinesh is an outdoor person who prefers pictures over words. Being a foodie, he enjoys spending time with his family and socializing with friends. Though Dinesh is new to the teaching community, but not new to SILC. His association with SILC family runs over 3 years. The motivation to join SILC as teacher is his love for kids and getting involved with them as their age group. A promoter of self-discipline along with bringing fun to learning is his motto to join SILC. 12
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Meet Your Volunteers Divya Pillai – Dance Teacher (6-7 years) Divya is currently a senior at East Ridge High School, Woodbury. She has been learning Bharatanatyam under Neelam Malhotra (SILC Dance Teacher) for 10 years, and completed her Arangetram last summer.
Along with Bharatanatyam, Divya enjoys choreographing Bollywood dances. Outside from dance, Divya enjoys playing the piano and plays on her school's Varsity tennis team. Divya co-teaches the littlest kids’ dance class along with Aditi Jariwala. 13 .
Meet Your Volunteers Erin Oberdorfer: Former President, SILC Board Erin has MLS in Library Science from the University of Maryland College Park and MM in Music History and Criticism from Peabody Conservatory of Music. She currently works as Research Director at GovDocs, Inc. She has 3 daughters, the middle one has been adopted from Hyderabad. She has been involved with SILC for about 9 years and helps out with the younger children's dance. She served as President in 2011. 14
Meet Your Volunteers Joyce
Slaughter
–
Arts
&
Craft
Teacher
Although Joyce is not of Indian origin she has harbored an interest in Indian culture for many years. Her ways to stay connected with the Indian culture have been many. As a young girl of about 12 years old Joyce added an Indian bride and groom to her doll collection while on a visit to the United Nations. She also had the pleasure of attending a sitar concert by maestro Ravi Shankar at an exhibit on Chicago’s Navy Pier. She complemented it all by reading what books she could find about India. These were limited as she lived in a rural community. As an adult Joyce made many Indian friends, learned how to cook Indian food, and has visited India twice. She feels that SILC is a perfect place for her to learn more about what she considers as her adopted homeland. With the help of her daughter and gifted 15 students she teaches the SILC art class.
Meet Your Volunteers
Juli Thomson – Cooking Class Coordinator Julie has been a SILC Parent for a few years and this year stepped into the role of SILC’s Cooking Class Coordinator.
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Meet Your Volunteers Jyotirmya Kumar – Tabla Teacher Jyotu has been a full time SILC student for the past many years. From this year onwards, he has stepped into the shoes of his parents (Kartika and Anil Kumar) and started volunteering at SILC as the tabla teacher.
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Meet Your Volunteers Kartika Bhardwaj - Hindi Level 4 Teacher Born and raised in the North Indian town of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Kartika moved to MN about 12 years ago. She lives here with her husband Anil (SILC Tabla teacher) and two sons, who are full time SILC students for the past many years.
Kartika is a Physician and is well versed in Hindi, Punjabi and Marwari. She enjoys traveling and sightseeing with her family. 18
Meet Your Volunteers Krishnan
Nambudiripad:
Tabla
Teacher
Krishnan Nambudiripad has been involved with SILC as a student, teacher and board member for about 16 years. He grew up in Burnsville, MN and completed the Masters in Elementary Education program at the University of Minnesota. Currently he works as a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo. As a student at SILC in the 80's he participated in dance, tabla, yoga, and language and social studies classes. Currently at SILC he enjoys teaching Tabla. At home he loves biking, playing guitar, and spending time with his family. 19
Meet Your Volunteers Lakshmi Buddhavarapu: Pre-School Teacher; Secretary, SILC Board Lakshmi Buddhavarapu is an Information Technology professional currently working for Medtronic. She taught and is teaching Preschool/Kindergarten at SILC and is the secretary on the SILC Board. She has a Master's in Biochemistry and Engineering, both from the University of Minnesota.
She lives in Vadnais Heights with her husband Jagadish and their son Teja. She enjoys biking, traveling and spending time with family & friends. 20
Meet Your Volunteers Mangala Achar: SILC Board (Treasurer) Mangala is from Kadatoka in Karnataka. An Electrical Engineer, she has worked in Electrical and Software industries for 13+ years. Currently she is a seasonal Tax professional at H&R Block, and a home maker. She has been involved with SILC from 2002 and taught Kannada for 7 years. She has also been Principal and is currently the SILC treasurer and SILC Board member. She lives in Woodbury with her husband, Krishnananda Achar and two sons, Manu & Vishnu. She enjoys reading, cooking, beading, sewing, walking, biking & learning new things. 21
Meet Your Volunteers Manju Nayar - Director Outreach & Coordination, SILC Board Manju has been a SILC parent since 2009. Born and brought up in Trivandrum, she resides in Edina with her husband Rajeev and two boys Abhishek and Adarsh, both of whom are SILC students. Manju is a physician by profession and enjoys reading, dabbing in some poetry and story writing, theater, listening to music, playing the veena and playing the Veena. She substitutes as Malayalam teacher at SILC and is currently serving on the SILC Board. Manju thinks SILC has been a tremendously positive influence on her children and is a passionate advocate for SILC in the 22 community.
Meet Your Volunteers Natarajan Raman – SILC Board (Volunteer Coordinator) Nataraj is a Radiation Oncologist at Hennepin County Medical Center Minneapolis MN. He has three children who are enrolled in SILC and he is actively involved in the local community with several socially important causes. He is actively involved in volunteering at SILC and is keen to recruit more volunteers. He also serves on the board of SILC. 23
Meet Your Volunteers Neelam Malhotra: Dance Teacher and Director Cultural Activities, SILC Board After completing her M.Phil in Economics from Gokhle Institute in Pune, India, Neelam worked as a Lecturer of Economics in Pune. During her School and college years, she also pursued training in Bharatnatyam from age 11 to 24. Neelam is now a stay-at-home mom and home-maker. In her free time, she teaches Bharatnatyam. Neelam and her family, husband Raj, daughter Meera and son Sesh, have been involved with SILC since 2001 and thoroughly enjoy it. She currently teaches Dance classes at SILC and is also SILC Board member. 24
Meet Your Volunteers Nirav Vora – Gujarati Teacher Nirav calls himself an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) with a twist, since he was born in Gujarat, India and thus defines himself as an IBCD. He came to the US (St Louis, MO) when he was 18 months old.
He came to the frozen tundra of Minnesota at age 18 to the U of M and pursued his ‘Bachelors’ in Finance & Economics. During this period he met his future wife and left Minnesota a ‘non-bachelor’. During his initial stay in MN, he also volunteered time for SILC. Fast forward 11 years later, Nirav moved back to MN, with his wife and 2 beautiful kids. He has been a SILC parent since 2012 and 25 now teaches Gujarati. Kem Cho!
Meet Your Volunteers Punjabhai Patel: Yoga Teacher Punjabhai Patel is teaching Yoga at SILC for the past 29 years (since 1984-85 school year). He came to the US as an undergraduate student in 1965 and did his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering. He is a grandfather to four beautiful children and is enjoying his retirement.
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Meet Your Volunteers Rachel Christiansen – Literature Teacher This is Rachel's first year as a volunteer, and she is co-teaching the Literature elective. Rachel grew up (mainly) in the Twin Cities and received her B.A. from the University of Arizona where she majored in Literature and Composition. She later received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law. She works for a Minneapolis law firm and lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Rachel is also a student in the SILC Hindi Adults class which is taught by her husband, Ari Anand. Their daughter, Gita (2nd grade), is attending SILC for the second year. Rachel enjoys 27 reading, cooking and taking long road trips.
Meet Your Volunteers Raj Menon: SILC Board Raj is an Information Technology professional, currently working at Boston Scientific. He is a graduate of Delhi University. He lives in Burnsville with his wife Lata and two children Aishwarya and Aradhana. Raj loves to play Table Tennis, though he cannot find partners, when he finds the time! His association with SILC spans over many years and he served SILC donning different roles as Principal, President and Social Studies teacher. 28
Meet Your Volunteers Rajiv Nayar: SS Level 2 Teacher Rajeev Nayar has been a SILC parent for last 5 years and used to be the Assistant teacher for Cricket till last year, working with his older son Abhishek Nayar. Currently he teaches level 2 Social Studies and is also the main teacher for Cricket. He is an IT Consultant by profession, working with Infosys Technologies. Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Rajeev received his Bachelors in Electronics and Communication from OSU, Hyderabad and then took Masters in Electrical Engineering as well as Computer Engineering from LSU. He resides in Edina with his wife Manju Nayar and two boys, Abhishek & Aadarsh. Rajeev likes to read in his spare time and tries to fulfill his passion for teaching through volunteering at SILC. 29
Meet Your Volunteers Rajesh Gupta: Director Registrations, SILC Board Rajesh Gupta is an IT professional currently working for Siemens PLM. This is his second year at SILC and 1st year on the SILC Board - looking after the registrations.
He lives in Saint Paul with his wife Namrata and 2 beautiful kids, daughter Ishita (8) and son Aditya (2). He enjoys watching and participating in sports, traveling, outdoor activities and spending time with family & friends. His daughter's participation in SILC has definitely motivated him in volunteering and giving back to the community. 30
Meet Your Volunteers Sailaja Nambury : Malayalam Level 2 Teacher Born and raised in a remote village Mundela in the state of Kerala, Sailaja is a Physics graduate with additional diplomas in Journalism & Public Relations and Computer Science. 20 years in banking industry. She works for Wells Fargo Bank as a Relationship Manager in Private Banking.
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Meet Your Volunteers Shiv Bhatia: President, SILC Board & Hindi Level 2 Teacher A former military officer, Shiv served in the Indian Army for many years on a variety of assignments, most of them in counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism roles. After hanging his uniform, he has been learning the art of Corporate “Warfare�, in the Healthcare Services industry. Currently, he works for iHealth Technologies, Inc, as VP of Business Operations. A die-hard outdoors person, he will do anything not to stay indoors. An avid griller who also enjoys cooking on the stove top, Shiv lives in Woodbury with his wife, Varsha and two lovely daughters, Suparna and Sahana. 32
Meet Your Volunteers Siva Jasthi: Telugu Teacher, SAP Teacher, Web Master, Director-Instructional Design, SILC Board A Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, Dr. Jasthi has about 23 years of experience in research, software development and teaching in India and United States. He currently works at Siemens PLM Software as Program Manager. He also teaches at Information and Computer Sciences department, Metropolitan State University as community faculty.
He lives with his wife, Bhas and kids (Tapan-17, Deepta-11) and enjoys spending time with his family, blogging, teaching, telugu music, movies, travel, ethnic foods, and volunteering. Jasthi has served SILC as Principal and President in the past and he is currently focusing on Instructional Design to identify and develop the means to teach Indic languages at SILC. This is Jasthi's seventh year teaching Telugu at SILC. 33
Meet Your Volunteers Sonja Agarwal: SS Level 3 Teacher Sonja grew up in Northfield, MN. She attended Luther College in Decorah, IA and received a major in Social Work. Sonja worked at Microsoft for 3 years in Seattle. She decided to be a stay at home mom after the birth of her first child. This is Sonja's third year volunteering with SILC. She has 2 sons as SILC students; Rohan (6th grade) and Nikhil (4th grade). Her husband is Mukesh Agarwal and they live in Lakeville 34
Meet Your Volunteers
Photo Coming Soon
Sonja Kroell – Literature Teacher Sonja has been a SILC parent for two years. This is her first year volunteering at SILC
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Meet Your Volunteers Subodh Kulkarni and Aparna Bhave: Marathi Teachers Natives of Mumbai, India, Subodh and Aparna have been residents of Minnesota since 1992. Subodh is self-employed and Aparna works with the R&D organization in Boston Scientific. They have two daughters, Aditi (who is a SILC volunteer as well) and Neeti. Subodh enjoys cricket, racquetball and all other sports. Aparna enjoys painting and quilting. When time and weather permit, both enjoy gardening. 36
Meet Your Volunteers Sunita Mannamkunnath: Principal, SILC Board Sunita has been a SILC Volunteer for over 10 years and has represented SIIC in various events in the Twin Cities. With a full time job in a Healthcare organization and family to keep her busy during the week, Saturdays are a day of volunteering to give back to the community. Her daughters are enrolled in SILC and look forward to SILC Saturdays! She enjoys gardening, reading and traveling 37
Meet Your Volunteers Surya Iyer: Asst Principal, SILC Board, SS Level 3 Teacher Surya Iyer was born in Erode (TN) and grew up in Kanpur (UP), where he got his engineering degree as well, and moved to the US for grad school in St Louis and the bay area. Surya is an operations manager at a semiconductor manufacturing factory in Bloomington and teaches parttime as an adjunct engineering professor at UST.
Outside of work Surya volunteers as a commissioner in the Edina Transportation Commission, and loves to run and work out at the Y. He lives in Edina with his wife Leslie and two SILC student daughters, Zoe and Macy. Surya co38 teaches Social Studies 3.
Meet Your Volunteers Varsha Bhatia: Hindi Level 3 Teacher Originally from Maharashtra, India, Varsha has been in the US for over 17 years. She has an undergrad in Mathematics from UMass, graduate degrees in Computer Science from UMass and Teaching from U of M. She has been a Kumon business owner/instructor in CO and has now donned the cap of Math educator. She lives in Woodbury with her husband Shiv and two beautiful daughters, Suparna and Sahana. Varsha likes to be involved in the community, and loves spending time with her family. In her spare time, she likes listening to music, solving Sudoku and crossword 39 puzzles. 2013 is her fourth year of volunteering at SILC.
Meet Your Volunteers Vidya Suresh: SS Level 1 B teacher This is Vidya’s third year with SILC as a teacher. She grew up in India, Fiji Is., Australia, later moved to Canada and then USA. Vidya taught Literature in 2011 and moved on to teach Social Studies level 1 in 2012. She feels that it is a joy teaching and learning along with the little ones. This is the first year on the SILC Board as Vice Principal.
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Meet Your Volunteers Vishnu Namboodiripad: Malayalam Teacher Level 1 Vishnu is 17 years old and the youngest language teacher at SILC. He is in 12th grade. He knows how to speak Malayalam and was brought to SILC to learn how to read and write it. He is with SILC for 10 years, and started teaching 4 years ago as a Teachers Assistant for the previous Malayalam teacher. Starting 2008-09 year, he started teaching Malayalam on his own. His hobbies include video games (no wonder – kids connect with him), computer, reading, writing, tennis, 41 and biking.
On behalf of the SILC Board of Directors, I wish the entire SILC community a great Thanksgiving week. Safe travels, if you are planning to go out somewhere. We will see you all on December 7th Best regards, Shiv Bhatia
President, School of India for Languages and Culture, 651-894-2551 42