North South Foundation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The North South Foundation (NSF) is a non-profit and tax-exempt organization of volunteers. NSF awards scholarships to talented but financially-challenged Indian students who plan to enter college. It was founded in 1989. ^[1]

The Foundation also sponsors educational contests (spelling bees, vocabulary contests, etc.) open to all students who are of ethnic Indian origin but live in the United States.

1 Contests
2 Finals
- 2.1 Past Locations
- 2.2 Planned Locations
3 Scholarship Program
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Contests

NSF as of 2007, does 7 different contests, most with multiple age categories.^[2]

[edit] Spelling Bee

There are two divisions of this, junior, and senior. Both divisions have the same rules. In the regional stages, there is a written round (20 questions for each contestant) and an oral round (6 questions for each contestant). In the finals, the rounds are the same except there is a final elimination round based on scores from the first two rounds, which is similar to the Scripps Spelling Bee. The winner is the one last standing.^[3]

[edit] Math Bee

There are 4 divisions based on education level. In the regionals, all contestants get a question-paper with 20 questions which must be completed in 1 hour. In the finals, it is the same, but in addition there is a written lightning round with 20 questions where the contestants get 45 seconds to do each question.^[4]

[edit] Vocabulary Bee

There are 3 divisions of vocabulary bee. The rounds are the exact same as the spelling bee, but in the oral round, each contestant gets 8 questions, not 6.^[5]

[edit] Geography Bee

There are two divisions of Geography Bee. There is a written phase with 35 questions for which contestants get 35 minutes and an oral phase where contestants get 5 questions.^[6]

[edit] Essay Writing Bee

In Essay Bee, there is a level 1, a level 2, and a level 3. In finals and regionals contestants get 10 minutes after the topic is announced to plan it. They then get 60 minutes to write the essay. Judges score them and then average the scores and announce the winners.

[edit] Public Speaking Bee

There are two levels, Level 1, and Level 2. Contestants get 30 minutes to plan, and up to 3.5 minutes to say their speech before points are deducted. Just like Essay Writing, judges give scores, then average them, and announce winners.^[7]

[edit] Brain Bee

There is one level, 8-12 grade. The competition is only in the finals, and anyone can go. There are as many rounds as needed, as it is a 3 strike basis(contestant gets a strike when answer is incorrect. When there is 5 players, the remaining players' strikes are wiped off. The winner will go to the National Brain Bee (not conducted by the foundation) and the winner of that can go to the International Brain Bee (again, not conducted by the foundation.).

[edit] Finals

The winners of the above contests, and people who make a certain cutoff score in the regionals will go to the finals. It is conducted in a different place every year (with the exception of 2005 and 2006; both were at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois), and it is always a university.

[edit] Past Locations

[edit] Planned Locations

Boston, Massachusetts - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[edit] Scholarship Program

Northsouth has an active scholarship program in India. All profits from the contests go to the scholarship program.^[8] As of 2007, the foundation has awarded 2,000 scholarships to kids in India. As said above, they usually select poor students with high academic talent.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Official site
Aim-for-A Tutoring helps students preparing for educational contests conducted by NSF.

Categories: Non-profit organizations | Indian American history