BANA Academic Test — A Day with Academics for Grade 1-12 Kids
By Vinay Karna
At the onset of Azadi ke Amrit Mahotasav in India, and school year with No CDC guidelines around social distancing any more, BANA organized a colorful academic festival on August 6, 2022 highlighting academic past and excellence of India in general, and Bihar, in particular. Encouraging the kids to participate and bolster their presence in literacy competitions. Bihar association of North America (BANA), a 501(C)(3) non profit organization is a torch bearer in endeavoring the quest for searching the soul in the academic world. Hosting the event this year in a classroom setting at testmasters’ Gessner location, it surrounded itself with enthusiastic students and parents.
Academic Fest started at 8:00 AM and concluded around 4:45 PM. Amid a lot of preparations before and behind the scene, the students started arriving at 7:30 AM greeted by Sujata Anand, Vanita Ranjan, and Tripti Jha with brown bags containing fruits and juices, and Samosa and Chai. The students were guided to the opening ceremony. Greeted by coordinators Vinay Karna and Sumeet Anand, all students were asked to be seated in their respective grade sections.
President Ravi Ranjan addressed them citing the colorful culture of Bihar, BANA,and the academic festival. Young and rising college freshmen Sweta Gupta, Mrigank Maharana, and Ruchi Tiwari encouraged them to the utmost vigor. At this time, class coordinators, Bidhu Prakash, Amersh Mishra, Shanth Koka, Harsh Kumar, Anil Mishra, Mrigank Maharana, Tony Jha, and Rohit Thakur led them to their respective classrooms.
Many students from grade one to twelve (as of fall 2022) started their day with a full suite of tests in different classrooms. These students participated in Primary (Grade 1-3), Elementary (Grade 4-5), Middle (Grade 6-8), and High (Grade 9-12) school sections in Math, Vocabulary, Science, Art/Coloring, and SAT Practice Test. Started on time, the contest continued with brisk speed and concluded with Spelling Bee, Speech, and Debate post lunch time.
The Control room led by Santosh Verma, Ravi Choudhary, and Santosh Jha and joined by Ruchi Tiwari, Sweta Gupta, Sanjay Kumar, Abhinav Sinha, Atul Sinha coordinated all grading, logistics, and supervised all of the events. Logistics were well coordinated by Atul Sinha, Abhinav Sinha, Mridula Karna, and others. During lunch, Annapurna{sic} for the event, Rajeev Jha organized Pizza for volunteers for free and for parents and students with donations.
Speech for primary and elementary were judged by three distinguished members of our society: Dr. Sharad Borle, Dr. Jaideva Goswami, and Amit Kumar. On the other hand,
Art and coloring were judged by three amateur but highly art-skilled ladies; Ruchi Tiwari (an accomplished young artist who has won $22000 recently in a distinguished art competition) and Namita Maharana.
The debate was judged by accomplished individuals namely Parul Fernandes, Shen Zhao, and RJ Shah. Spelling Bee testing for Elementary/Primary groups was coordinated by Dr. Ganesh Dasari of Spellpundit and his team of volunteers. BANA Mock-SAT-Exam was sponsored by TestMasters. All Science and Math tests came from TMSCA. ExxonMobil was the key sponsor of this event.
With a thanking note by Ravi Ranjan, the prizes (which were beautifully organized by Sumeet Anand, Ravi Ranjan, and Ravi Choudhary) were distributed by five past presidents; Santosh Jha, Santosh Verma, Ravi Choudhary, Bijay Singh, and Atul Sinha.
BANA owes all parents, students, volunteers and the community a sincere gratitude, and appreciation who worked very hard to make this event a successful one. On behalf of BANA, the executive committee thanked all of the stakeholders for their contribution to the event. BANA tendered its special congratulations to all the winners and participants and also the participants who scored perfect and close to perfect scores.
Bihar and its glorious past had been a pace setter in academics. It has given many scholars which contributed greatly to the society. BANA is preserving and fostering the social and cultural heritage of India by promoting academic and cultural excellence among children in the USA. It was the 23rd such great event successfully organized by BANA and so in person after the pandemic.
Academic Fest allows students to stay engaged in academic activities and keep motivated/challenged during summer. It also provides a competitive platform to prepare for the upcoming school-year. In recent years BANA Academic Fest has become a community tradition recognized for promoting academic enrichment and professionalism among our next generation.
BANA attracts diverse members with outstanding leaders/professionals in a multitude of fields. For question/membership/sponsorship, contact banahouston@gmail.com or visit http://www.banahouston.org.