TELSA donates $50,000 to UC Berkeley

UC BERKELEY –“TELSA” SUMMER STUDIES RESEARCH AWARD

TELSA is proud to announce the setting up of a summer studies research award at the University of California, Berkeley with a contribution of $50,000 sent to the university in December 2014. Investment income from our contribution will be used by UCB to provide travel grants, living expenses or other needs to undergraduate and graduate students bound for India to undertake scholarly studies in a variety of fields. The award is instituted as an adjunct to the Telugu Studies Program run by the Institute of South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley.

While TELSA has so far confined itself to the promotion of the language, culture and developmental interests of Telugu people in particular and all Indians in general, the award is meant not just for people of Telugu origin but anyone interested in advancing scholarship and innovation in a multiplicity of disciplines as the following document sent by us to the university shows.

TELSA is a small organization with limited resources but broad interests and has had to make a difficult choice between competing and equally important claims on our funds. Over the last some years we have made strenuous efforts to spread the idea of micro planning for rural development along side taking up sizeable charitable programs in providing free bicycles, drinking water plants, scholarships, tuition assistance and such in hundreds of village high schools in India. We have had to scale down these efforts last year in making this grant.

We hope our contribution to UCB will ignite the interest of some bright student in the limitless possibilities for research and innovation impacting the lives of people not just in India but everywhere.

We also hope our example will lead other Indian organizations with far greater resources to not only follow our initiative, but dwarf our effort.

If you want to apply for  Telugu Society of America (TELSA) Summer Studies Research Award, please see University of California, Berkeley’s official guidelines.