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C OMMUNITY N EWS
India Abroad October 7, 2011
With a little help from Arun Alagappan
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grant family in New York seemed minor when compared with the daily struggle for survival that that boy, and mil- lions like him, undertook each day. I am well aware that whatever successes and accomplishments I have been priv- ileged to enjoy are a product of the opportunities I have been granted,” Alagappan said. Advantage Testing, which he started 25 years ago, he said, “is dedicated to the proposition that one’s intellect is not immutable. One’s intelligence is not static. It can be nourished with hard work, rigor, and long-term prepara- tion. Advantage Testing is likewise committed to academic excellence and the view that tests represent powerful opportunities for learning.” His biggest passion, Alagappan said, is guiding women, particularly from minority communities, to be not only leaders but smart lawyers and teachers. “Only by drawing its leaders from all races, genders and backgrounds,” he said, “can a nation hope to be strong in an increasingly competitive global economy.”
His desire to reach out to the minorities and economical- ly disadvantaged began quite early in his life, he said. “Every two years, my family would travel to India on the biennial home leave the UN used to grant its employees,” he continued. “On one such visit, I found myself with my siblings squeezed into in the back seat of my grandparents’ car. We drove through the unpaved streets of a small village ( in Tamil Nadu ). At a crossroads, I heard a rapping on the glass and rolled down the window. I was startled to find another boy my age. Hand outstretched, he stood outside our car wearing only a tattered pair of khaki shorts. Otherwise, I might as well have been looking into a mirror. As I stared into his unblinking eyes, I saw a glimmer of recognition; he too had grasped our remarkable likeness and for a moment, neither of us stirred. Then I handed him a coin my grandmother had given me and he moved on without a word. “ For over five decades, he has thought about that boy, he said. “Whatever challenges we may have faced as an immi-
United Nations official Alagappa Alagappan, who champi- oned the building of Hindu temples in America over five decades ago by getting blueprints and artisans from India. The senior Alagappan, 86, is known as the father of the Hindu temple movement in America. “I grew up in New York, the world’s most diverse city, in Queens, the world’s most diverse county,” Arun Alagappan reminisced. “I attended the United Nations International School, the world’s most diverse school. Consequently, faith in diversity is in my heart and in my blood.” Fifty years ago, Arun remembered his father vowing — as he gazed over the New York City skyline for the first time — to bring more to the United States than he would take out of it. “It is in many respects in his honor that I try to give back to this country that has done so much for us as a family,” Arun Alagappan said.
‘Dispel this absurd, dismaying stereotype that girls have less to do with math than boys’
Boppana, who is like a big brother to the contestants, said, “The professions that drive innovation and prosperity depend on knowledge and ability in science, tech- nology, engineering, and math. In recog-
ARTHUR J PAIS
D r Ravi Boppana, co-director of the Math Prize for Girls, always tells students that the $49,000 in prizes are not just what the contest is about. “The best part of the Math Prize was def- initely connecting with this community of girls and women in math and science,” agreed Sheela Devadas from Massa- chusetts, who took home $1,000 in prize money. “I have always been one of the few girls on the math team in middle and high school… I was thrilled to see such a large community of girls who liked math too. There was an instant connection between everyone there, even if it’s just: ‘What did you get for problem 14?’ The math compe- tition is a vehicle to meet other girls who love math, who are usually pretty hard to find. Of course, the contest itself is also fun and pretty challenging. The math is much beyond traditional high school math… It’s a great learning experience.” She continued: “It’s amazing to see women who are successful in math-relat- ed fields and to imagine that I might be one of them someday. The talks last year and this year by Professor Priya Natarajan and Professor Shafi Goldwasser, respec- tively, were both very inspiring, not just because of the subject matter… but because the speakers have succeeded in male-dominated fields. President Susan Hockfield of MIT also gave a speech that motivated many of us to pursue careers in engineering, science, and mathematics.”
nizing these girls, we aim to advance STEM education and encourage even more young women to pursue fields in which historically they have been under- represented.” Bopanna, a software developer in the finance industry, is an alumnus of MIT and the University of Maryland. He has served as a tenured professor of computer science at New York University and Rutgers University and received the Golden Dozen teaching award at the NYU and Excellence in Teaching award at Rutgers. “He is passionate about math and helping the girls excel,” says AT Foundation founder Arun
COURTESY: CASEY HENRY/ADVANTAGE TESTING FOUNDATION
now in its third year, Boppana said: “Some students have taken the tests three times.” To qualify for the Math Prize, girls must be in 11th grade or below. They must also have taken one of the American Mathematics Competition exams given in February. The application deadline is June 15. There is no application fee for the con- test, which is a two-and-half hour exam covering algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and number theory. ‘The topics may be standard for high school, but the problems certainly aren’t,’ Boppana, primary author of the exam, said at the first competition. ‘Even our simplest problem is too hard for a test such as the SAT.’ “The United States continues to rank among the lowest of developed nations on international student assessments in math and science,” Alagappan said. “If we are to keep pace with the rest of the world, we must dispel this absurd, dismaying stereo- type that girls have less to do with math than boys.” MIT President Susan Hockfield congratulates the top 10 winners of the Math Prize for Girls; right, Sheela Devadas. Left, Dr Ravi Boppana
COURTESY: CASEY HENRY/ADVANTAGE TESTING FOUNDATION
school at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, was invited to take the AT Foundation’s follow-up contest called the Math Prize Olympiad. Among the 277 contestants, there were plenty of other Indian-American contestants. One of the youngest students was Meena Jagadeesan, an eighth grader from Illinois. In the past, Ramya Rangan has represented the United States at the China Girls Math Olympiad. It is not easy to enter the competition,
Alagappan about Bopanna. “He is extremely modest; did he tell you that he got his PhD from MIT at age 22?” This year at the Math prize, Sheela was the only Indian-American cash prize win- ner (sixth in the top 10). Five other desi students got honorable mentions: Monica Agrawal from Georgia, Saroja Erabelli from Virginia, Nitya Mani (California), Anupa Murali (New Hampshire), and Ramya Rangan (California). Harini Kannan from California, who goes to
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