SANGAM-FRANKLIN STARTALK 2019 REUNION EVENT
November 10, 2019
Franklin, NJ:
Sangam-Franklin STARTALK students, parents and teachers gathered at the auditorium of Bharat Sevashram Sangha in Kendall Park, New Jersey to celebrate reunion of SANGAM-FRANKLIN STARTALK HINDI PROGRAM held in July-August 2019 at Franklin High School, Somerset, NJ. The event was held on on November 10, 2019. The objective of the event was to provide an opportunity for STARTALK Hindi learners to present their Hindi skills in front of native speakers of Hindi.
The event began with an introduction by program director Ashok Ojha, who spoke about the need for continued learning and practice of speaking, reading and writing Hindi in the post-program period of STARTALK summer program. He advised teachers to help participating students draw images of their favorite story and character that they learned at the STARTALK program and describe the images by speaking or writing. Participating students sat around desks to work on their favorite stories. Some of them drew image of a road that was built by cutting mountain rocks. The image reflected the story, ‘Mountain Man’, that students learned during the program. Intermediate students Nalin and Shreya walked to the stage and took turns describing the character, Dashrath Manjhi, the. main character of ‘Mountain Man’. Manjhi lived in a village in the Bihar state of India whose life long mission was to construct a road by single handed cutting the mountain that blocked access to nearby villages. Manjhi wanted to construct a road for the benefit of all of his village folks as the road reduced distance between the village and a nearby township.
Sangam-Franklin STARTALK students learned a number of stories at the program they attended at Franklin High School in the summer of 2019. The Reunion event aimed at developing their self confidence for presenting their Hindi skills in front of the community folks. Instructors, Anju and Seema prepared students to present what they learned during the program.
“STARTALK program is designed to prepare students become lifelong learners”, said Ashok Ojha , program director in his remarks. He suggested that parents should spend time with their children and help them practice speaking, reading and writing Hindi during their free time. “Hindi Sangam Foundation conducted STARTALK programs for expanding Hindi learning in NJ and beyond”, continued Ojha, “Our objective is to provide sufficient learning material for all learners.”
Instructor Akhila Sekhar informed the audience that varieties of learning material were posted on the website, www.21stcenturyhindi.com. “The learning materials provided on the site was accessible without logging in for all learners to practice Hindi reading, writing and speaking.”
Vidhu Uniyal, a parent, explained many benefits of learning Hindi. She said that her son, Nalin, was attending STARTALK programs conducted by Hindi Sangam Foundation for the past three years. “He liked to speak in Hindi whenever he had an opportunity to converse with people of Indian origin”, she said.
The Reunion event of SANGAM-FRANKLIN STARTALK HINDI PROGRAM2019 reminded students and teachers that Hindi was a prominent foreign language that was expanding fast in USA. Hindi learning was expanding in many colleges and universities in USA. Knowledge of Hindi helps students getting better scores when they began their career after graduating from colleges and universities. By the end of the event Ashok Ojha presented a summary of activities conducted by Hindi Sangam Foundation in 2018. The event concluded after a vote of thanks by Akila Sekar. It was followed by lunch
