I am Divya, one of the founders and volunteers at Aram Sei. Aram Sei celebrated its 6th year anniversary this January and we are very proud of what we’ve achieved. Last year was a busy year at Aram Sei. In 2017, we had two major fundraising events – “Therukoothu”, a dance show by Sanhiti, and “Thyagaraja- Evolution of a musician saint”, a musical show by the students of Guru Smt. Anuradha Sridhar. Events like these are our primary platforms to showcase our projects and raise funds. So we thank the organization committees of both these shows for making them huge successes.
Earlier this year, I represented Aram Sei at a panel discussion on Community Engagement in Education at the San Jose library in Cambrian. The panel consisted of school board members, administrators and educators who brought up problems with the lack of quality education in low-income school districts and the lack of mentorship programs for high school students. I took the opportunity to encourage the community to engage with their local non-profits because every dollar raised directly impacts the educational outcome of some children. Some of the projects that Aram Sei has supported in the past were along similar lines. For example, we worked with Futures Elementary School in Oakland to help promote literacy at their Re(a)d Carpet event where we handed out books to children. We also conducted a GoogleServe project at Fischer Middle School in San Jose to introduce students to computer science basics and mentor them. The issues we were addressing through these projects were very similar to the ones that the school administrators on the panel were bringing up. A hat-tip to all the Aram Sei volunteers (or should I say the Aram Sei FAMILY) for their year-round effort to support such worthy causes.
Another event that is dear to us – Spark – is right around the corner. This year, Spark will held on 12th May 2018 at Raymond J Fisher School in Los Gatos. Registrations are open to children of all ages, and they can participate in events like dance, music, quiz and Spark Tank! We hope to see you all at Spark 2018!
Divya Venkatachalam
Founder, Aram Sei