History of UpakarUpakar was created in 1997 by a group of Indian American leaders from the Washington, DC area. It was inspired by a visionary entrepreneur, Sreedhar Potarazu, M.D., whose goal was to address the needs of the Indian American community by supporting students in their academic pursuits. There were 12 founding board members, of whom eight are still involved as supporters and board members. The first scholarships were given out in 1999. In order to promote the organization to students, Upakar affiliated with the College Board in 2001. There were three objectives for affiliating with the College Board: a) to learn how to use the FAFSA in evaluating applications, b) to create a separate category for Indian Americans in the SAT scores, and c) to help educate high school counselors in areas with high numbers of Indian American students with middle and low income. This association was a success and our application pool increased to over 150 qualified applicants every year, despite more stringent requirements for our application process. As the number of applications grew, so did our need for resources. Almost all of the students applying for scholarships met the minimum eligibility requirements, which made our selection process more competitive, given our resources. We began to focus more efforts on raising more funds to meet the growing need. For the first few years, the board of directors raised money through family and friends. To increase our donor base, board member Dr Anil Sharma invited well known Indian musicians to perform benefit concerts and help raise awareness of our cause. Our debut concert for Upakar was with Pt. Hariprasad Churasia in 2000. We have since hosted Pt. Shivkumar Sharma with Ust. Zakir Hussain twice, Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Pt Vijay Raghav Rao, Pt. Ronu Majumadar & Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya, Sandip Burman & friends, World Music concert with Dr. L Shankar, Gingger, Ust. Zakir Hussain & Siva Mani, Celestial Symphony with Pandit Chaurasia, George Brooks, Kai Eckhardt, Vijay Ghate, Steve Smith, Fareed Haque, Kaveri Agashe and Shyamala Rajender, three generations of Indian Violin with Dr. N Rajan, Dr. Sangeetha Shanakar & Nandini & Ragini Shankar. In addition to the concerts, Upakar hosts benefit art shows that feature the amazing work of local Indian artists in the Washington DC area. We are proud to have had such world-renowned artists affliliate themselves with the cause of Upakar and we hope to continue to hold events with artists and musicians in the future. We are in the process of creating regional chapters, and are planning to hold events such as these in other parts of the country. Upakar has provided over $500,000 in scholarships to over 165 students from 28 states across the country. In addition to our scholarships, we provide mentorship to our scholars, which connects them to successful peers and mentors in the Indian American community who can help guide them through their education and career. Please take a moment to learn more about our scholars and how you can help make a difference in the lives of more students across the country. |