SUCCESS! Education in Kodai Project Update

SUCCESS! Education in Kodai Project Update

by | Aug 24, 2021 | Announcements, Archives, Projects - completed | 0 comments
Dear KIS Alumni and Friends,
We want to express our deep appreciation to all of you who joined us in our recent Kodai Friends International (KFI) Leadership Matching Gift Challenge. 
Thanks to the generosity of those who donated, KFI met – and in fact exceeded – our goal and raised $110,072 by the end of June to support two important and worthwhile projects at KIS and in the Kodaikanal community, both of which have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Education in Kodai Project (EKP), initiated by KIS students, will improve the educational outcomes for many children in Kodaikanal and surrounding villages that have suffered from the pandemic. Corey Stixrud, KIS Principal, in expressing appreciation for your support, writes:
 
“On behalf of all of us here at KIS, please accept our gratitude. Your contributions have been essential during an extremely difficult time for the people of Kodai. The vast majority of young people in our town have simply not had access to school, even virtually, for over 16 months. Your generosity has allowed us to supply learning materials for students, build classroom and IT infrastructure in local government and government-aided schools, and conduct professional development sessions for over 200 teachers so far. The principal of one of our partner schools put it best: “KIS and the Education in Kodai Project has been a godsend to the community. You have provided many things, but the best thing you have provided the students and teachers of Kodaikanal is hope for a brighter future.”
Photos were taken during the inauguration ceremony of the Education in Kodai Project
at the CSI Middle School in Packiapuram where a computer lab, art room, spoken English room (with projector and screen), and waste management bins have been
installed.
KFI has already transferred all funds raised as of the end of June to KIS where they can be immediately put to use to meet the needs of the school and the community in these challenging times.
Scholarships for KIS students continue to be an urgent need at KIS as many KIS families have faced economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to continue their KIS education without financial assistance. 
 
While the Leadership Matching Gift Challenge has ended, you can still support the KIS COVID-19 Relief Fund by donating online at https://www.kfi-us.org/donate-kfi/ or by sending a check to KFI at the address listed below.
With appreciation for the difference you have made in the lives of students in Kodai and at KIS through your support.
Stan Kuruvilla                       Jane Cummings
President, KFI                       KFI Board Member
Emotional Wellbeing Teacher Training
Eco-Club and Teacher Training on Waste Management
Join Fellow Alumni for Quad Talks

Join Fellow Alumni for Quad Talks

by | Mar 2, 2021 | Archives, North America Alumni Events | 0 comments

Kodai Friends International (KFI) and Kodaikanal International School (KIS) jointly present to you “Quad Talks,” a unique opportunity to connect and engage with KIS alumni worldwide through a series of talks featuring notable alumni speakers on a wide variety of topics, sometimes familiar, sometimes new.

Upcoming Quad Talks:

Saturday, March 13
(Rescheduled from Jan. 16, 2020)

11:00 AM EST
The Politics of Meritocracy: A conversation on caste and the privilege of education in India
Prof. of History Dwaipayan Sen ’00 interviews Prof. and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Harvard University, Ajantha Subramanian ’86 on the topic of caste in modern-day India, its effects on the educational system and Indian diaspora.

Register HERE  to register for this Zoom presentation (free)

 


Saturday, March 27

11:00 AM EST
Murder He Wrote: Alan Johnson ’79 discusses his page-turning mystery Family Plot
English Professor Alan Johnson ’79 is the author of  Family Plot, published in 2020. A work of fiction based on characters and settings he experienced as a child, the plot rivets around events taken place in South India.

Register HERE to register for this Zoom presentation (free)

 

 

Missed past Quad Talks? No worries. You can view past Quad Talks by clicking this link: Kodaikanal International School – YouTube and select  “Videos” or “Alumni Corner.”  More recent Quad Talks will be added once the recording is edited.

This one was a sell-out!

Hiking in the Sky Islands

Watch this community discussion with Sandy Schoeninger, Barbara Block, Ian Lockwood and Pippa Mukherjee about
the history of the hiking program, the changes brought by environmental and social impact, and stories and photos
of hiking through the ages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Professor Mary Carruthers, Class of 1957

by | Dec 19, 2020 | Archives | 0 comments

Three NYU professors were elected as American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows — one of the most prestigious scholarly honors — on Thursday, April 23.

The new fellows are English Professor Emerita Mary Carruthers, Psychology Professor Gregory Murphy, Psychology Professor emeritus and Anthropology Professor Susan Antón. They are three of 276 members elected in 2020.

“It’s more like the Nobel Prize than anything else in Humanities,” Carruthers told WSN in an email. “I just got an email out of the blue one morning last week saying that I’d been elected to the Fellowship.”

In addition to the professors, the AAAS also inducted Vice-Chairman of NYU’s Board of Trustees Chandrika Tandon, although this was not stated in NYU’s initial press release. Following a 2015 donation of $100 million to the Tandon School of Engineering, the school was renamed after her and her husband. Tandon is the founder and chair of Tandon Capital Associates and chair of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Board of Overseers.

The award is multidisciplinary, encompassing fields such as education, democracy and justice, energy and environment, the arts and science and technology, the AAAS website states. Former recipients include Martin Luther King Jr., Georgia O’Keeffe, Toni Morrison, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

The academy has elected more than 13,500 members since its conception in 1780. The election process begins with a nomination from two already-existing members — each from a different institution — and then prospective inductees are placed on a ballot.

Members vote on these ballots in sections and then place 12 members from each section to advance to a further round. In the next round, six out of the 12 members are chosen and forwarded to The Academy’s Council and Board of Directors, who then officially elect the members, according to the AAAS website.

“The primary criteria for election are excellence in the field and a record of continued accomplishment,” the website reads.

While inductees are generally chosen because they excel in their fields, the exact selection criteria remain unclear. Inductees are generally not told why they are selected, Carruthers said.

“Since the whole process is secret, I don’t know why I was selected,” Carruthers said. “I would guess it has to do with the range of other people’s research which my work has influenced over thirty years, in ways great and small.”

Though Carruthers is categorized as an English language professor, she believes that the category doesn’t reflect the interdisciplinary nature of her work, which includes research on art history and aesthetics. When her book “The Book of Memory” was published in 1990, she received correspondence from scholars in fields ranging from anthropology and sociology to computer science.

“I still regularly get questions from doctors who treat geriatric patients, and from people who work in secondary education,” Carruthers said. “I like having such a multidisciplinary audience.