Teaching passion

Education is the key that harnesses any nation's demographic dividend and in India's case, with its more than 18,000 colleges, 600 universities, 13 institutes of national importance — apart from various other vocational institutes — the system qualifies as one of the largest in the world. And finally names like Darshan Jain and Shakthi Nataraj are two of those very few who are really making a mark. According to India Abroad News Service, Jain, an Indian American teacher is one of the 108 teachers named by President Barack Obama as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He who has taught mathematics at Adlai E and has been teaching in Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, for eight years where he currently serves as the director of mathematics, and other winners will receive a $10,000 award each from the National Science Foundation. The educators will receive their awards at a Washington, DC, event later this summer.

"These teachers are shaping America's success through their passion for math and science," Obama said of the winners. "Their leadership and commitment empower our children to think critically and creatively about science, technology, engineering, and math. The work these teachers are doing in our classrooms today will help ensure that America stays on the cutting edge tomorrow," he added. The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded annually to outstanding K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grades) science and mathematics teachers from across the country.

"The Presidential Award validates my core belief that all students can learn mathematics in authentic, rigorous, and impactful ways," Jain said. "It is grounded in my experience that collaborative teachers can help all students achieve excellence. This award provides opportunities to have discussions around improving math education at local and national levels," he said. "Students' experiences in mathematics must fundamentally change in order to support our national vision for equity, access, and competitiveness."

Jain's industry experience includes time spent as a project engineer and a machine designer. His love for teaching was inspired by his work at the Hispanic Math and Science Initiative and his students' success in learning. As adjunct professor for mathematics education, Jain supported novice teachers. He now leads exceptional colleagues as curriculum director for his district. He has also contributed to the education community by speaking on research-based pedagogy at local, state and national conferences. Jain has a BA in mechanical engineering and an MS in secondary mathematics education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is pursing further graduate work.

According to a PTI report, Shakthi Nataraj, an Indian girl who grew up in Chennai, has received a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender scholarship from California University in Berkeley to study how political issues brought new notions of sexual identity in India and has been awarded with "The Philip Brett LGBT Studies Fellowship" that honours the memory of Philip Brett, who is considered a pioneer of lesbian and gay musicology. The scholarship will help Nataraj study how political tensions brought new notions of sexual identity in Tamil Nadu. She is one of the three Indians to have won this award according to the college release.

"The movements taking place in Tamil Nadu right now draw on LGBT rights language, but they also draw on a lot of other histories," said Nataraj. As part of her research, she is examining how Indian courts struggle to reconcile notions of "Indian culture" with transnational human rights commitments, the college release said. Nataraj has spent time around nonprofits that focused in HIV and gender issues.

As she grew older, she reconnected with the LGBT community in India. "It's the dual belonging to the worlds of academia and non-academia that is both the biggest challenge and the most rewarding part of this whole experience," Nataraj said. It is from this background that Nataraj approaches her LGBT research in Tamil Nadu, the release said. For example, in December 2013, India's Supreme Court reintroduced a colonial-era law criminalising homosexual intercourse and then, just months later, issued a judgment affirming transgender identity and rights. Indian members of the LGBT communities, she says, are "paradoxically hailed as both rights-bearing consumers and atavistic criminals."

Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/supplements/making-a-telling-difference/74118.html#vB2tMVHWPPh6emZp.99