Greetings!
As we welcome 2022, we at ISW are gearing up for an exciting year ahead. This past year tested the resilience and patience of ISW community, and I am proud to share that our volunteers and community members stood up to the task. ISW welcomed a new board, hosted over 60 events, opened doors to an expanded community center and launched four new initiatives under ISW2025.
On behalf of my board, I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all at our community center. Please enjoy the year in review edition with a collage of events from 2021 and our January happenings
Thanks
Puneet Kohli
President, ISW
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Opening of the ISW India Center Video
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ISW Annual General Body Meeting
January 30th, 2022, 2:00 pm
ISW India Center, 152 Main Street, Shrewsbury
The ISW Executive Board and ISW Governance Committee is pleased to announce the upcoming General Body Meeting to be held on Sunday January 30th 2022 at 2:00 PM at the India Center, 152 Main St, Shrewsbury, MA 01545. The ISW Executive Board along with the supporting sub committees will share the annual report to the General Body present. All ISW members are requested to please attend. Please note that in order to vote you need to be dues paying member as of December 1st, 2021. Please register prior to the meeting.
ISW Nomination Committee Slate of Candidates
ISW's Executive Board and ISW Governance Committee is pleased to recommend the following slate of candidates for the ISW Nomination committee
Proposed Slate for Nominations Committee 2021-2022
- Renuka Garg
- Carolyn Passey (2nd term)
- Shaikh Hoque
- Sonal Koppikar
- Barin Bando
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ISW Women Empowering Women (WEW): The Art of Self-portrayal: Defining your presence
January 8th, 2022 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
ISW India Center, 152 Main St. Shrewsbury
Our upcoming event is themed ”The Art of Self-portrayal: defining your presence”. This is more than a Networking event, better than a Social gathering, and WAY more energy!! Come and join us for this unique event and begin the New Year by connecting, educating, inspiring and empowering one another!! What will you get?
- Instill confidence, elegance, grace and poise.
- Make connections and great memories.
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Empower each other to be their best selves.
Register to get together and empower ourselves with the art of self-representation.
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ISW Harvest Festival
Sunday, February 13, 2022, 2 PM to 6 PM
Grafton Middle School 22 Providence Grafton, MA 01519
Celebrate the traditional Harvest Festival with the India Society of Worcester along with other local and regional organizations. Join us for a day of Indian dance, music, food, and art-making. Inviting vendors, choreographers and sponsors for brochure. More info and registration link on ISW Website.
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ISW 2021 - A YEAR IN REVIEW
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We started 2021 hopeful but how quickly things changed. Despite the ups and downs of Covid life, the ISW India Center was finally opened with a soft launch in the presence of many of ISW’s supporters who made the center possible. Very soon socially distanced events were being held there. As we close out the year with another Covid variant looming, we are pleased to have conducted over 60 events, in person and online and grateful for the support from our community that make it possible. We highlight some of activities during the past year in this issue. Click on the images or text below to see the videos.
We look forward to a Happy Healthy 2022.
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ISW has been a part of the Greater Worcester and MetroWest community and it shows with the several events that were done in collaboration with local organizations. These include:
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Covid Townhall with Mattie Castiel, Worcester, HHS Commissioner; Dr. George Abraham, Chief of Medicine, St. Vincent and Dr. Sahdev Passey, Chair, ISW Free HealthStop.
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Vaccination Camps on May 2nd and 23rd, with IAGB, Pelmeds, IMANE and others catered to over 230 people
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Conversation about Shrewsbury Schools with Beth Casavant, Shrewsbury Board of Selectman, Dr. Joe Sawyer, Superintendent, Shrewsbury Schools, Jason Palitsch, Shrewsbury School Committee, moderated by Ashish Cowlagi, ISW
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Shrewsbury’s Got Talent organized together with Spirit of Shrewsbury
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ISW @ WAM - for the fifth year ISW helped host "Diwali - Festival of Lights" at the Worcester Art Museum where over 900 attendees enjoyed dances, music, arts and activities with fine Indian food.
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Diwali - Festival of Lights. For the very first time ISW organized Diwali at the Tower Hill Botanic Gardens where over 850 attendees wandered through lit up gardens enjoyed Diwali activities and performances.
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ISW continues to engage the wider community in 2021. With over sixty events, both virtual and online, ISW had over 4200 attendees at various in person events, had over 18,000 views of the numerous online Facebook Live events with people sharing, liking and commenting on the videos. We look forward to strengthening the ties to the community in 2022!
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ISW WEW INITIATIVE
An engrossing discussion at one of the engaging ISW Women Empowering Women (WEW) networking events on "Summer Reflections and Achievements".
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ISW SYMPHONY INITIATIVE
Dhol Tasha Lezim group and workshop was one of many initiatives launched in 2021 by the ISW Symphony team.
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ISW CULTURAL & LANGUAGE SCHOOL
ISW School launched in-person classes in September after over a year teaching online. Teachers explain class details at the Open House in the video.
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ISW Scholarships
Aarushi Pant, Amrita Thirumalai
Mansi Gera, Menaja Raja
2021 High School Graduates
Menaja Raja, Divya Raghunathan, Mansi Gera, Krishnaa Amin, Gaurav Jaisingh, Amrita Thirumalai
Massachusetts Science Fair Awardees
Shruti Sivashankar, Aashi Gupta, Aumkar Deochakke, Arnav Mishra, Karthik Seetharaman, Jay Nagpaul, Maya Kasbekar, Ramkarthic Ramanathan, Anusha Prabhakar, Sathvik Yadanaparthi, Sumer Shinde
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ISW PROFESSIONAL & ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORKING (ISW PEN) INITIATIVE
"Launching your own Small Business" panel discussion provided answers to startup questions in this livestreamed video. It was one of many monthly networking meetings held by ISW PEN.
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ISW Mourned the passing of two stalwart supporters of ISW in 2021:
Kirit Upadhyaya was recognized in the community for his dedication to volunteerism and as the original architect behind the ISW India Center, passed away in January 2021.
Nalini Goyal, one of the founders of ISW Language & Cultural School and an active community member passed away in June 2021.
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Contact Information
India Society of Worcester
Mailing Address: PO Box 136, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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Answering Machine: 508-842-9795
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