“MY HERITAGE” SCHOLARSHIP 2023: BSCFL would like to recognize graduating seniors who have had an extended length of participation with our Samaj, is connected with our culture/heritage and who have made active contributions to their school and community. As part of this encouragement for academic growth BSCFL committee decided to award two scholarships in the amounts of $1,000.00 and $500.00 for continuing education.

JUDGES PANEL: All the distinguished judges listed below have provided their scores and we truly thank them for the community spirit and their time.

Dr. Sejal Patel (Family Physician and Medical Director, Orlando)	Dr. Darshan Shah (Bartow Regional Medical Center and Lakeland Regional Medical Center)	Hardam Tripathi (U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law Attorney, Lakeland)	Bhumi Patel (Physician Assistant in Internal Medicine, Lakeland)	Shulagra Shah (Investment Banking Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp., New York)

OUR 2023 JUDGES PANEL:

Dr Sejal Patel is a Family Physician by training and has been in the Central Florida area for 12 years. She is currently a Medical Director for a fortune 5 company. On her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband of 16 years and her two sons. She also is on the Advisory Board for Gujarati Society of Central Florida.

Dr. Darshan Shah has served the Polk county hospitals for over ten years now. Currently he is affiliated with Bartow Regional Medical Center and Lakeland Regional Medical Center. He is passionate about his work and always keen on improving patient care. He completed his medical school in Bombay, India and then Family Medicine Residency in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an active member of the community, and enjoys cricket, tennis, chess and racket-ball. He lives in Lakeland with his wife and daughter.

Mr. Hardam Tripathi is a U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law Attorney, and specializes in Business & Investor based immigration and family based immigration. Attorney Tripathi is admitted to practice in immigration court as an advocate and counselor in all 50 states in the Union via Federal Jurisdiction.

Ms. Bhumika Patel completed her undergraduate studies at UF, majoring in Biology. Subsequently she completed her graduate studies at Nova Southeastern University, Jacksonville, and is now working as a Physician Assistant in Internal Medicine. In her spare time she loves to travel, read, work out, bake and cook. Spending time with family and friends is very important to her. In her own words, "I have also grown up going to mandir and continue to go every week. This tradition has kept me connected to my heritage, allows me to maintain a positive perspective throughout my day-to-day life and keeps me connected to God."

Mr. Shulagra Shah did his schooling in Lakeland/Bartow area, and his Masters at Bentley University, Boston, after a short study abroad program at Cape Town University. He is currently working as an Investment Banking Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp a merger/acquisition company based in New York. Shulagra's passion is sports (specifically cricket, tennis, chess and table tennis) and wildlife photography.

This year, we received many applications, and we appreciate the interest shown by the students. The essays submitted were judged by a diverse panel of judges who have a strong education background, are professionals working in USA, have awareness of the school system in USA, and have deep understanding of our heritage and culture so as to represent the “Bhartiya” spirit.

CRITERIA: The judging criteria provided to the judges was well thought out and the scoring point system (with a total of 25 points) was based on:

     1. Volunteering or सेवाभाव     (Max 3 points),
     2. GPA, Awards and Achievements or उपलब्धियों   (Max 2 points),
     3. Essay Writing Style or शैली (Max 5 points),
     4. Unique Perspective or अनोखा दृष्टिकोण (Max 5 points),
     5. Essay Content Quality or निबंध की गुणवत्ता (Max 5 points), and
     6. Relevance to Essay Prompt or प्रासंगिकता  (Max 5 points)

The announcement of the winners will be done during the "Chaitar Mas Navratri" event on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at approximately 8:30 pm.  Please plan to attend this event. We thank you all for your participation, interest and diligence to write such wonderful essays.