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The organization showcases Indian
culture and heritage to the International
community through cultural events,
festivals and other recreational activities
with the purpose of being a home away
from home.
Email: [email protected] Facebook: www.facebook.com/ufigsa/ Website: www.igsauf.weebly.com
The Indian Graduate Student
Association (IGSA) is a student
organization at the University of
Florida that strives to promote the
smooth assimilation of Indian
graduate students into the UF
environment and local Gainesville
community.
General Body Meeting
During the fall semester, IGSA held three General
Body Meetings (GBM) to inform students at UF
about the activities of IGSA and also learn
something new regarding things to do around
Gainesville, different cultures and job search
related topics. The first GBM on September 12th
involved an address by our faculty advisor Dr.
Krishnaswami Alladi where he shared his
experiences with the students and welcomed them
to UF. His address was followed by a talk on the
activities of IGSA, things to do around Gainesville
and tips to prepare for the Fall Career Showcase.
The student members learned a lot of interesting
facts about Gainesville and tricks to tackle the
Career Fair.
IGSA 1st GBM introducing students to Gainesville and IGSA
The second GBM on Oct 4th was cohosted with
Club Creole, a Haitian student organization. The
GBM titled Meeting of Two Cultures definitely lived
up to its name and students were able to
experience the richness and diversity of both the
Indian and Haitian cultures. The presentations on
India and Haiti was followed by a trivia. All the
students had fun participating in this interactive
GBM, with some of them taking home some IGSA
and Club Creole goodies. Our final GBM on
November 30th was geared towards helping
members understand the process of salary
negotiation and job offer evaluation through a talk
by the Career Resource Centre(CRC). This GBM
also focused on disseminating information
regarding how to be a part of the 2017 IGSA
Executive Board.
2nd
GBM- IGSA and Club Creole’s joint GBM 3rd
GBM – CRC workshop on negotiating salary and evaluating a job offer
New Student Orientation
IGSA at UF was created to act as a support and guidance system to new incoming Indian graduate
students in Gainesville, among other things. To fulfill its motto, IGSA, with help of ICEC and the rest of
the Indian community in Gainesville, organizes the New Student Orientation every Fall semester soon
after the airport pickup and temporary accommodation provision. Prominent members of the Indian
community as well as senior students at UF are invited as speakers and share their pieces of advice and
words of encouragement to the new students while also touching on crucial laws and unspoken cultural
expectations of living in the US.
This academic year also, on August 20th, 2016, we had an impressive list of speakers who
enlightened the newcomers with entertaining yet eye-opening information.
Welcome addresses by Ravi Bhonsle, President, ICEC and Rohan Dhavalikar, President, IGSA
A New Beginning by Dr. Sartaj Sahni
Importance of Dental Health in USA by Dr. Rekha Reddy
UFIC by Debra Anderson
Student Legal Services at UF
Counselling and Wellness by Dr. Kalpana Swamy
Understanding Health Insurances by PSI Health Insurance
Current Student Experiences by Soumitra Sulekar
A delicious Indian lunch was served before the speaker sessions. A local Indian band, Gator Resonance,
performed to cheers and appreciation during the intermission. There was also a raffle session for the
newcomers, during which helpful donated items were distributed amongst new students. Student
organizations like Gators for Asha and Gator Cricket Club had information booths along with PSI Health
Insurance and Bank of America.
Multicultural Fair
The Multicultural Fair held at Flavet Field was one of a kind event, bringing together all the student
organizations currently active at UF. It presented an opportunity for incoming freshmen to get to know and
become familiar with all the student organizations, what they stand for, and inspire them to get involved.
Various sub-orgs served authentic food from their cultures and organized games which are popular in
their countries. IGSA organized a cricket game for the students in which the winners took home goodies!
There was also a soccer competition and a trivia in which each participant had to visit every sub-org table
in order to get points by answering a cultural question relevant to that organization. It was an exciting day
for all the organizations to try to make an impression on the new students joining the University of Florida.
Bollywood - Nollywood Film Industry Forum
This film industry forum was cohosted with the
African Student Union (ASU) to discuss the
differences and the similarities between Bollywood
and Nollywood. Nollywood is the third largest film
industry in the world after Hollywood and
Bollywood. It is originally from Nigeria, but is often
generalized to be from Africa. It was surprising to
know that Bollywood actors and movies were quite
famous even in Africa. After presentations on each
industry, the session that followed led to interesting
discussions on the challenges faced by both
industries. Overall, this collaboration was a great
success as it gave the participants a platform to
share their knowledge and interests about the film
industries.
Diwali
The Indian Graduate Student Association at UF
along with Indian Student Association organized
their annual fall cultural event, Diwali-The Festival
of Lights on October 29th. This event had amazing
musical, dance and standup comedy
performances, delicious Indian food, and activities
like diya making, greeting card and lantern making.
It saw participation of around 600 people including
students from Pakistan, China, Haiti, Nigeria and
Brazil.
Although being far away from India, attendees
made it a point to dress up in colorful Indian
traditional attire to celebrate this festival.
Attendees had a nice evening and had a lot of fun
clicking pictures at the photo booth with Diwali
props. The decorations, performances, attendance
by a large number of students and the efforts of
volunteers made sure that this event was one of
the most successful and memorable one in the
year.
Ganesh Chaturthi
This fall IGSA celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi on September 5th. More than 200 students came
together and joined the celebration over the course of the 10 day festival to seek Lord Ganesha’s
blessings. The first day involved the installation of the Ganesh idol, followed by prayers and
offering of delicious prasad. Prayers were held twice a day on all the 10 days with the immersion
process taking place on the last day. Seeking blessings from Lord Ganesha, the Lord of wisdom
and success definitely was a great way to start the new school year.
Celebrations with other organizations
IGSA members actively participated in celebrating festivals hosted by other student organizations on
campus. Members attended Iftaar celebration by the Pakistani Student Association(PSA), Mid Autumn
festival by the Chinese Student Association(CSA), Lebanese Soiree hosted by the Lebanese American
Student Association(LASA), Russian Fall Fest by the Russian Club, Camping with Club Creole to name
a few. IGSA members got to know more about different cultures through participation in these
celebrations and in the process made new friends from different parts of the world.
Garba
IGSA Sponsors
Like the last year, IGSA collaborated with ISA to host the annual Garba event. The attendees of the event comprised of people of all nationalities and had members of various international organizations participating and dancing in full spirit to traditional Gujarati songs played by a live band. For people who wanted to learn Garba, a Learn to Dance workshop was also held prior to the day of the event. The event saw attendance of around 400 students with attendees dressed up in their traditional best and enjoying their evening playing garba and dandiya. If you happened to miss the events during the Fall semester, we have exciting events lined up during
the Spring semester as well.
Events for Spring 2017:
- Airport pick up and temporary accommodations for Spring admitted students
- Executive board 2017 applications: https://goo.gl/forms/d9PqEGC2LDnxz2Jw1
- Box Cricket Tournament
- Volleyball Tournament
- Holi celebrations
- Rock n Rock
- General Body Meetings
- VISA International Month
Contact us
Email: [email protected] Facebook: www.facebook.com/ufigsa/ Website: www.igsauf.weebly.com
Subscribe to the IGSA listserv to receive information regarding our events. To subscribe, send a piece
of email to [email protected] with the line subscribe IGSA-L (your first name) (your last name) e.g.:
subscribe IGSA-L Jane Doe
