JCYC PATHSHALA PHENOMENA

“- Kim Abercrombie

In This Issue

9/22: First Day of Class

More classrooms for Pathshala

Our Pathshala kids at JAINA 2019

Paryushan and Das Lakshana Parv

Sept - Oct pathshala activities

The Mommy and Me class learning to do Ashthaprakari Pooja at Pathshala

Beginning of the Phenomena Welcome to the first edition of the Pathshala Phenomena, the JCYC Pathshala newsletter, designed to keep parents and children abreast of some key things that are happening within the pathshala program.

As the pathshala continues to grow, this will be one of the means by which parents and children can get news on the broad scope of people and activities within the broad Pathshala program.

Quick Stats on the 2019 Pathshala Program

As of early September, 450 children have registered for the 2019-2020 Path-shala year. The students range from ages 3 to 18 and represent 250 families.

The pathshala program will include 14 religion classes, 18 language classes, one sutra class and one culture class, 6 toastmasters classes and a variety of enrichment classes including STEAM classes. The classes will be taught by over 75 teachers. An additional 40 volunteers will support the operations and administration of the pathshala program.

With the addition of the new school property, there will now be over 30 class-rooms available across the post office building, the culture complex and the school property building.

Lunch will be served in the new school property area with seating arrange-ments made available inside the altar building as well as in the open area.

Jain Center of Southern California Pathshala Newsletter September 2019

Our JCYC participants in the Jain Academic Bowl (JAB) at JAINA Convention.

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First Day of Pathshala—Sept 22 Schedule for the first day of pathshala is listed below. Please note that all parents are required to attend the first day meeting. Children will only be able to attend their first class if the parents have attended the mandatory parent meeting

Time Activity Venue

8:30 - 9:00am Pathshala Check-in Main Hall

9:00 - 9:15 am Community Prathna Main Hall

9:15 - 9:45 am Mandatory Parent Meeting Main Hall

10:00 - 11:15am Religion Class Designated Classroom

11:15 - 12:30pm Language or Culture Class Designated Classroom

12:15 -1:30pm Lunch New School Property

Mandatory Parents’ Meeting Parents that attend the 9:00 am meeting will receive a waiver form that needs to be completed and presented by their child to attend the first class.

Please arrive early to check your child in for pathshala prior to attending the par-ents’ meeting. Parents will also receive information on their children’s classroom assignments for religion, language and culture class.

Pathshala Lunch at the New School Property Lunch will be served on pathshala days in the new school property area. Please note that the area outside the kitchen in the culture complex will be open to lunch for senior members only.

More class-rooms The new school property behind the cultural complex will provide 10 additional classrooms for the path-shala program.

With the addition of the school property, pathshala classes will be spread across the post office build-ing, the upper level of the cultural complex and the new school prop-erty.

Look for your child’s classroom by room number on the map that will be provided to you during the check-in process on the first day.

Learning Nav Ang Pooja at Pathshala

Layout of the classrooms in the new school property

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Our Pathshala kids at 2019 JAINA Con-vention Our youth made us proud during the 2019 JAINA Convention held in Ontar-io, CA.

They represented our community well with their participation in a lot of different areas:

Jain Academic Bowl (JAB)

JAINA Cultural Pro-gram

Convention Proces-sion

Volunteering as part of a broad range of functional commit-tees.

YJA Programs

Photo Caption

JCYC youth shine at 2019 JAINA Convention Our children were an essential part of the 2019 JAINA Convention, not only in their partici-

pation of the various Young Jains of America (YJA) and Young Jain Professionals (YJP)

activities, but also with all their volunteer work and participation in the main JAINA events.

Our own JAB team of 8 children took part in the Jain Academic Bowl. The group was one

of the youngest teams to take part in JAB during this year’s JAINA.

Over 60 children participated in the cultural program, helping to make it a huge success at

the convention.

Many of our high-school age youth were fully engaged in setting up for the convention,

registration, audio-visual support during the convention, the procession as well as the cul-

tural program.

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Kids programs during Paryushan Our JCYC Committee organized a number of children’s activities during Paryushan. Hinaben Shah helped the children learn Gahuli on one of the eve-nings. There were also children’s games on the day of the swapna ceremony. Young children had the opportunity to do Aangi on the Bhagwan around the Bhomti and were part of the culture program.

Our children also took part in the bhakti bhavna, leading all the attendees in some of their favorite stavans.

Snatra Puja led by Children As part of the weekend program, there was a Snatra Pooja specifically led by the children. Many young members also took part in the pratikraman that took place each evening during the period.

The Fifth Swapna of Garland was for the chil-dren. During the Swapna ceremony, the fifth swapna was dedicated to the children. A big “Thank you” to the individuals and families that sponsored the swapna. The stage was filled with children, excited and jubilant as they were able to wear the head ornaments and participate in the swapna ceremony, representing the entire pathshala community.

Paryushan Parv, Das Lakshana Parv There were multiple activities spe-cifically designed for children dur-ing the 2019 Paryushan and Das Lakshan Parv.

Children learned how to do Gahuli and understand the significance of the Swastik in Jain religions.

“I had no idea that there were so many swastik designs that one can make! I liked the tear drop shaped design the best”., said one of the young participant.

Photo Caption

Enjoying a group session of Gahuli during Paryushan.

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How do you observe Paryushan Parv? It’s hard to get away from the routine of school and other day to day activities during Paryushan Parv, but our children find vari-ous ways to make the occasion meaningful to them.

This year, children were offered an activity grid to follow a variety of practic-es. Some related to pen-ance; such as giving up TV for a few hours, eating before sunset, doing ekasana or Upvas. Oth-ers were religious activi-ties such as reading reli-gious books, doing pratikraman, saying stu-tis, etc. Yet others were practicing good deeds such as doing seva or donating to those that are needy. The activities were designed to fit their age group. The points assigned to each activity were aggregated each day and the total points for the 8-10 days are listed next to each name.

Children taking part in the cultural program during Paryushan Parv

Making Paryushan meaningful The following kids participated in the religious activity each day and achieved the point

value shown. The absolute value of the points illustrate achievement, but more important,

show that efforts were made consistently each day over the full Paryushan or Das Lak-

shan parv.

Children gathered points by doing a variety of activities each day and demonstrated that

discipline and thoughtfulness.

We are very proud of these children that practiced tap during the period of Paryushan and

Das Lakshana. Many of these children were in school during these days, and they still

took time to practice the austerities. Khub, khub Anumodana!

Name Age Total Points

Achieved Max Points

Possible %

Jeenay Rathod 3 yrs 10 mths 536 560 95.7% Rishabh Nahar 6 yrs 330 560 58.9% Ria Nahar 9 yrs 375 720 52.1% Antra Shah 9 yrs 720 900 80.0% Mahika Shah 12 yrs 415 720 57.6%

Upcoming Phenomena at Pathshala Here are some key events coming up over the next few pathshala classes.

Photo Caption

What does Pathshala means to you? O S C A V P V J L K J D S U N F P R B N I O I I P L I E G O M R G E R H T O H I U S U L I O O I T H A T I J H H C L F G L Z U E R C L A E A D U A L I A E X A N O A T R G R S V S L S V J D S D Z E F P A S G S E N U E O D X S Y T S K I X T R G P P S K T Y K M J G O M U B M H F I Q U K I T A U N H T W Y R A K N A H T R I T S G I L N L P C R A F T S N Z D Q U I H Y S T O R I E S I I D N I H R I V A H A M E B S Z C F N R K M O P A U F Y F M H Q M X H

Test your skills. Find the 20 words listed on the right in the above grid.

Contact Pathshala

Pathshala: Sailes Jain, Poorvi Parekh

Office Admin: Komal Desai

Registration: Narendra Jain

Religion Lead: Smriti Shah

Gujarati Lead: Mita Mehta

Hindi Lead: Surekha Jain

Culture Class: Pallavi Shah

Security: Shailesh Mehta

Toastmasters: Deven Shah

Snack Duty: Ritesh Desai

JCYC Cmttee: Dhaval Vora, Jay Doshi

We want to hear from you As we move forward with the Pathshala phenomena, we want to incorporate more of the things that matter to the pathshala community. Let us know if there is a particular topic or story you would like us to cover or highlight.

Send your ideas to pathshala@jaincenter.org. Put “suggestions for the Phenom-ena” in the subject line.

We’re looking for volunteers As the pathshala program continues to grow, we nee more volunteers across all the areas of the Pathshala program: In areas of operation, administration, teach-ing and many other support areas.

If you are able to volunteer and have certain expertise with which you can contrib-ute to the pathshala program in some way, let us know. Contact Parul Shah or ask for her at the registration desk in the Post Office building on pathshala days.

JCYC Pathshala is a part of the Jain Center of Southern California.