TELUGU INITIATIVE AT UC BERKELEY

Prof. Rao Vemuri

any of you should know by now that the University of California, Berkeley, has been offering two courses in Telugu since the Fall of 2007: Basic Telugu, supported by Telugu community and Intermediate Telugu, supported by UC Berkeley. Each of these courses is worth 4 credits and can be counted toward a degree. Dr. Hepsi Sunkari, a Ph. D. in Telugu, is the instructor of record. So far some 50 students (both graduate and undergraduate) took advantage of this opportunity to learn Telugu. Most of these are from Telugu families, but some are from other Indian states and some from the Western society. These Telugu lessons are being offered by the Center for South Asia Studies where there are opportunities to learn other Indian languages also. Telugu is their latest addition. The university estimates that a minimum of one million dollars in a corpus fund would be necessary to maintain Telugu at Berkeley on a perpetual basis. In these trying economic times, it is hard for universities to start new programs. In spite of this, the generosity of Telugu people from all corners of the globe made this possible. Since 2006 people (Telugus and non-Telugus) contributed approximately $350,000/ toward the corpus fund. We still have a way to go to reach our goal. Even as we are trying to put this Initiative at UC Berkeley on a firm financial footing, we have been getting numerous inquiries requesting on-line Telugu lessons with or without university credit. Typically these are nonTelugus who are either married to Telugus, executives from multi-nationals working in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Vizag, or social workers working with NGOs. Methods of teaching Telugu as a second language to adults is different from the traditional way children learn their mother tongue. With help from foreign-language professors at UC, we are trying to develop on-line instructional material and make it available for free on our web site. To succeed in these efforts we need dedicated volunteers who can lend their technical expertise and philanthropists who can open their hearts and purse strings and help this cause. Please come forward and help find a permanent place for Telugu at UC Berkeley. Want to help? There are many ways to give a gift and support Telugu at UC Berkeley. You can give to the university and still enjoy your money during your lifetime. Whether you give $10 or $10,000 your tax-deductible contribution to the UC Berkeley Telugu Initiative can be made in many ways, including:
Outright gifts of cash, securities, gifts-in-kind, or other assets Matching gifts provided by the more than 900 employers who match employees' gifts Gifts that provide life-long income to donors or their designees Real estate gifts through which donors retain lifetime use of their property Gifts that preserve an asset for the use of future generations A planned gift through your will or living trust Please contact Prof. Rao Vemuri if you wish to explore these options.

If you wish to write a check, make it payable either to UC Berkeley Foundation Telugu Initiative or to Friends of Telugu and mail it to Prof. Rao Vemuri, 3212 Arbor Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Either way, you will get a receipt for tax purposes. If you wish to get more information, please visit http://www.Friends of Telugu.org

Sri Rao Vemuri is an emeritus professor in the college of Engineering, University of California, Davis. In his spare time he likes to write fiction and non-fiction; some of these can be found at http://lolakam.blogspot.com. He lives in Pleasanton, California.

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