The Indian culture, like many other cultures, is largely based on giving back to society, whether it is your parents, your friends who supported you in times of need or whether it was the school that gave you the strong foundation to start life ahead of the curve.

Formerly known as the “Friends of Punjab University Alumni Association,” the Indian Schools Alumni and Friends (INSAF) was formed in 1971 as a program designed to help and coordinate Indian students’ efforts to give back to their community by guiding and supporting Indian students in the U.S. and India.

INSAF is a non-profit organization. Over the last 40 years, it has maintained a modest, but steady effort to help financially challenged and meritorious students in India.

“INSAF has 26 currently active projects,” Divya Singh Thakur, an engineering graduate student at WSU, said. She added that INSAF provided scholarships mostly at the secondary school level and some at the university level.

Dr. Prem Bajaj, the president of INSAF and a former Wichita State faculty member, said that this will be the first time since its creation that the Indian Student Association (ISA) at WSU will be represented in a conference at a national level.

“The conference is mainly about developing and implementing strategies to enhance India’s educational development, and also to strive toward the improvement of Indo-U.S. relations at a personal level,” Vijay Katragadda, the president of ISA, said.

“ISA does not receive any funding from INSAF for scholarships as of now. But we are hoping that we will in the near future,” Katragadda added. The ISA, on the other hand, offers a $590 scholarship every semester for second year graduate students of Indian origin.

Along with Katragadda, Thakur will be representing ISA at the upcoming conference held by INSAF.