Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX: “Are you ready for college and do you have the right tools?” is the theme of the morning gathered at Ruchi Palace Indian Cuisine, Carrollton TX as a part of the "College Preparation Workshop" hosted by the American Telugu Association (ATA), founded in 1990 whose mission is to assist and promote literary, cultural, educational, religious, social, economic, health and community activities of the people of Telugu origin as well as to promote exchange programs for students, scientists, and professionals of Telugu origin between North America and India. This workshop is co-hosted by the Telugu Association of North Texas (TANTEX), founded in 1986 as a non-profit, non-religious organization to maintain, preserve and perpetuate the cultural heritage of Telugu speaking people of North Texas.

Mr. Arvind Reddy Muppidi, DFW Regional Coordinator, ATA, extended a warm welcome to over 300 attendees in spite of a busy weekend with various other events in town. Mr. Muppidi gave a brief overview of the objectives of the ATA in general and the DFW community activities in particular and reminded the audience of the key upcoming events. The objective of today's workshop is to provide the community with a comprehensive and practical understanding of "College Readiness", one of the most important topics for all the families with grown up kids. Ms.Sushmi Kosuri, TANTEX Spoorthi lead took the honor of introducing keynote speaker Dr. Sushama Dandekar, Academic Counselor, University of North Texas and who is also an active volunteer at the local Chinmaya Mission center.

In her key note speech Dr. Dandekar provided a logical sequence of actions needed in order to plan for the college. She gave an excellent presentation on various topics, such as, applying to college, SAT preparation and financing for college. The workshop emphasized the time management and specific actions required by all the college bound kids including importance of deadlines. Dr. Dandekar shared lessons from her former students and requested everyone to plan early and to focus on the entire process. There were plenty of success stories and questions from the audience on topics related to the college application process, test taking strategies, and eligibility for financial aid. In response to a question from the audience Dr. Dandekar reiterated the importance of having a solid plan and timely execution of the same to gain maximum benefit from a variety of tools available to the prospective college bound students.

Mr. NMS Reddy, President, TANTEX, reiterated TANTEX commitment to serve the growing and diverse needs of the Telugu community in the North Texas area and provided an update on various activities conducted throughout the year including the Silver Jubilee and recognized the role of “Spoorthi", the Youth Wing of TANTEX in shaping the organization's future.

Dr. Rajender R. Jinna, President of ATA hosted luncheon in honor of the attendees and thanked TANTEX for its continuous support of the local events. He has reminded everyone about the planned "ATA Vedukalu" in India next month. Dr. Jinna said "In addition to community service oriented activities and cultural & literary program, ATA is planning to conduct various educational seminars for students in lieu of Tri-Valley & UNV incidents on educating foreign bound students". Dr. Jinna requested the support and invited the Telugu community to the 12th ATA Convention and Youth Conference scheduled for July 6-8, 2012 at Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. The ATA team lead by Dr. Sandhya Gavva, Member, Advisory Committee, Mr. Ananth Reddy Pajjur, Board of Trustee & Joint Secretary, Mr. Satish Reddy, Board of Trustee, Mr. Arvind Reddy Muppidi, DFW Regional Coordinator, Mr. Dheeraj Akula, DFW-Standing Committee Chair, Corporate Sponsorships, and Mr. Ajay Reddy, Executive Director felicitated the Chief Guest with a memento. The informative and thought provoking workshop came to an end with vote of thanks by Mr. Suresh G. Reddy, Fort Worth representative of ATA to the distinguished speaker Dr. Dandekar, the audience for their attendance, volunteers who spent countless hours of valuable time and Ruchi Palace Indian Cuisine for providing tasty food, excellent facilities and great meeting ambiance. Mr. Suresh G. Reddy also thanked the sponsors; Akula & Associates, Masala Wok and Ruchi Palace Indian Cuisine for their financial support of the event and the media partners; eknazar, Desiplaza.us, Radio Khushi, TV9 and Yuva Media for providing great coverage of the event.

ATA (American Telugu Association) is founded in 1990 and established community service focused non-profit organization serving Telugu community in North America for over 25 years. For more details about ATA and its services to Telugu community and for upcoming community events from ATA, please visit ATA website at http://www.ataworld.org. 12th ATA convention & youth conference will be held in world famous Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA during July 6-8th, 2012.