Washington: After having successful run in India, Samskrita-Bharati, a non-profit organization, has announced its plans to conduct its first spoken Sanskrit residential camp exclusively for teenagers in the USA.
Set in the scenic location of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Saylosburg, Pennsylvania, "Shraddhaa”, the four-day residential camp will be held from June 23 to June 27, the organization said in a media release.
During these four days, teenagers would go for hiking, play sports, do yoga and attend classes while speaking only Sanskrit. Teaching will be done by youth who have grown up in the US and chosen to make Sanskrit a part of their daily lives, the statement said.
Kartik Shastri, an 11th grader from Boston, is one among them who has been attending Samskrita-Bharati family camps since he was nine. Providing the instructors with guidance will be Shri Vasuvaj, a fulltime Samskrita-Bharati volunteer with 20 years of teaching experience, the media release said.
The announcement of a Sanskrit-speaking residential camp has already attracted quite a sizeable query from interested parents and children. Abhinav Kalavar, 14, one of the registrants for the camp from Pittsburgh said: “I think the camp will be fun because I get to meet new people".
Another registrant, Sonya Dave, a 9th grader from Maryland, said: "I think this camp is unique in that we will get to meet other kids of similar age and interest in a total Sanskrit environment."
Organizers said, teens from as far as Michigan and California have registered for this opportunity.
"We are offering a limited number of travel grants to those who fly in for the camp, so that interested teens from all across the continent can come," says Sowmya Joisa, an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the organizers of the camp.
Online registration for "Shraddhaa" has been set up by the "Samskritam" group at University of Maryland on its website: www.speaksanskrit.org . Information about other Samskrita-Bharati programs, including their annual east and west coast family camps, is available at www.samskrita-bharati.org.
