NeSA Vibes

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VIBES, A Newsletter from Nepalese Student Association (NeSA) | SDSU, Brookings, SD | www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa

V I B E S

N e S A S

August 2011 Issue No. - 1

L a u n c h o f N e w s l e t t e r

NeSA has initiated a new avenue for sharing the information, news and views

among the Nepalese Students and others. NeSAs VIBES is the common platform

for all of us to get connected, informed and express ourselves.

The sixth executive committee had an idea of publishing a magazine, which laterwas changed into an e-newsletter as an easy first step. This easy step was not still

the knife through butter. All the team members had to go through meetings after

meetings, numerous phone conversations, loads of emails and finally arranging,

reviewing and designing the precious contributions from the enthusiastic writers

into a beautiful mosaic.

The editorial team and NeSA committee members are thankful to all the NeSA

members for their encouragement and support to go through the venture of

launching an e-newsletter. We have put our best efforts to make this issue a good

one. With collective efforts, we can take forthcoming issues to the next level. Your

invaluable suggestions for improvements along with articles and creations are

always welcome. Please feel free to contact the editorial team.

-The editorial team

I n s i d e S t o r i e s

MOR

Design

Introduction to NeSAAdvisor and Co-advisor

A Look Back...- Sushmita Shrestha

Collage-Nepal Nite 2011

Wrong Targets-Saurav Poudel

Volleyball Match

!#&'*#+,.!-+

RYLA-Sanju Timilsina

Mention Not-Sudeep Karanjit

N e p a l e s e S t u d e n t A s s o c i a t i o n ( N e S A ) :

...is a non-profit, non-political student organization of Nepalese students at South

Dakota State University (SDSU). Besides rendering help to its members, it also

provides ground for various academic as well social activities and interaction with

other fellow students... More at www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/

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http://www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/http://www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/http://www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/http://www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/http://www.studentorgs.sdstate.org/nesa/

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Matthew Hansen grew up in Carmel, Indiana and attended Auburn University wherehe received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. After his undergraduate studies, he joinedthe Peace Corps and lived in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for two

years volunteering as an Aquaculture Extension Agent, planning and building fish farms in

the region of Bandundu. Upon his return to the U.S., he went to graduate school at theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte where he obtained a Master of Arts in Geography

and a Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering. He then worked as a Faculty ResearchAssistant at the University of Maryland-College Park, where he developed his professionalexpertise in global-scale land cover mapping using satellite-based earth observations.During this time, he obtained a Doctorate in Geography and eventually moved to South

Dakota State University to lead the opening of the Geographic Information Science Center of

Excellence (GIScCE). He worked for 7 years as the Co-Director of the GIScCE and hasrecently returned to the University of Maryland-College Park to take a position as a Professor in the Department of Geography

His wife Chouchou works in education. Matthew and Chouchou have two children, Kiese, who attends the University ofWisconsin-Madison, and Kjell, who is a freshman at Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Matthew Hansen, Ph.D (Advisor, NeSA)

EDITORIAL BOARD

Dr. Chandra Giri was born in a remote village (Chimchima, Khotang) in the foothillsof Mt. Everest. He received his B.S. in forest conservation and B. S. in Science from

Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and his M.S. in interdisciplinary natural resources planning and

management and Ph. D. in remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems from Asian

Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand. Currently, Dr. Giri is a Research Physical

Scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)

Center. He is also a guest/adjunct faculty at South Dakota State University. Prior to this, Dr.

Giri worked for the Columbia Universitys Center for International Earth Science Information

Network (CIESIN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), AIT, and Department of

Forests, Nepal. Currently Dr. Giri is Co-advisor of NeSA from its inception.

At EROS, he leads a program on International Land Cover and Biodiversity. Hisresearch focuses on global and continental-scale land use/land cover characterization and mapping using remote sensing and

Geographic Information Systems (GIS). His recent research focused on global mangrove forest cover mapping and monitoring

using earth observation satellite data, and studying the impact, vulnerability, and adaptation of sea level rise to mangrove

ecosystems of the world integrating both biophysical and socioeconomic data. He also is researching on the development of

remote sensing based state-of-the-art methodologies to monitor carbon stocks for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and

forest Degradation (REDD) initiative. He has experience working in the private sector, academia, government, and internationa

organizations at national, continental, and global scales in different parts of the world. Dr. Giri has published more than 50

scientific publications and a book to his credit and serves as an expert in national and international working groups. He has

received several awards from USGS, NASA, and other organizations.

Dr. Giri lives in Sioux Falls together with his mom Rupa, wife Tejaswi, daughter Medhawi, and son Ashwat. His hobbies

consist of golfing, watching world cup soccer, eating at restaurants, and traveling.

Chandra Giri, Ph.D (Co-advisor, NeSA)

N E S A C R E A T I N G H O M E A W A Y F R O M H O M E

V I B E SMaheshwarShrestha

Mahesh.M

[email protected]

N e S A s

SudeepKaranjit

Sudeepkaranjit@

yahoo.c

o.u

k

PrekchyaSingh

Prekchya_

[email protected]

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

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Green lawns, all different

colored flowers and wide

spread trees, spring is

simply beautiful and is

Brookings during this

time. Anyone who comes

here during this time of

the year will undoubtedly

fall in love with the place.

Summer is not bad either.

B u t i t i s j u s t t h e

o v e r w h e l m i n g h e a t ,

sometimes, which tries to

encapsulate you making it

impossible to be outside

i n t h e l u s h g r e e n

environment. Winter on the other

hand is extremely generous. With a

maximum of -40F degree, makes yourealize what a real winter

is. Coming from

K a t h m a n d u

which rarely has

any snow fall,

Brookings makes

me realize how

different it is in

t e r m s o f

geography and

c l i m a t e .

N e v e r t h e l e s s ,having gone through all the seasons

of the year, now I truly know what it

holds and has for us.

Peaceful environment, cozy

life style, affordable living and a

wonderful school really made me

love Brookings. It is in fact the best

transitional place for a person

coming from Nepal to US for the

first time. In the past one year, I got

ample opportunities to visit manyneighboring states and cities. Be it

Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas or

Minneapolis, life is always in a rush.

You have opportunities but yo

should also be ready with the hustle

and bustle of the city. High living

c o s t , h e c t i c

s chedu l e s , o v e r l y

crowded communities

and never ending race

to meet. That pac

keeps you striving

m o r e a n d m o r e

making the real you

h i d d e n f o r e v e r .

Brookings keeps us

alive in the way we

are.

N e S A ( N e p a l e s e

S t u d e n t ' s

Association) has provided a platform

for all the Nepalese here in the

state. It has been able to bind together and m a i n t a i n

community which

can share and

enjoy moments

together. Th

a n n u a l

ce lebrat ion of

Dashain is the

best example

where we get

a l o n g w i t h

everyone around and havesome quality time with feast and fun.

Staying away from home and family

is the toughest thing to do but these

gatherings helps heal those pains

and gives us a refreshing start. It is

very appreciable how NeSA executive

members have volunteered their

precious time to make the bond of

love, understanding and brotherhood

alive among ourselves.

Long Live NeSA!!!Long live our community!!!

Peacefule

nvironment,

cozylife

style, affor

dable livin

g and a

wonderful

school real

ly made

meloveBro

okings

SUSHMITA SHRESTHA

A L O O K B A C K . . .COMMITTEE

RajBhandariChemistry , PhD Student

President

MandiraSigdelPhuyalGeography

Graduate Student

VicePresident

DilipDachhepatiElectrical Engineering

Graduate Student

Secretary

Good writers are those who keep the language efc ient . That is

to say, keep i t accurate, keep i t c lear .

-Ezra PoundEzra Pound (18851972), U.S. poet, critic. The ABC of Reading, ch. 3 (1934).

SaurobKadariyaComputer Science

Under-Graduate Student

JointSecretary
http://quotes.dictionary.com/author/Ezra+Poundhttp://quotes.dictionary.com/author/Ezra+Pound

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Its about time our rant on ourpoliticians gets louder. Yet another deadline

for new constitution is about to pass and we

are understandably furious. Chautari, chiya

pasal, bhatti, expensive pubs or even

abroad, we discuss the same thing. Our

Facebook news feed and twitter time-linewill be cluttered with outcries like how

wretched our country has become and how

there is no hope for Nepal. But wait, there is

hope. People offer solutions too, like killing

politicians or hoping for a miraculous mass

demise of all of them, bringing back King,

trying Army regime etc., etc. All these

wonderful ideas (or lack of it) have one

thing in common, they all are either

ludicrous or mostly not in our control. But

the interesting thing is, we never talk about

the most feasible idea. How about voting

them out of power or stop following them?

Isn't that the most obvious thing to do?

After all, we made them politicians and

politicians can only go where we allow them

to go.

Its not that we don't have anydecent politicians, we do, but most of them

are impotent as they lack followers. In

election we vote candidate based on their

race, caste and most importantly who is

likely to advance our personal agendas

(getting promoted, landing jobs, settling a

court issue or helping to get an importantdeal done) rather than national agendas. A

corrupt society always promotes and

supports corrupt politicians. Its not that our

society was perfectly fine to start with, and

politicians later ruined it. We always have

been corrupt and have never seriously tried

to counter it. We are hypocritical about

corruption. Corruption and favoritism is

treason if we arent a part of it but if we are,

its fine and even have a perfectly logical

explanation for it. Everybody is corrupt and

what I do dont make any difference, I

cant change anything alone, Its ok as long

as nobody knows and a proper paper work

is done Now our guy is PM, this is my only

chance to land a job.

Politicians dont address mostpressing national issues because they are

too busy addressing personal issues.They

are smart enough to understand what they

need to do to

r e m a i n

influential. The

other problem

i s w e v o t e

extreme end of

spectrum. The

two b iggest

p a r t i e s i n

c o n s t i t u t i o nassembly are

Maoists and

N e p a l i

C o n g r e s s .

Ideologically,

they are like

night and day. First is obviously a

communist party, whose ultimate aim is

Peoples Republic and the other believes in

democratic socialism. No wonder, they don

come to terms. We vote extremes because

as a nation we arent sure what we want. We

claim to know politics. We actually claim tobe expert in politics but that doesnt change

the fact and the fact is no we dont. We don

know because be just talk, we just repea

the politicians sound bites. We actually

arent either capable of understanding o

dont want to spend time to understand it

but too hesitant to admit it. If we can take

some of our time from mindless politica

gossip and spend it in understanding

politics and fact-checking politicians, we wil

do a lot better.

We all claim to care about thecountry, but if everybody does care why isn

country moving forward? There must be few

reasons, a few people to blame. We

certainly cant blame ourselves because tha

will mean we will have to change, we wil

have to make sacrifices. So, politicians are

convenient targets and our favorite punch

bags. Blame it on politicians is the mantra

I am not trying to defend politicians; they are

indefensible. I am just not attacking them.

am attacking our mindset. I dont believe

politicians ruined us; they merely took

advantage of ever-present ruins. They don

deserve more criticism than us. Change

does happen, provided we choose to

become proactive rather than reactive. Nex

time when we are frustrated and want to

blame, if we choose to look in the mirro

before looking at Singhadarbar, we might

have a chance.

SAURAV POUDEL

W R O N G T A R G E T SCOMMITTEE

SomNathKhanalBiological Science/Dairy Science

Graduate Student

ExecutiveMember

SiddhiJeewanBhusalPlant Science

Graduate Student

ExecutiveMember

PrajwalBikramThapaElectrical Engineering

Graduate Student

Webmaster

ParagAdhikariElectrical Engineering

Graduate Student

Treasurer

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I cannot meet ur expectations

I choked up a number of times

I dont care about the rules

and fines,

pennies or dimes

I may go far beyond and do

the crimesI was said to speak for half a minute

when I had things to say multiple infinite

I was told to be specific and say something specific

At such time

how my mind would work to blurt something terrific

somehow I managed to say

few particulars and some clich

after my turn I heard an inner sigh

but I would have to confront the final goodbye

I choked up again a number of times

I wish I had control on myself as in these lines

even with heavy heart I managed the rhymes

may be out of tunebut sounding somewhat sweet like wind chimesIts the matter of bonds and strong emotions

with the people, god made our relations

its difficult to be accurate and rational

control oneself and become practical

-SUDEEP KARANJIT

M E N T I O N N O T

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