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Pushpinder Kaur Group 3 Judge

I feel blessed to be a part of a
beautiful institution that is Guru

Nanak Khalsa School, San Jose since
1989. We are the biggest Sunday school
that has graduated two generations of
Sikhs since its inception.

While pursuing Master’s Degree in
Education in 1990s, I realized that our
children growing up here needed to be

engaged in Gurmukhi, Gurmat, Gurbani
and Punjabi teaching, but they needed different materials and strategies as Punjabi was no more their

primary language. Stepping Stones PSL Instructional Resources- a complete and comprehensive, step-
by-step curriculum came out of this revelation. It takes children from learning Ooda to reading from
Guru Granth Sahib, and from learning about who is a Sikh to the recent history of Operation Blue Star.
Few years ago, I was recruited by the University of California to lead the initiative to create online

Punjabi Without Walls curriculum. I immensely enjoyed contributing to this project along with other
esteemed UC professors.

While it will be ideal to have education for the masses so that no child of ours has the burden to
explain, “What is on your head?” Until that happened, I wish to empower our children to understand and
stand up to explain their Sikh identity. When my own son suffered bullying, he decided to tell his story.

His story of The Boy With Long Hair became a book that has been used in several schools across USA
and England, endorsed by the California Teachers Association and included in the History and Social
Science Framework by the California Department of Education. That means it is appropriate and
recommended to be used by teachers in regular schools.

My involvement with Sri Hemkunt Foundation Symposium was accidental first in 1990, but it has become
an integral part of my life for several years. I believe that SHF symposiums were a tremendous force
in educating me and my children about the many aspects of Sikh life.

My wish and hope is to have an immensely successful Khalsa School in every Gurdwara, where children
can come to learn and get excited to stay. It is possible. We have done it at many places. I hope I will
get a chance to work with all the Zonal/Center Conveners to accomplish that goal.

In the meantime, I am incredibly grateful to the Higher Powers and my loving husband Dr Gurinder Pal
Singh for making this life worth living.