About ISO
What is ISO?
The ISO is a registered non-profit student organization at San Jose State University (SJSU) and its primary objective is to promote Indian Culture in the United States, particularly in the Bay Area, and to help new incoming Indian students. With more than 600 members (and growing) comprising of current students, alumni and faculty members, ISO is comitted to provide students with the means to educate, communicate, organize and socialize.
History of ISO
ISO was started back in August of 2002 and then consisted of around 20 ambitious and motivating students. The primary aim of the founders of ISO was to foster togetherness among Indian students and to help aspiring students coming to San Jose State University. This tradition has been kept alive by each generation of students who have been admitted to SJSU since then. As of today, a new and enthusiastic board guided by the core committee handles ISO activities. ISO has always been a voluntary organization primarily meant to serve the interests of the Indian community on campus, binding it culturally and helping it to gel into the greater culture of university life in San Jose. We are certain that we will be able to live up to the expectations of our creative and pioneering predecessors.
What does ISO do?
A large portion of our efforts is channeled towards making arrangements for new students who are coming from India to pursue their studies at the San Jose State University. We go to great lengths to arrange temporary accomodation for them, find room-mates and arrange pickups from the SFO and SJC international airports. All of these activities are concentrated towards the start of the Fall and Spring semesters.
ISO organizes many socio-cultural events like:
| Parichay | An orientation event held every semester for all the new admits. |
| Tax-Workshop | A workshop that helps students with their year-end tax-documents. |
| Rang-Barse | A celebration of the festival of colors. |
| Azaadi | A celebration of India's Independence Day. |
| Roshni | A celebration of the festival of lights. |
ISO has its own website and mailing list to circulate jobs, news, concerns, academic questions etc.
Apart from yahoo group, ISO organizes different sports event like Cricket matches, Volleyball, Badminton etc. ISO also organizes frequent group outings and trips as a team building exercise.
How you can help ISO?
San Jose State University has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Indian students coming in every semester. This is apparent from the following statistics:
| Semester | Numer of students admited (approximate) |
| Fall 2003 | 25 |
| Spring 2004 | 15 |
| Fall 2004 | 30 |
| Spring 2005 | 20 |
| Fall 2005 | 55 |
| Spring 2005 | 60 |
| Fall 2006 |
200+ and more in Spring 07 |
Due to unanticipated spike in number of students coming every semester and limited resources available to ISO, we seek assistance from Indian community in the following areas:
- Airport pickups for new students coming to both San Jose and San Francisco international airports.
- Financial assitance in the for: organizting our annual events and shuttle service for airports pickups.
- Temporary accomodation for new students coming to San Jose State University.
All donations to ISO are deposited to a acoount registered with San Jose State University. Receipts will be provided to all donations. All monetary donation to ISO can avail tax benefits.
Contact:
Student Life Center Box # 144
San Jose, CA 95192-0038
http://www2.sjsu.edu/orgs/iso
