On September 29th, 2013, Los Angeles Telugu Association (LATA) has organized an awards ceremony for the participants of the Project Management Professional (PMP) training program and honored them with certificates.
With a community driven approach, LATA has prepared nearly 70 intellectual members of the community to become PMP certified professionals.
This should raise a question: what is LATA and what are its intents?
Los Angeles Telugu Association (LATA) is a grassroots community organization based in the Greater Los Angeles Metro area.
The intent of LATA is to promote the Telugu language and culture, coordinate community service activities, and organize youth and women empowerment activities.
LATA aims to enhance the awareness of the Telugu culture, heritage and traditions in the Greater Los Angeles Metro area by engaging in these several community driven activities.
LATA is also expanding into health and lifestyle; there is an upcoming seminar on this topic in October 2013.
In just 6 months, LATA has successfully organized several events to improve and enhance the Telugu community.
Some of these events include Telugu poetry competitions to encourage the innate talent within the community, Super Singers and Keeravani music programs to enhance pop-culture, acting workshops for the betterment of youth, health and women empowerment workshop with Ironman Dr. Anu Vaidyanathan, and also the PMP training program to increase the project management skills of several intellectual individuals within the Telugu community.
You now might ask: What did the PMP program involve and why was it such a success?
The PMP program involved 8 weeks of rigorous training across 3 different centers (Burbank, Montebello and Irvine) to train 70 individuals simultaneously.
In conjunction, instructors and volunteers spent at least 350 hours preparing the course presentation. The actual classroom delivery equated to 144 hours of instruction. The course material included over 1600 questions and 7 full-length mock exams, which was licensed from Joseph Phillips PMP, a leading instructor in the industry. The cost of a course of this caliber is estimated to be around $2000. With this endeavor, LATA was able to save the community more than $150,000. The experience of the participants spanned across several fields and in a classroom they were able to bring out amazing discussions. This unique classroom experience cultivated a sense of pricelessness for the participants involved in this achievement.
There were 10 amazing instructors who were PMP certified individuals and have played a pivotal role in delivering this program. Several of these individuals commuted between all three locations when necessary to make sure that the students will receive the education they need.
LATA would like to thank and recognize each and every one of these individuals: Venkat Subramanian PMP, Sowdamini Reddy PMP, Sangeetha Kolluru PMP, Pandu Chimata PMP, Ajay Chava PMP, Sudarshan Sharma PMP, Jagdip Mehta PMP, Ravi Tiruvaipati PMP and Ramesh Kotamurthy PMP.
The awards ceremony began with the President of LATA, Mr. Ramesh Kotamurthy, giving his keynote speech which focused on the objectives of LATA and the PMP training. Following this was the award ceremony and in order to award the certificates, LATA has respectfully invited several chief guests. Mr. Venkat Tadanki, CEO and cofounder of Secova, Inc. was very impressed with the group of students and had a bit of inspiration to share with the audience.
Mr. Pardha Akalamkam, Program Director at Alahambra PMI Chapter educated audience and participants the importance of PMP and what are the next steps to complete the certification. Mr. Mani Chinnaiah, distinguished Toast Master and Vittal Agirishetti from Irvine Toast Master’s Club provided valuable in-depth information about Toast Masters and importance of public speaking skills and leadership skills. They encouraged all the participants to become part of Toast Masters.
Following the awards ceremony, a few students shared their experiences in the PMP training program and inspired each other to complete the PMP exam before the end of year 2013. LATA is grateful for all the participants, instructors, volunteers, chief guests and members involved in making this PMP training a successful endeavor.
LATA wishes the participants all the best in the PMP examinations and is hopeful to see them as instructors in the PMP training course in 2014.
