Archives

Region 5 Labor Day Retreat

September 1, 2024 (Click here to watch) 

Region 5 YA Walkover

July 13, 2024 (Click here to watch) 

Ann Arbor & Cleveland Teacher Call

April 11, 2024 (Click here to watch) 

Chicago North & Chicago West Teacher Call

April 11, 2024 (Click here to watch) 

Region 5 SSE Aradhana Day Offering

Apr 22, 2023 (Click here to watch)

Region 5 SSE Swami's Birthday Offering

Nov 23, 2023 (Click here to watch)

Guru Poornima 2022

July 9, 2022 (Click here to watch program)

This year, to celebrate Guru Poornima, Region 5 hosted Br. Ananta Gudipaty, a faculty member at the Institute of Sathya Sai Education here in the USA. He shared his experiences with applying to Swami's school and with how he personally felt God's presence in his life. We also had SSE bhajans from 2 students from the Detroit Metro and Chicago Metro Sai Centers.

SSE Walkover 2022

June 17, 2022 (Click here to watch program)

We celebrated our seniors with the official handing over of the graduating SSE class to the Region 5 YAs. This included a slideshow honoring the graduates and a presentation from the YAs about the initiatives that those SSE students could now participate in.

Easwaramma Day 2022

May 8, 2022 (Click here to watch program)

Region 5 Swami's 96 Birthday Celebrations

November 27, 2021 (Click here to watch program)

To celebrate the 96th Birthday, we were joined by the SSIO-USA National President Mr. Harish Naidu who addressed the SSE students. This was followed by poetry and reflections about Swami's teachings from the younger SSE children of the region as well as birthday greetings for our beloved Bhagavan. Students from across the region also came together to create a garland of 96 bhajans to offer to Swami on this special occasion. 

Unity Conference 2021

September 4-5, 2021

In lieu of the traditional annual retreat, the Regional and National teams collaborated to present a conference during the Labor Day weekend allowing students from across the nation to interact with one another in bhajans, speaker sessions and workshops. Due to Swami's grace, we successfully completed our second virtual unity conference. 

Regional Guru Purnima Celebrations

July 24, 2021 (Click here to watch program)

The Region 5 SSE team conducted a celebration in order to celebrate Guru Purnima. The program began with bhajans sang by the SSE children and was followed by a panel of some of the Swami's first students from the Ooty Primary School. The panel was followed by a reflection of the festival by both SSE students and gurus and a recap of the 2020 - 2021 SSE year. The program concluded with a song, Sai You Raise Me Up, sang by group 4 SSE children from across the region. 

Sai: Our All Accepting Avatar

June 12, 2021 

Sai: Our All Accepting Avatar was a mini retreat for the SSE Students from Region 5, 10 and the Online SSE Program.  The session began with SSE bhajans. That was followed by a speaker session, which was followed by an interactive workshop based on the students' SSE group. The session concluded with games! Click here to listen to the Group 1 & 2 bhajans and click here to listen to the Group 3 & 4 bhajans. 

Regional Eswaramma Day Celebrations

May 8, 2021(Click here to watch program)

The children from across the region gathered to celebrated Eswaramma Day. The program began with melodious bhajans, which were followed by a video about Eswaramma. Then the Group 2 children came together to create a presentation titled, "What do you Preach?". As the regional art contest, Sai's Art in Love, had just concluded, a vide showcase of all the submitted art work was offered to our dearest Swami and Eswaramma. The program concluded with a musical offering of the bhajan Dhanya Ho Eswaramba. 

Regional Aradhana Day Celebrations

April 24, 2021(Click here to watch full program)

In order to commemorate Swami's Aradhana Day, the SSE regional team offered a program to our Dearest Bhagavan. The session began with a Sai Speaker Series Session with Region 5 YA Anusha Ramani and was followed by a poem written by our region's very own Sharmila Sanka. The session ended with a musical offering of the song Everyone is my Brother when I Say Sairam by Group 4 SSE children from across the region. 

Beyond the Borders

February 13, 2021(Click here to watch full program)

Region 5 SSE in collaboration with online SSE hosted a global panel on growing up with Swami. The panel featured SSE students from - USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Caribbean, India, Fiji, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa. The children found that the world is smaller than we make it out to be and there is not much difference in all our ways of thinking. Swami has united us all, and there is unity in diversity. 

Christmas Celebration - Sai Symphony 

December 27, 2020 (Click here to watch full program)

The children of Region 5 all came together to present a Christmas offering  to our dear Swami including a devotional music program, a depiction of the Birth of Jesus and Christmas Carols and greetings to conclude. 

Swami's 95 Birthday Programs from Across the Region

November 23, 2020 

The SSE students from across the region worked within their centers to create offerings for Swami. Attached below are small excerpts from each centers individual program. 

Swami's 95 Birthday Celebration

November 21, 2020 (Click here to watch full program)

For Swami's 95 birthday, the children of Region 5 gathered for a divine celebration including a speaker session by Region 5 YA Saikrishna Kalahasti, melodious SSE bhajans, a service offering and loving greeting cards for our beloved Sai. 

Sai Bhagavatam: "SSE - A Journey from Innocence to Inspiration and Insights"

October 14, 2020 (Click here to watch program)

Sai Bhagavatam is a SSSIO-USA National SSE initiative. Every 2nd and 4th Wednesday we bring you, live, a thought-provoking, uplifting and heartwarming conversation with an SSE teacher and their former student exploring the different aspects and value of spiritual education.  The speakers during this session are both from Region 5.  One of the speakers is sister Varalakshmi Kanduru. Varalakshmi Kanduru feels very fortunate to be born into a loving and spiritual family and has been lucky to be married into a family who are also very spiritual and supportive. Varalakshmi graduated with a degree in Computer Sciences and chose to be a homemaker. She came into Swami’s fold 26 years ago and realized that she was born with the purpose of being a mother not to her only son but to all the children that Swami has entrusted her through SSE.  Her biggest passion is God/Swami and would want to be remembered for her selfless service. The other of the speakers is Brother Sai Abburi. Sai Abburi is currently a fourth-year undergraduate student at Michigan State University, majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Bioethics. He has aspirations of becoming a physician and giving back to his local community through service. Sai has been a part of the SSE community in the Metro Detroit area since he was 7 years old and continued in the program from Groups 1 through 4.

Going Behind the Scenes - The Heart and Brain of Technology with Ramya Kumar

October 10, 2020 (Click here to watch session)

Have you thought about how you can leverage technology to market yourself? What is your online brand? What would Swami say about your online brand? Can human values and technology co-exist? This workshop for Group 4 teachers explored some of these questions in a fun and interactive way. Click here to access the resources used during the presentation for the Group 4 students. 

Unity Conference 

September 5-6, 2020 (Click here to watch program)

In lieu of the traditional Labor Day retreat, Regions 5, 6, 7, 9, & 10 joined to create a virtual conference exploring the theme "Sai Lens to Sailence". The participants were blessed to participate in a weekend with devotional singing, speaker sessions, interactive workshops and special evening programs. Despite being unable to meet in person, this immersive two day conference allowed each participant to explore their own divinity.

Region 5 SSE Mini Retreat

July 18-19, 2020 (Click here to watch program)

Swami blessed the students with a two half-day exploration of their inner divinity. Region 5 SSE students enjoyed devotional singing, inspiring speakers, engaging workshops, innovative eco-friendly arts and crafts, and a showcase of student efforts serving the community during this time of need. 

Sai Bhagavatam: "Journey from Faiths to Faith"

May 13, 2020 (Click here to watch program)

The Sai Bhagavatham series is an SSSIO-USA National initiative.  In this session, "Journey from Faiths to Faith" , Manjula Guru (Region 5 Education Coordinator) converses with Rev. Nettie Spiwack. Nettie Spiwack is a member of Region 5 and she came into the Sai fold in 1998. She recently started serving as the Regional Devotion Coordinator for USA Region 5. Nettie has led a multi-faceted life: as a consultant to over 100 major corporations, universities, and non-profits in the areas of employee and leadership development, as well as in private practice as a career and executive coach. Ordained as an interfaith minister in 2004, she has brought people on spiritual travel pilgrimages to Puttaparthi, Israel, and Brazil. Nettie is also a trained artist and musician and works to keep all these facets alive in her life. In 2005 and 2007 she was a musician and composer of songs with the Norwalk Children's Choir who performed for Swami and released 2 CDs of English devotionals sung by the children.