Piyush C. Agrawal

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has appointed educationist Piyush C. Agrawal of Weston, Florida, to the board of directors of The Florida Fund for Minority Teachers for a term of three years beginning July 1, 2004.

The Fund, created by the Florida Legislature in 1997, has provided more than 3,000 Minority Teacher Education Scholarships to African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Native American students throughout the state.

Agrawal said he was happy with the appointment and considers it a challenge to increase the number of minority teachers.

“We as a community have emphasized becoming doctors and engineers in the past, which was a good idea. Now some of our young people are in journalism, law and other fields, but in education we don’t have many,” Agrawal told News India-Times. “But kids look to role models and there’s a need to encourage our people to go into the teaching profession. These funds of $2 million are for minorities and the scholarships encourage students to take up this profession. Besides, the payback terms are very good. You pay back by going into teaching for two years.”

A retired superintendent of schools, Agrawal has worked at the United Nations and has been the president of several professional organizations such as the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1990-92) and the Florida Association of Mathematics Supervisors

(1986-87). He is also the founder of the Florida Leadership Alliance for Improving Mathematics Education.

“We are excited about your appointment because we believe that your expertise and commitment to quality education will assist us as we continue to address chronic issues in public education,” said Catherine Emihovich, chair of the board of directors.

Apart from heading several Indian-American organizations, Agrawal is currently vice president on the National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs, a public interest foreign policy group. In 1994, he was appointed by the then Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown to the U.S. 2000 Census Advisory Committee on the Asian and Pacific Islander Populations for a three-year term which was extended to another three years in 1997 and 2000.

He has served on that committee as its chairman for four one-year terms and was elected to serve for a fifth term (2001) to serve on the newly-constituted Committee on Asian Population.

In 2004, he was elected as the president of Asian American Federation of Florida.

In 2000, he bought APS Technologies, Inc., a computer software analysis and design services company.