Jindia Family Gift Supports Resource Center at SJSU

On a sunny afternoon in early November, the sing-song melody of a Beatles tune emanates from the open window of Sweeney Hall at San José State's Connie L. Lurie College of Education. Inside, a master's student in speech and language pathology stands at the whiteboard, walking a class through song lyrics while another student accompanies them on a keyboard. The room is full of seniors, many of them stroke survivors or people living with aphasia - a disorder that impacts the expression and understanding of language. Each client is cheered on by an SJSU undergraduate or graduate student.

This is SPARC: the Spartan Aphasia Research Clinic , a program offered at no cost through the Kay Armstead Center for Communicative Disorders in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences. Founded in 2017 by Nidhi Mahendra, the former chair of the Communicative Disorders and Sciences Departmen t, SPARC is modeled on the Life Participation Approach for Aphasia (LPAA), which centers the rights of people with aphasia to communicate and actively engage in all life roles and contexts. Taught as a graduate clinic, SPARC offers free weekly services for community members and course credit for Spartans interested in pursuing careers in speech and language pathology.

"SPARC holds a special place in the CDS department and our on-campus speech therapy clinic," says Pei-Tzu Tsai, chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences. "SPARC fosters relationships between clients, students and faculty that transcend the communication barriers posed by aphasia, a language disorder caused by injury to the brain."

One SPARC beneficiary is Urmil Jindia, a professional software engineer who immigrated from India to California to pursue a PhD at UC Berkeley, and later helped found the user interface (UIF) for direct TV design at Sony Corp of America in the 1990s. The proud mother of daughter Anjali Jindia, a physician, and son Anil Jindia, an engineer, Urmil and her husband Rajinder, '79 MS Industrial and Systems Engineering, came to the U.S. in the mid-1970s. Rajinder earned his graduate degree at San José State before launching his career as an industrial engineer at Abbott Labs, where he designed and manufactured infusion pumps (IVs) to enhance hospital patient's lives.

In 2000, they established a family foundation to support scholarships at SJSU, as well as nonprofits, schools and community-focused rehabilitation centers. As longtime supporters of SJSU, the Jindias also created the RKSK Jindia Scholarship Fund and the UR Jindia Scholarship Fund within the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering.

Their lives changed in 2007, when Urmil suffered a major stroke that impacted her mobility, as well as her ability to communicate. Prior to the stroke and throughout her career, Urmil led marathon groups, took daily and weekly walks and hikes around the Bay Area, and taught yoga classes at senior and community centers. While her activity level is different now, both she and Rajinder believe that the SPARC program has kept her motivated and engaged.

"While looking for different resources available for her recovery, we came across two programs offered by SJSU for occupational and speech therapy," says Rajinder. "Urmil's speech started improving with the SPARC program. We saw an opportunity to support the Communicative Disorders and Sciences program at SJSU, which is nationally recognized for providing vital services to our community."

For 17 years, Urmil has participated in ongoing classes and programs designed to support people living with aphasia - and the results have improved her quality of life.

In 2021, Rajinder's mother Shrimati Savitri Devi Jindia passed away. The Jindias wanted to honor her memory with a lasting gift that reinforced her support of higher education and rehabilitation services. They increased their giving to the Lurie College to support the remodel of an SLP resource center at the Kay Armstead Center for Communicative Disorders, which houses SPARC. Thanks to the Jindias' support, the newly renamed Urmil R. Jindia SLP Resource Center is freshly equipped with anatomical models, assessment tools, reference guides and specialized technology that graduate students use in clinics.

"We are deeply honored by the Jindia family's generous gift supporting the renovation of our SLP Resource Center - a space where future speech language pathologists can explore evidence-based resources, refine therapy plans, access assessment tools and collaborate with peers on their journey to professional excellence," says Cynthia Van Laar, director of clinical education for the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences.

"[We set up] scholarships and made other donations is [a way of] paying back the community by supporting the education endeavors of the deserving students, and further enhancing the department resources and upgrading any equipment, space or materials for the advancement of students and staff," Rajinder adds. "As we all know that giving and happiness are linked together, it gives us a great sense of fulfillment, happiness, meaning and accomplishment in our lives."

Learn how to give to Lurie College.