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| Sunday, 24 February 2002 |
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Future leaders trained for US meet Joining 500 of the world's outstanding student leaders in March and July 2002 in USA will be 50 outstanding Sri Lankan teenagers from 20 schools. They will participate in The Future World Leaders Summit along with 35 countries from around the world. This International Youth Summit is held at the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington DC, the capital of America. The summit, bi-annually brings together student leaders who are keen on careers in international relations, diplomacy, world economy, international law and democracy. At each summit only 250 delegates are accepted from outside of America and Canada. Until 2001 Sri Lanka could send only a 10-member team per year. From 2002 we have received full country delegation status to send two teams of 20 delegates each year for the winter summit in March and for the summer summit in July 2002. Sri Lanka will be the largest South Asian delegation in March 2002 and the largest Asian delegation in July 2002. (Details of these delegates are available on the website at www.futureleader.co.uk) Future World Leaders Summit program was developed by The American Academy of Diplomacy and The Forum For Young Canadians. It is organised by Presidential Classroom Inc., a non-profit civic education organisation registered in USA in 1968. Presidential Classroom is represented in South Asia by Sri Lankan Ananda Rajapakse. The summit participants are all between the ages of 16 and 19 years with a very high command of the English language, good academic record, active in extra curricular or civic activities and have the approval of their school principal. Many American Universities recognise the academic quality of this summit with credit marks for their admissions and scholarship criteria as a recognised civic activity. 17 of the 30 Sri Lankan delegates who have participated in the past summits have since entered American, Australian and British Universities on financial scholarships and are now studying abroad. Application for the 2003 summits will open on March 1, and available free via e-mail [email protected] or call 077-787515. The participating schools in this program are, Colombo International School, Asian International School, Ladies College, St. Thomas' College, St. Joseph's College, British School in Colombo, Stafford International School, Australian College of Business and Technology, Visaka Vidyalaya, Royal College, Bishops College, D. S. Senanayake Vidyalaya, Musaeus College, Mahanama College, Ananda College, St. Bridgets Convent, Gateway International College, Informatics Institute of Technology, De Mazenod College, Kandana, Hillwood College, Kandy and Colombo International School in Kandy. The March 2002 delegation consists of: Gayani Abeyasinghe, Shayanga Fernando, Denushika Karunatillaka, Manekha Prematilleke, Poornima Weerasekera, Nimisha Welgama, Nilusha Piyasena, Rasansie Lankage, Sathiesh Sunderalinga, Thiyagaraja Somasunderam, Shiraj de Silva, Abeetha Perera, Haresh de Soyza, Yanik Cooray, Shanil Wannakuwatte, Vimal Ramachandani, Niranjan Arulpragasam, Dilip Ramachandran, Chathura Tissera and Anushka Punchihewa. The July 2002 delegation consists of: Eranjan Kempitiya, Talya Fernando, Mayuca Pandithage, Swanthi Pieris, Lili Kariyawasam, Aarthi Dharmadasa, Dulith Senanayake, Avinash Nanayakkara, Ruveen Dias, Irindu Wimalasena, Sherazad Hamit, Aindri Jayasinghe, Amrith Adihetty, Amiel Weerasinghe, Praveen Abeygoonasekera, Oshini Jayathunge, Shakila Jayawardena, Norosha Gunatilleke, Anjuli Gunarathne, Kusal de Silva, Karin Wijeratne, Devanand Soundaraj, Anika Amalean, Duhitru Talwatte, Stasshani Jayawardena, Hiran Jayasinghe, Dhiluk Perera, Chathuka Senanayake, Arthicka Seevaratnam and Ashwini Rajan. To prepare these 50 brilliant teenagers for the toughest week in their life, Presidential Classroom South Asia Representative Office has selected nine Sri Lankan teenagers as Trainers of 2002. The training sessions are conducted in Colombo 12 weeks prior to their departure. These trainers excelled as delegates to the same summit in 2000 and 2001 and are all under 20 years of age. Sonalini Gunesekera of Colombo International School (CIS) a member of the 2001 July delegation, Shirabdi de Silva Co-head girl of Asian International School who was selected as one of 5 banquet speakers at the 2001 July summit, Shanika Sharma of CIS, a member of the 2001 July delegation who was selected as one of 10 delegates to ask a question from US Vice-president Mr. Dick Cheney in the US House of Representatives (American Parliament). Kesara Ratnavibushana of CIS a member of the 2000 July delegation who was the presenter of the communique on Terrorism, Dinal Edirisinghe of Royal College, Colombo who was the Head of Sri Lanka delegation at the 2001 March summit and selected as one of five banquet speakers from the 400 delegates, Kanishka Senanayake of CIS, Aftab Aziz of Royal College, only delegate selected at the 2001 March summit to propose the vote of thanks to the most important seminar speaker a holocaust survivor, Thanuji Shanmugeratnam of British School in Colombo who was a delegate to the 2000 summit who trains the delegates in their country presentation and Azam Bakeer Markar of CIS who was the Deputy-head of Sri Lanka delegation at the 2001 July summit. This year the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute headed by veteran Diplomat Deshamanya Dr. Vernon Mendis has played a key role in preparing these Future World Leaders of Sri Lanka. Dr. Vernon Mendis together with Dr. Lorna Devaraja and Mr. Bernard Tillekerathne, a former diplomat have already completed 4 days of informative sessions on the roles of Diplomacy, International Relationships and Protocol for these 50 delegates. |
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