Sri Lankan student honours Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States recently visited the UC Berkeley campus in order to engage in a political discussion regarding his controversial book, "Palestine Peace not Apartheid".

For this important event in the University's history, Sri Lankan born Angela Fernando was selected from the student body to perform the honours of singing the national anthem for the president. The event was sold out by Berkeley students alone at its venue on the campus, the Zellerbach Auditorium.

Angela's performance followed by President Jimmy Carter's speech was also webcasted live for the rest of the student body at UC Berkeley. In addition to this tremendous honour, Angela was also chosen to sing the national anthem for the senior commencement ceremony for the UC Berkeley graduating class of 2007.

Angela was first recognized when she began performing the national anthem for intercollegiate basketball games at the Berkeley campus. She received many other opportunities to perform for Cal alumni events and other cultural events. She was extremely involved with the largest ethnic organization on campus "Indus" which was an outlet for all the South Asian students at Berkeley.

For the annual culture show in 2006, Angela became the first student at Berkeley to coordinate a Sri Lankan Act showcasing traditional Sri Lankan Kandyan dancing which she studied for 9 years in Sri Lanka, under well known dancers in Sri Lanka, Chitrasena and Vajira, prior to moving to the US.

Angela does not have any formal training in music and started out as a member of the Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya church choir, and the St. Mary's Bambalapitiya church choir back in Sri Lanka.

As for her future plans in music, she would very much love to record her own album someday. It would most probably be a tasteful integration of Sri Lankan rhythms with R&B/pop. She also sings in Singhalese and in Hindi as well.

Angela received her B.A in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and graduated last May with hopes of pursuing a career in the field of law in the near future. She is the only child of Sunil and Rohini Fernando of Los Angeles, California.