Hard work leads Hindu Ladies to go forward

Ruwanthi Abeyakoon

The school calendar of Hindu Ladies College is packed with activities. The teenagers of the college take a lot of trouble in

 highlighting these events that most of the time, pass unnoticed.

These young students do not have many resources. However their determination to go forward has enabled them to achieve success in many events. Following their school motto ‘never cease learning’ they are planning to organise more events in the future. These students joined the Daily News Teen to express their thoughts.

“I am in the debate club. There are seniors and juniors in the club. We have participated in a lot of competitions and won a lot of prizes. Children have a lot of talents. All these competitions are organised to encourage children. We get new experience and develop our skills,” Uma Mageswari Moorthie, 16, said.

Usha Thevathas, 17, the head prefect of the school is also in the girl guides. “Last July, a few girl guides were chosen to go to UK. From Sri Lanka there were only six girls. It was the first time Tamil girls were chosen to represent our country and we are proud that we were able to enter this group.

We spent a week camping there. We took part in several activities. We met girl guides from all over the world and we shared our experience and got to know their cultures. It was wonderful,” Usha said.

Thivya Dashidaran, 17, supports the school by being a part of the St. John’s Ambulance. “This provides first aid during school

 activities especially during the sports meet. We also helped tsunami victims. I am also a school prefect.

There are 25 prefects. We maintain the discipline of the school. We also organise prefect days where we invite prefects of other schools to come and share their experience. Being a prefect helps us to go forward and take responsibilities. We have weekly meetings and contribute whenever we can to achieve success in school activities,” she explained.

“We also have association meetings where we give the chance for all students from Grade Six to 13 to perform any item. We won the most number of zonal level prizes last year at the Tamil Day competitions. Because of that, our school was given the opportunity to organise provincial level competitions.

We also formed the women’s cricket team and we became champions and won the trophy. All these activities are new to our school and most of them were formed by our batch. These events make our school life interesting,” Thivya added.

Saruja Kuhendran, 17, handles a different type of responsibility. She serves as the student manager of the HNB student bank. “We encourage the habit of saving and we get experience in handling responsibilities and we have to take leadership.

It helps me because I am in the commerce stream and I will be sitting for my A/Ls next year,” she said.

“It is great participating in all events. I am the house captain and I am also in the cricket team. We have general knowledge quizzes and we select the girl who reads the most number of books during the year and give a certificate. It makes them read more and improves their knowledge,” Bhyravi Gandhinathan, 17, said.

Sathya Kandasamy, 18, is a member of the Interact Club of the school. “We do lot of social service and help our school. We get together with the Girl Guides Headquarters and visit the Cancer Hospital. Recently, we had a Shramadana in school and we cleaned the whole school to prevent dengue. Our teachers appreciated it,” she said.

“We are all united. We have girls from all religions. They have the freedom to practise their own religion. We respect all traditions, religions and cultures,” she added.

Mayuranjane Sivaraj, 17, spoke about the IT club. “We have lots of activities. We are planning to launch a website for our

 school,” she said. Chaamini Mangaleswaran, 17, added that all the events in school help them move around with others.

“We learn to respect each other. While taking the responsibility we learn tolerance, which is important. We want to be an example for the little ones and show them the right way.

The girls explained that their teachers support them in all events. “The teachers help us to handle our studies. All the extra curricular activities are done after school so we don’t miss our studies. If we miss, our teachers and friends help us. We thank our principal P. Gajendradas, English teacher S. Tharmalingam, former English teacher T. Wijeratnam and all teachers for helping us to bring out our talents,” they said.

“We hope to contribute to our school even after we leave school. We will support to get more resources to help the young ones in our school. At the moment we borrow things and manage. We will try to overcome this issue. We will take the name of our school to international level. It’s a big dream but if we try we can achieve it,” they added.

If you can dream it, you can do it

Stanford University snaps Sri Lankan schoolboy

Clifford Lazarus in Oman

OUTSTANDING: Sashendra Aponso, an outstanding student at the Sri Lankan School in Muscat has earned himself a full scholarship for Stanford University.

According to the Sri Lankan School Muscat, Sashendra is the first Sri Lankan student from Oman to be awarded a full Stanford Scholarship.

Currently the school head boy, Sashendra scored 10 distinctions in his GCE O level exam in 2005 and was ranked first in the world in Art and Design. In 2006, he received the best result in the school with four A’s and recently he scored 2,290 out of 2,400 in the SAT exam and 116 out of 120 in the TOEFL exam. These scores, along with some written work, deservedly secured Sashendra a place at Stanford.

“I’m looking forward to the whole university experience and adjusting to a new life,” said Sashendra, whose ultimate goal is to become a doctor and make a difference in people’s lives and to serve humanity. “I couldn’t have got this far without my parents’ support and the help and guidance of the Sri Lankan School Muscat,” he said.

The University of California-Berkeley, ranked fifth in the US (according to the Newsweek overall ranking 2006) also offered him a place and granted him their most prestigious “Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship” covering tuition fees and a host of other benefits.

Sashendra also secured admission to two of the top universities in the UK, namely Southampton and Birmingham. Having considered all the offers he received, Sashendra, together with his parents have decided to accept the offer from Stanford.

Sashendra is a firm believer in what Walt Disney once said: “If you can dream it, you can do it”.

Teen help at the peak

LEND A HAND: The Students of the First Aid Unit of Ananda Sastralaya at work. Pictures by Sulochana Gamage

HELPING HAND: The First Aid units of Ananda Sastralaya, Kotte, St John’s College, Nugegoda, President College, Rajagiriya, Rahula College, Madhiwela, and Revatha College, Nugegoda, functioning under the Sri Jayawardanapura Corps Unit participated in activities to help pilgrims climbing the Adam’s Peak. These teenagers are a blessing to the tired pilgrims who always looks for a helping hand. Here the teenagers in action.