THE NEXT by Rotaract Club Of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

“THE NEXT” AN INITIATIVE TO DISCOVER AND SHARE

THE BEST LEADERSHIP MOMENTS OF ROTARACTORS

Message from The President (RACCC)

Leadership is the foundation on which the success of any teamwork would depend on whether it be a managing of a project, a club like us, a corporate or even a country. Therefore, the project â&#x20AC;&#x153;NEXTâ&#x20AC;? attempt to highlight the importance of leadership and the attempt to build up the leadership of those within the movement is of utmost importance. This is because even for the continuation and the growth of the movement in terms of the quality of the work that we do, quality leaders need to be produced. Hence, I wish all best for all those who took part in this initiative and hope that you may become the leaders that we need.

Rtr. Mano Mudunkotuwa President 2019-20 Rotaract Club of Colombo Central

Message from The President (RACUSJ)

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn It is with tremendous pleasure that I write a few words on this occasion initiated by the Rotaract Clubs of Colombo Central & University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Leadership skills is one of the most needed skills in a youth led movement like Rotaract. Also, Rotaract is the best place where any individual can learn and perfect their leadership skills. It is a place where leaders are made. So, naturally a majority of the Rotaractors have their own moment of being a leader. ‘The Next’ is an initiative carried out to discover and share leadership moments of our fellow Rotaractors. ‘The Next’ was a wonderful opportunity to all the Rotaractors who hadn’t had the opportunity to share their own moments of being a leader. I take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the competition and all the participants. Finally, a big thank you goes out to the team from both Rotaract Clubs who worked hard to make this initiative a success. Viva la Rotaract!

Rtr. Vidushith Jayasundara President 2019-20

Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Message from The Chairperson (RACCC)

It is with great pleasure that I take up the honour and privilege of writing this message as the joint project chairperson of the Rotaract club of Colombo Central for the project “THE NEXT”. The project was organized by the Professional Development Avenues of Rotaract Club of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Rotaract Club of Colombo Central to recognize and enhance leadership qualities of the young individuals. The project successfully concludes the first and second phases. As the third phase, it is with great appreciation we distribute this eBook including the best leadership moments of young Rotaractors. A special thank goes to the President of the Rotaract club of Colombo Central, Rtr.Mano Mudunkotuwa for the immense support given. I would like to express my gratitude to the dedicated and motivated participants who took part in this project. Let’s cherish the leadership moments of The NEXT Gen Leaders!

Rtr. Sandamali Fernando Project Chairperson Rotaract Club of Colombo Central

Message from The Chairperson (RACUSJ)

It is an honor for me to address all as the Joint Chairperson of the project “The NEXT”. “The NEXT” was a joint project organized by the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the Rotaract Club of Colombo Central. It was a pleasure to work together with Rotaract Club of Colombo Central. Our intention of initiating this kind of project was to identify and enhance the leadership qualities among the young individuals. We were able to successfully conclude all three phase of the projects within one and a half a month period. Special thanks go to the executive committees’ and board of directors and members of both the clubs. Also I pay my sincere gratitude towards to all the facilitators and to all the participants as well.

Rtr. Sihara Rathnayake Joint- Chairperson

Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Introduction to the project

“THE NEXT”

“The NEXT” is a project organized by the Professional Development Avenues of Rotaract Club of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Rotaract Club of Colombo Central to identify and enhance leadership abilities among the young individuals. As the first step, we organized this creative write-up competition to reveal proud leadership moments of young Rotaractors with fellow individuals. Best three articles were selected based on fair evaluation criterias. Ms. Niroshini Nugawela the Program Support Officer at OHCHR, evaluated the articles behalf of both the clubs. Out of many articles she was able to recognize the top 3 articles. The second phase was the most interesting one of all. It was an online discussion platform on the theme of “NEXT Gen leaders”. Facilitators for the day were Mr. Fahaad Farook who is a Certified Transformative Coach and Trainer in both national and international platforms and Mr. Shehan Ambepitiya the former Fastest Man on South Asia and the former Sri Lankan Athletic Team Captain. The one hour session on leadership was quite interesting and interactive for the participants. Participants actively engaged in asking questions from the facilitators. The second phase of “The NEXT” concluded successfully with many positive feedbacks from the audience. The final phase of the project was publishing an e-book including all the write-ups we received in the first phase. Afterwards the E-book was distributed among Rotaract Clubs all over Sri Lanka. E-certificates were distributed for the winners of the write-up competi competition. And a concluding video to commemorate the event was published on social media platforms.

Leadership Story of Rtr. Dulmini Gamage

1st

PLACE

“River left! On my count…1, 2,…..10! River right! 1, 2,……10! Everyone, GO!! Again 1, 2…..10! Smooth, smooth…Yes”, this is how it all sounded while 13 enthusiastic youngsters were onboard, Rafting! It could be totally recalled as one of the best leadership moments of our Rotaract journey. The scorching sun, weary hands and cold water was about to teach us a lesson on team spirit, motivation, leadership and management. Little did we know at the beginning that this challenge wasn’t only about ranking top in Rafting at RYLA 2020. ‘Team Thanos’ aka Team Purple, almost lost every challenge, which we understood as not having a strategic plan to win. Rafting went different, effective leadership of team members, foresight and energy made us form a globe of power within us. The timely command, rhyming within everyone with the willingness of not giving up at any cost made us the fastest team to reach the winning point, after almost 8km of rafting. We believed we could, and we did. All we saw were happy faces, picturing ‘Teamwork won’. It wasn’t another leadership story, it was our story, based on Teamwork- Dream work making strangers family AND Leaders!

Rtr. Dulmini Gamage

RAC Faculty of Law- University of Colombo

Leadership Story of Rtr. Pasan De Silva

2nd

PLACE

“To lead is to serve” My journey with Rotaract goes back only two weeks, yes, I am a fresher. However, I have been asked to write about the best leadership experience I had as a Rotaractor. Yes, you guessed right, I do not have any since I am a newbie. True that I have so many other leadership experiences in my life, but I choose to write about the following. During these two weeks I had the opportunity to take part in my first project as a Rotaractor. It is an E-teaching project where we provide recorded video lessons on a platform for the use of students in an orphanage. I volunteered myself to teach a topic in English for GCE O/L students. I did not stop there, I wanted to do more, and I asked for more for which I was given the responsibility of finding someone to do History lessons. I approached two of my school friends who happens to be History pandits. We worked together to deliver two more history lessons for these children. I think that extra mile serves the purpose of “To lead is to serve”

Rtr. Pasan De Silva RACCC

Leadership Story of Rtr. Fathima Zaina Sallay

PLACE

“Teamwork makes the dream work” - John Maxwell. As an amateur in the world of Rotaract, I was given the opportunity to Chair a project named Soar which was a kite festival organized with the aim of celebrating World Children’s Day with kids from various children’s homes. My team consisted of 15 diverse and talented individuals who represented different faculties of the University. But I was determined to make this work and this is where I understood that Leadership is not allocating tasks and getting the work done, but about working together as a team to accomplish the tasks successfully. My team comprising of strangers gave their fullest effort to make the project successful. As a result, we were able to celebrate World Children’s Day with 110 kids and over 50 Rotaractors representing numerous clubs and with the participation of distinguished members from the District Steering Committee as well. So this is my Best Leadership Moment and I’m indebted to my team for making me understand the true meaning of Leadership.

Rtr. Fathima Zaina Sallay RACUSJ

Leadership Story of Rtr. Lehara Silva

Been a leader to a group of people is not as simple as it may show. Creating a best and unforgettable moment is a massive task during those years. During the year of 2015 I started to develop my skills to be a true leader through various committees and working towards them, during midnight hours and finally when I got selected as a committee member, was a great achievement for myself. Afterwards when I started to take responsibilities and work towards many projects and getting the opportunity to chair them was when I truly knew my talent. Finally ending up been a Senior Prefect in my school along with baring the post as of a President in two societies and many more roles was when it came to the top of the peak with many obstacles. When it comes to speaking about the unforgettable leadership moment during this period of time was when it came to my G.C.E Advanced Level Section, in which at the last day of my school environment when the teachers and friends spoke about how an inspirational leader I have been to them amidst all the ups and downs that I have faced.

Rtr. Lehara Silva RAC Colombo Fort

Leadership Story of Rtr. Prasadie Karunarathne

Leadership is not a position or a title. It’s an action and example .If your actions inspire others to dream more ,learn more ,do more and become more ,you are a true leader. The personality traits such as integrity, intelligence, extraversion, conscientious , open to experience and self esteem etc are important to approach as a good leader. I am Prasadie Karunarathne from Rotaract club of College of Chemical Sciences.I am pretty much interested in this write up contest since this is a great opportunity to share my leadership experience . I was lucky enough to be a good leader since my school days.In my school days, I was a class monitor ,a prefect ,and holding multiple positions on school societies.That’s the place where I could grow up as a good leader.As well as ,I myself enagaged in a lots of extra curricular activities such as aesthetics , sports and school society stuffs.I would be able to balance the academics and extra curricular activities simultaneously.In every sense of word, my school impact a lot on me to be an outstanding personality who I am today . Thereafter I joined College of Chemical sciences to continue my higher studies.That’s the second most important place where I was fortunate enough to gather numerous leadership experience by broadening the horizons of my own knowledge, skills and attitudes as well.When I was in second year , I could be one of the batch coordinators in the college.As a batch coordinator , I myself could contribute to make few batch events a success.The traits of leadership always provide me a support to manage academics and extra curriculars thoroughly. I am an active member of Rotaract and Gavel clubs in my college.My Rotaract career supported me a lot to bring out the best version of me in every possible way.I am the director of environmental services of RACCCS.Then I could be member of ditrict Green Team and Future leaders team.That paved me the way to participate few leadership and personality development work shops as well. It’s true to say that Rotaract is a great platform to escalate myself. Leadership helps me to grow up as a better personality in the current society.Each and every leadership experience led me up to be the person who I am today.As an entrepreneur , a freelance writer , a social activist and a Rotaract volunteer, I myself make an opportunity to share all my leadership experience with people out there in the society. Before you are a leader,success is all about growing yourself . When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.Be a good leader. The world needs more people like you.

Rtr. Prasadie Karunarathne RAC Chemical Sciences

Leadership Story of Rtr. Malithi Paranagamage

When looking back at my best leadership moment in the Rotaract field, I can remember the Dog Walk day. It was a fundraising interactive event organized by the Rotaract Club of Colombo Central for dogs and dog lovers inSri Lanka. My position for the day was in registration. Though it was a really busy moment with all the registration and stuff we managed to do it properly by interacting with the team. Since I was joined recently for the club at that time it was my first project participation. I watched and learnt how the members are working. Everyone was kind of a leader in a way because they were so eagerly working to make this project a success. I remembered a quote “leaders don’t create followers they create more leaders”. Though this was a small position in the whole project I had a great experience. Coming from a sports background and leading teams, it helped me to be a better Rotaractor. Because in order to be a successful project every task need to be done perfectly. And its all about team work and inter communication. It was a great day filled with happiness.

Rtr. Malithi Paranagamage RACCC

Leadership Story of Rtr. Hamdi Hasnayn

I am Hamdi Hasnayn from Rotaract club of Cinnamon Garden. I would like to share my leadership moments / skills. My leadership skill had improved a lot during my new term of Club service. Being a leader of a club. I had to work on many of items ranging from Club development & work to large scale projects. The quality of above-mentioned items is very important to the Club as I represent Rotaract and we get to engage with more than 6000 Rotaractors. Therefore, I learnt to identify and solve problems promptly & sensibly.

Rtr. Hamdi Hasnayn RAC Cinnamon Garden

Leadership Story of Rtr. Chathuni Navanjalie Jayaweera

In 2017, on the day of Project Paduru Party’ 17 organized by RAC USJ, I felt the happiness of a successful leader. Only after a few months to the movement, I passionately accepted the challenge of chairing it. An entertainment event has a massive load of tasks and the best way to execute them concurrently was to delegate the work. I was never hesitant to take the advice of my directors who taught me the nitty-gritties of finding sponsors. Although I was the leader assigned for the project, my leadership was born through the advice and immense support from my co- assistant director, my directors and my close friends in and outside Rotaract. The one moment which I cherish until now is when I was at the back of the venue watching the crowd dancing, singing and enjoying their night which took me back to a time of about two months of nonstop organizing, delegating and following up on every task of the project. My legs were hurting from a long day of responsibility where I could not walk a mile more, but my heart was pounding with joy as that satisfaction of seeing your leadership succeeding by working together is something incomprehensible. I was awarded the “Rotaractor of the Month” for the positive feedback and an unbelievable profit. My heart dances of pleasure and pride to see the leadership I took in 2017 still continuing annually at RAC USJ.

Rtr. Chathuni Navanjalie Jayaweera RACCC

Leadership Story of Rtr. Bhagya Kolitha

I will go several months back to September 2019, when I was given the position of the Chairperson to handle one of the signature projects-PHRATHIBHANA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;19 under community Service Avenue. The main project focus was to conduct seminars for ordinary level students of an underprivileged school, chess camp for juniors and sport equipment donation. There, I got an organizing committee with different skills and attitudes where sometimes I had to follow the decisions of them on which they are good at. I myself as the leader I delegated and coordinated the tasks and group members. The project ran through good six weeks benefiting around 140 students and, half way through the project I had to motivate some of the members of my team to conserve the motivation, synergy and carryon the tasks that were assigned. Not only that, we could also find hidden aesthetic skills of my committee members. Handling school students of different ages in weekends was a difficult task and a huge responsibility. During the project as an extension, the executive committee proposed us to conduct a motivational program for students of another underprivileged school. Although it was not in the scheduled agenda I was able to manage the team members to complete it in parallel. After completing the task whenever I recall my memory about my role of PRATHIBHANA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;19 I feel a huge pride about myself. I worked with a lot of new people with different attitudes, knowledge levels, social status such as members of operational committee, members of the executive committee, and volunteers of the University who participated by teaching and assisting, parents of the school students, Academic staff of the school and made it a remarkable project.

Rtr. Bhagya Kolitha

RAC University of Peradeniya

Leadership Story of Rtr. Dananjaya Siriwardana

One of my strength is listen to people and respect their opinion. It was 2014, my first meeting was an ice breaker session for their members. We were divided in to groups and discuss on projects. A fellow Rotaractor said, “let’s support a Hospital”. Then I said “let’s support the Thalaseemia Hospital in Kurunegala” and teammate said let’s name it “Awake & Aware”. With this idea they asked me to chair the project. So, I took that opportunity without any hesitate. I always listed my teammates ideas and gave them the responsibilities on spreading the awareness, handling the donations, medical equipment etc. After I made my first visit to the Hospital to discuss with the Doctor in charge. We agreed on a date for a visit and made sure everyone join this project. I clearly informed everyone to not spend much on transportation, so we can contribute that also to the Hospital. So, all of us took the public bus to Thalaseemia Hospital from Colombo. We gifted the kids their needful and made their parents happy. I learnt from this project to listen to people and expand your scope so it will make easy to do things with your team.

Rtr. Dananjaya Siriwardana RACCC

Leadership Story of

Rtr. Hirodya Hasarangi Bamunusinghe Leading others to achieve their best is one of the favorite things that I love to do in my life. Among all the leadership opportunities I have experienced from school to University, my favorite venture is the time period I was holding the position of co-director in community service in Rotaract club of University of Kelaniya -17/18. At this time I could lead many peers and juniors who were in my team as well as in the whole club. Many projects were done with the help of all the members. It was very hard to manage the participants for projects and also to get the support of the majority because everyone had their lectures at different times in addition to their personal commitments. My co director and my-self had to go through a lot to schedule every task among the others without interrupting their commitments. One strategy that we followed was allocating different members for different tasks considering their availability. Moreover, I personally tried to create friendlier atmosphere even with the juniors despite of the so called “seniority” concept that the local universities were practicing. It encouraged the members to engage more with us and support us at their best which ultimately led me and my co directors to be awarded at the Rotaract district assembly 2017/18 for the “Most outstanding Community Service project under the category of community development (Silver award)”. I could happily ended my journey as the co- director of community service in Rotaract Club of University of Kelaniya with lots of my every time favorite life cherishing moments, only because I could lead my team successfully and it showered me with more and more strength to stand up as a true leader.

Rtr. Hirodya Hasarangi Bamunusinghe RACCC

Leadesrship Story of Rtr. Udith Chandana

I have been coaching Football for almost 2 and a half years now, in which mostly I try to make myself an inspiration to the kids as well as to do my duty accordingly. During these number of years, I have made myself a leader amidst a number of people via I have shown various of my talents and skills. I could consider my best leadership moment which happened to be in the bus. So here is what happened. Myself and my girlfriend were off to teach in this Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s` Orphanage near Nugegoda. We got into the bus from Homagama but we did not have seats nearby, in which my girlfriend sat about two seats in front of me. After sometime I could see the man who was near my girlfriend acting inappropriately. So, I stood near that seat and started to video the incident. After about two minutes I told him to think if his mother or sister was having the same situation like how he was acting and told him not to do it. After I said that, I heard the entire bus applauding for my reaction, in which that was the best leadership moment.

Rtr. Udith Chandana RAC Colombo Fort

Thank you for sharing Your Leadership Moments with us. - The End -