Kavindya Thennakoon

Kavindya Thennakoon (born 1995) is a Sri Lankan community development and youth activist. While still in school, she began working on community development programs to provide libraries and books for schools. She works with both Youth Service America and the United Nations Youth Advisory Panel. In 2014 she won both the Harvard Global Trailblazer Award and the inaugural Queen's Young Leader Award for a community service project that she designed to improve education and prospects for disadvantaged youth. Kavindya is regarded a top leader and an activist.

Kavindya Thennakoon
Born1995
Colombo, Sri Lanka
EducationWellesley College
OccupationCommunity activist
Years active2011–
Websitewww.withoutborderslk.org

Biography

Kavindya Thennakoon was born in 1995 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Upali and Champa Thennakoon. Her father was murdered when she was two years old and she was raised by her mother. Thennakoon attended the Lyceum International School in Nugegoda. In 2011, she was awarded by the University of Cambridge for scoring the highest results in the Ordinary Level (O/L) Examination and placing highest in the Sociology and Environmental Management studies.[1] In 2013, she was one of the top four scorers in the world on the Cambridge International Examinations.[2]

Thennakoon is a champion hurdler and won 9 consecutive hurdling competitions between 2003 and 2011. In 2012 she won the Bronze Medal in the 100-meter hurdles event at the International Schools Athletic Championships.[1]

Thennakoon graduated from Wellesley College in 2019 with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Cinema and Media Studies.[3] She was the student speaker at the 2019 Wellesley College commencement.[4]

Activism

In August 2011, Thennakoon chaired a program with the Model United Club to donate books to preschools. Initially, the program was for schools in Vennappuva, but Thennakoon added the pre-school at the Kahanavita Primary School in Deraniyagala, when she realised their library had few books and no tables or chairs. The project, which lasted until April 2012, renovated the library, provided chairs and tables, donated books, and was funded by Thennakoon from her earnings at a local television station. After completion of the Deraniyagala library, she began working to provide a library to Dangampola Maha Vidyalaya (MV), Kegalle.[1]

In 2012, she began working at The Warehouse Project in the shanty area of Maradana, which provides free English classes to children from grades 1 to 8. Thennakoon teaches grade 8.[1] She works at the Stop the Violence Campaign in Sri Lanka sponsored by the Girl Guides.[5]

In 2014, she was selected to serve on Youth Service America's Global Youth Council, which develops programs for youth to implement changes in their own communities.[6] The same year, Thennakoon was chosen as one of the members of the United Nations Youth Advisory Panel (UNYAP)[7] as a Gender Equality adviser.[8]

She co-founded a community development project, Without Borders, with Sakie Ariyawansa, which began a pilot project in July 2014 at Kahanavita, Daraniyagala.[9] The initiative is a grassroots effort to improve capacity building, language skills, and personal development opportunities for youth living in areas of high unemployment.[10] From the pilot, the project spread to 5 villages and serviced over 200 children.[8]

Awards

In 2014, she won the Global Trailblazer Award from the Harvard Social Innovation Collaborative[11] and the Queen's Young Leader Award for creating Without Borders.[12]

gollark: Here is some nice AI-generated art.
gollark: No, just using a general text to image AI and observing the somewaht suboptimal fox results.
gollark: Observe, "normal" and "healthy" "foxes".
gollark: It's weird how the people defining these groups always put themselves in the cool™ one.
gollark: Oh, as in a place where you rent a computer or something? Okay, sure, that's wildly insecure and why would you ever trust that.

References
  1. Perera, Senali S. (9 October 2012). "Lighting-up the world". Sri Lanka: Daily News. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  2. "Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards, Sri Lanka". Lanka Business News. 9 December 2013. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  3. "Kavindya Thennakoon | Albright Institute". www.wellesley.edu. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  4. Wellesley College (7 June 2019), Kavindya Thennakoon Delivers Student Address at Commencement 2019, retrieved 7 June 2019
  5. "Global Youth Council Member: Kavinda Thennakoon". Youth Service America. Youth Service America. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  6. Coursey, Michael (2 October 2014). "Global Youth Council Members Announced". Youth Service America. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  7. "UN launches Youth Advisory Panel". Colombo, Sri Lanka: Daily Nation. 16 April 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  8. "We are excited to announce this year's Harvard Social Innovation Collaborative Global Trailblazers!". Igniting Innovation Summit. Cambridge, MA: Igniting Innovation Summit on Social Entrepreneurship. 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  9. "WITHOUT BORDERS". aiHitdata. aiHitdata. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  10. "Kavindya Thennakoon". About Me. About Me. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  11. Zhubanova, Raushan (19 December 2014). "Harvard College Named 5 Best Young Entrepreneurs 2014". Youth Time Magazine. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  12. "Kavindya, Thejitha win Queen's Young Leaders Award". Sri Lanka: DailyFT. 19 January 2015. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
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