Recognising today’s young leaders

Sri Lanka’s younger generation seem to have a particular affinity for defiance. Defying norms, defying expectations and defying society’s preconceived ideas, this generation is unafraid to speak up and stand out, and they’re very vocal about it.

In a bid to highlight such youngsters the Emerging Young Leader Award (EYLA) is presented to a select few young persons, who display exceptional leadership qualities.

The event is organised by the National Youth Services Council under the brand ‘Sri Lanka Youth’ and Emerging Young Leaders Association.

EYLA Generation 1 was held to commemorate the UN declaration of the Year of Youth. The competition recognised the application of over 1600 young leaders- out of those, the top 100 were chosen to be the main organising body of EYLA Generation 2. Part of the organizing committee are previous winners Ajanthan Sivatha and Jayathma Wickramanayake Tamara de Silva was another winner of the previous competition. “EYLA made my dream come true. It has shown me new paths, opened doors for new opportunities.I think not only my colleagues at EYLA but every young leader in Sri Lanka needs to explore that,” she says.

This year’s EYLA will be done reality televisionstyle, with the final 32 contestants being eliminated in succession each week until four remain. These four young leaders will take part in three mini-rounds, which will decide the final three victors of the competition.

The competition itself consists of five rounds. The first round will assess the accomplishments of the competitors at school, divisional level, and pro- vincial level, national and international after which they will be filtered for the second round. In the second round, the competitors will take an IQ test, out of which all those who exceed the cut- off mark will be admitted to the next round.

In the third round, a selection of 100 competitors will have to experience a residential camp of three days, where they will be tested on team management, leadership qualities, and extracurricular activities. The fourth and fifth rounds, the semi-finals and finals will follow.

The winner will be awarded a cash prize of one million rupees, along with the opportunity for a foreign tour and yet another grand prize.

The Emerging Young Leader Award 2012 is open to young people aged between 19-25. Applications will be accepted until September 30, and can be found on www.eyla.lk