Welcome to ARTIGOS! This is the information hub for Youth Govern SL’s Team Engineering and Technology. By now, you must be wondering what Youth Govern SL is. So, we interviewed Senali Withanachchi who is the founder of this organization, Youth Govern SL.
Welcome Senali! Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Hey, I’m Senali Withanachchi! I’m 22 years old. I studied at Musaeus College, Colombo 7. I’m currently reading for my Bachelors in Biological Sciences at Faculty of Science, University of Colombo and Psychology at University of Northampton, UK. I completed my Diploma in Psychology from American College of Higher Education, International Center of Broward College, USA in 2018 and Diploma of Higher Education in Psychology from Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology (CIRP).
With the ambition of being a health scientist, I’m passionate in Psychology and its sub disciplines, along with multiple fields of Biological Sciences such as Human Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Molecular & Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, and Computational Modeling. Other than that, Business and Entrepreneurship are two external fields that I’m really passionate about.
What is Youth Govern SL?
Youth Govern SL is a youth led organization which gives professional services to fields of Academia, Industry, Research, Innovation and our general community as well. We cover a wide range of fields here, entitled to 5 majors: Life sciences and Medicine, Engineering and Technology, Psychology, Business and Marketing, and Law and Humanities. We take up projects from companies, institutes and schools, in regards to different fields. We voice out attention demanding issues and taboo topics in various perspectives with proper knowledge and skills so that it would result in the much needed actual change in society.
We organize webinars, seminars, workshops, talk shows, podcasts, and a series of events to address essential topics. YGSL is a platform where we analyze a problem or a situation from various perspectives for a better understanding and real change. We uplift Sri Lankan education while introducing Sri Lankan super brains and epic creativity.
This is a platform for new innovations and scientific research. Not only these but, YGSL is currently working on volunteer tutoring in rural schools to provide the proper educational guidance to our underprivileged students.
When did you come up with this idea and start this?
This was officially started a few months ago, but it took about one year to initiate everything with proper planning.
What inspired you to start this organization?
From childhood itself, I was a very passionate person in whatever I did, whether it was studies, aesthetics, sports or social, and community work. When I was at school, I almost did everything that I could do. Musaeus College is the reason why I’m here today. The personality and opportunities which they provided are my pillars. I would say the exposure I had for various fields, even the fields which are not much popular in SL made me inspired to start YGSL.
When I was doing A/Ls in Biological Science stream, the only thing we knew was being a doctor, and once I completed my A/Ls, everyone wanted me to be a doctor because that is the social norm in SL still. I was very confused during that time, but down there, my heart said it’s not what I wanted but something more different and unique to me. So, I had to let that idea go away!
When I started studying psychology at CIRP, I was exposed to different fields of psychology including biological psychology, neuroscience, child psychology, counseling, business and marketing psychology, and forensic psychology. Then, when I entered the University of Colombo, Faculty of Science I was exposed to a number of Biological and Physical sciences. It gave me opportunities to get into the academic field and professional industry at the same time. I understood that I am passionate about most of these fields, where I could not select one over another.
So I was thinking how I can actually bring all these to one place, and here it is what you call YGSL ! I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the YGSL family and anyone who supported and encouraged me during my journey.
Who is involved in this?
YGSL has 5 talented teams working for a better cause and a real change : Engineering and Technology, Life sciences and Medicine, Law and Humanities, Business and Marketing, and Psychology. Each team has talented individuals with proper knowledge, skills, and talents related to almost all the fields available. These individuals are specializing in their own subfields as well.
We cover almost all the state universities in Sri Lanka and some of the major private universities and institutes. We have seven international students so far, four students from the USA, and one student each from the UK, Malaysia and China. They are working on our international affairs with foreign universities, academia, and industries as well. Each team will be working on a separate set of projects, and they are available for commercial projects as well from any of the preferred fields. Certain projects will be carried out together with 2–3 teams. We have individuals who are competent in all three languages: Sinhala, English and Tamil .
What do you look forward to from this organization? What do you want to achieve?
Even though we talk about many things on social media and so on, we do not observe a real change in the country when it comes to certain social constraints, taboos, attention demanding issues and also education, economy and job industry. The reason is we have not identified the proper audience to address and we do not address those things in depth with proper knowledge and skills.
I highly believe that actions speak louder than words, unfortunately, neither we take any sustainable action nor our actions are that intense. This is the point where YGSL is working in order to actually achieve the real change which is sustainable for a consistent time period.
What can our readers expect in the future?
- Latest trends of new fields
- How to step into the academia and professional industry
- Skills you need to master in this journey
- Latest research evidence
- Attention demanding issues in SL and the world
- A youth perspective and a youth support
- New innovations
What are some of the projects you are working on at the moment?
- YGSL research spotlight — research work of YGSL members
- Youth researchers with YGSL
- Youth innovators with YGSL
- The female lead with YGSL
- Youth entrepreneurs with YGSL
- YGSL volunteer tutoring for underprivileged students
- YGSL health awareness
- Tech trends with YGSL
- A safer place to young women with YGSL
- Break the taboo with YGSL
- YGSL Blog
- Creative minds with YGSL
- Career guidance and life coaching with YGSL
- Law and politics with youth — YGSL
Anything you want to tell to our readers?
Passion is what makes you happy. Hard work is what drives you to achieve your happiness. There is no proper time to start anything. There is no proper way to do anything. You just need to listen to your own voice and give your best in your own way. Throughout this journey, you will be facing numerous hardships, but those will shape you up to be a better person with more confidence. Thus, there is nothing called a wrong decision. Be kind to people, be humble, have gratitude for what you have, respect each other, and create your own personality which cannot be replaced by anyone! Enjoy every little moment in your life since life is too short to regret.
If anyone is interested in joining, what should they do? What are the requirements?
They should contact our officials through any of our social media platforms. Passion, hard work, open mindedness, creativity, talent, proper knowledge, and skills are the only requirements we look for.
Lastly, is there anything else you would like to add?
For me, women empowerment is making our young ladies strong and confident enough to live life, achieve what they want, and to shine with a unique personality which cannot be replaceable, but in a much safer society. Human empowerment is much more stable and sustainable than gender empowerment in a current society where humanity and emotional intelligence are at a risk.
Education should be provided equally while opportunities should be given to our underprivileged students to get into desirable positions. Young people need to have courage and strength to step out from social constraints while enriching humanity, gratitude, and respect. Taboos need to be broken! Targeted audiences should be identified specifically! In a place where actions speak louder than words with passion, the real change can be seen!
Thank you Senali for joining us today. It’s exciting to hear that the Sri Lankan Youth is taking action in bringing REAL CHANGE! We look forward to the events that YGSL will bring us, with excitement! If you have questions regarding YGSL, please look into our social media pages that are linked above or send us an email at youthgovernsl@gmail.com.
