Col. Henry Steele Olcott Memorial Sports Foundation conducted the inaugural Leadership Program for students of Olcott schools; Nalanda, Dharmasoka, Maliyadeva, Rahula, Dharmaraja, Mahinda and Ananda College from January 19 to 21, 2018. It was a residential workshop hosted at Kithusevena at Baudhhaloka Mawatha, Colombo. The Principals of the respective schools nominated four students from each school who had either done their A/Ls in 2017 or those who would be sitting the A/ s in 2018.
The workshop which would normally be offered to entry level management trainees in the private sector included topics such as, Leadership, Motivation, Communication, Team Building, Time Management, Planning, selecting a career path, etc. The workshop was facilitated by the experienced HR professional and lecturer Ms Denuka Perera and included several team activities and games to facilitate the learning process, which the students enjoyed very much.
Dhammika Kalapuge and Sanjiva Senanayake were the guest speakers who spoke on ‘Personal Effectiveness’ and ‘Col. Henry Steel Olcott’ respectively.
Although this inaugural Leadership program was restricted to member schools of the Col. Henry Steele Olcott Memorial Sports Foundation, the Foundation expects to offer this annual program to students from other schools as well in the coming years, like its annual Quiz Program which has grown to include 20 leading schools over the past 4 years.
The total cost of the program was met by well-wishers of the Foundation, Rahula Dassanaike, Mohan Mabotuwana and Harsha Gunasekera, who have assured their support in the coming years as well. The president of the Foundation is the past national cricketer Jayantha Seneviratne and the chairman for the project is Kumar Weerasuriya.