I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been selected as a ‪Queen’s Young Leaders Highly Commended Runner-Up for my work with Building Bridges — essentially, this means a year’s worth of mentoring and access to a leadership course developed by the University of Cambridge. I’m really excited about creating new programmes for BB with the support I receive this year. I’m especially keen to work on a new children’s programme that encourages critical thinking. You can view the full list of winners and runners-up here.

Following the presidential election a few days back, I was taken aback at the circulation of a map of Sri Lanka that skewed voter results, and I’m grateful for a blog response that showed how arbitrary and malleable maps are by creating a whole series of them. I want to help the students I work with to approach their education (and “facts” they fed by the media) with a healthy amount of scepticism, and the ability to reason for themselves without blindly accepting what they are told. It’s difficult, and I often fall into that trap myself, but I am convinced that  the ability to think critically will deflect and quash fear-mongering, which (apart from learning to be respectful) is a huge  asset in moving forward as one nation. Please keep following along and keep me on track as I attempt to stick to one of my biggest goals for this year!

Image courtesy indi.ca