Kavindya Thennakoon

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.[2] In 2013, she was one of the top four scorers in the world on the Cambridge International Examinations.[3]

While still in school, she began working on community development programs to provide libraries and books for schools.[4]

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.[2]

Thennakoon graduated from Wellesley College in 2019 with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Cinema and Media Studies.[5] She was the student speaker at the 2019 Wellesley College commencement.[6]

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.[2]

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.[2] She works at the Stop the Violence Campaign in Sri Lanka sponsored by the Girl Guides.[7]

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.[8] The same year, Thennakoon was chosen as one of the members of the United Nations Youth Advisory Panel (UNYAP)[9] as a Gender Equality adviser.[10]

She co-founded a community development project, Without Borders, with Sakie Ariyawansa, which began a pilot project in July 2014 at Kahanavita, Daraniyagala.[11] The initiative is a grassroots effort to improve capacity building, language skills, and personal development opportunities for youth living in areas of high unemployment.[12] From the pilot, the project spread to 5 villages and serviced over 200 children.[10]

In 2014, she won the Global Trailblazer Award from the Harvard Social Innovation Collaborative[13] and the Queen's Young Leader Award for creating Without Borders, a community service project that she designed to improve education and prospects for disadvantaged youth.[14]