In August 2024, the Sri Lanka Foundation Academy of Performing Arts (SLF APA) came together for a truly touching and colorful celebration to honor Dr. Walter Jayasinghe, known as Dr. Jay, on his birthday. The event took place at the Mindfulness Meditation Center, also known as the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara, following the SLF APA Pahimpath Mangalya, adding an extra layer of spirituality and warmth to the occasion. The celebration was not just a gathering; it was a beautiful outpouring of love and appreciation. The teachers, students, and their parents all came together to show how much Dr. Jay, the founder of the SLF APA, means to them. As Dr. Jay arrived, he was met with a touching surprise. Each person present offered him a single rose, symbolizing their love and gratitude. The simplicity of this gesture, yet its profound significance, left him visibly moved, his heart full and his
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(Nov 24, 1934 – Jun 20, 2024) A heartfelt celebration of the life of Roma Tira De Zoysa took place on July 20th at the Walter Jay Building Auditorium on Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. Roma, who passed away on June 20th, 2024, at the age of 89, is deeply missed by all who knew her. The event was hosted by her daughter, Sonali Tucker, and organized by Achala Weerasinghe along with the Bishops College Past Pupil Association in the USA (BCPPA USA). Friends, family, and community members gathered to honor Roma’s remarkable life and the profound impact she had on everyone around her. Dr. Nandasiri Jasentuliyana, a close friend of Roma’s since the late 1950s, spoke movingly at the celebration. He described her as a paragon of elegance and accomplishment, whose presence graced our lives in ways that will forever be cherished.  Roma’s life was a beautiful testament to the
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On Friday, June 7, H.E Ambassador Julie Chung, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, visited Staten Island, New York, accompanied by the State Department’s Senior Advisor for Outreach and Partnerships for South & Central Asia, Jennifer Miller. Ambassador Chung has served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka since February 2022. During her visit to Staten Island, she visited the Sri Lankan Arts and Cultural Museum, the Sri Lanka Association, and the Buddhist and Hindu Temples. The Sri Lankan Art & Cultural Museum, located in the Stapleton neighborhood of Staten Island, is the first museum dedicated to Sri Lankan culture outside Sri Lanka. Julia Wijesinghe founded the museum to celebrate and educate visitors about Sri Lankan heritage. The museum is associated with the Lakruwana restaurant, owned by Julia’s family, which serves traditional Sri Lankan cuisine. Julia Wijesinghe stated, “It was a dream come true and a great honor to welcome
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Meet Dr. Yasantha Rajakarunanayake, a celebrated technologist and scientist with an extensive three-decade career in Silicon Valley. As the VP of R&D and ML at Analog Inference, Dr. Yasantha is a leading authority in Artificial Intelligence, renowned for his innovative contributions that have culminated in 130 patents. More recently, he has partnered with the Taiwanese semiconductor chip giant to research and develop Artificial Intelligence chips and algorithms, including using AI techniques for cancer detection. On its merit, he has personal algorithms that can detect lung cancer with over 95% accuracy, and they have reached the top 10 in the world in terms of public dataset accuracy. His achievements were recognized in 2022 with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sri Lanka Foundation. A brilliant mathematician, Dr. Yasantha has adeptly transferred his expertise in optimizing space and time into the world of board games. His latest invention, Vediic, is a
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The Sri Lanka Foundation is proud to present the first edition of our International Awards Magazine. You can view it online here: ONLINE MAGAZINE The Sri Lanka Foundation is dedicated to recognizing exceptional Sri Lankans worldwide. Since 2003, we have been awarding Sri Lankans at our International Awards gala. Through this magazine, we aim to further the reach of our message to help inspire future generations. Our next International Awards gala will be held on Sunday, 21 April 2024, at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. To purchase your ticket, visit: https://www.srilankafoundation.org/events/slf-international-awards-2024/ To register yourself for the International Awards Magazine, please visit: https://www.srilankafoundation.org/join-our-physical-mailing-list/
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The team at the Sri Lanka Foundation wishes you prosperity, health, and happiness in the new year ahead and beyond. We thank the community for their continued support and collaboration. We look forward to sharing a wonderful 2024 with you all.
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With Sri Lanka Day 2023 approaching, we are excited to announce our Watch Party initiative. The term “Watch Party” is defined as “an occasion when people watch a broadcast event together, for example a sports game, often in a public place.” Sri Lanka Day is the premier celebration of Sri Lankan Culture and will be held on Saturday, the 19th of August at 2pm Pacific Standard Time and Saturday, 19th of August at 2pm Sri Lanka Time. This year the Sri Lanka Foundation is putting together another amazing show to celebrate Sri Lankan Culture. We have decided to host this year’s celebration Live on our Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@slfoundation so we can make our event easily accessible to a global audience. We’ve invited allied Organizations to host their own Watch Parties. Helping everyone gather their communities together to enjoy this celebration in the company of friends and family. We’ll be updating
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NuAsia, led by Roshan Seresinhe, brings a new sound and love to country music from Asia to America and Enters the Emerging 300 chart with its debut Single “Quiet Violence” at #140.  Please vote to rocket NuAsia up the charts: https://www.upcoming100.com/emerging300/9786/#9786 NuAsia’s debut album, Quiet Violence, released June 9, will break some new ground in country music. Judging from the title track, the album will draw many country fans and create some new ones. Most of the new ground, in case the band’s name doesn’t clue you in, is that all six of the musicians are of Asian heritage, by the design of the band’s drummer, leader, executive producer, and founder, Roshan Seresinhe, who is a Sri Lankan native. Another is the band’s lead singer and co-writer, Saint Cloud, a 22-year-old Boston woman of Vietnamese descent, a contestant from“The Voice,” whose voice can go from whispery and ethereal to clear
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Four Hatch startups: Hyperglade, Miris by Islandmom, True by Tina, and Feelo have acquired funding to take their businesses to the next level. The most significant of these funding opportunities came from Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper who funded Hyperglade with USD350,000 proving that the local entrepreneurial talent among Hatch startups is capable of making a global impact. Hatch prides itself on being the center of gravity for all things startup empowering entrepreneurs, through its startup incubator and accelerator programs and co-working space. Hatch strives to connect entrepreneurs by creating a collaborative environment that provides equal opportunity to all, with the goal of creating a thriving startup ecosystem that powers Sri Lanka’s economy. At the start of 2023, Hatch launched an initiative titled ‘Sri Lanka: From Troubled Nation to Startup Nation’ to highlight how Sri Lanka’s top entrepreneurial talent could pave the path to recovery. The first part of this
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Award-winning Sri Lankan director Christy Shelton’s “Kunchanada” (කුංචනාද – elephant trumpet) is a tribute to daughter Sarah’s enduring love for the gentle giants of this world by her parents Dr. Lakshman & Mrs. Thusitha Makandura, the producers. The resulting forty-episode masterpiece has been featured on Sirasa TV since the 20th of March, 2023, at 7.30 pm. This teledrama ranks the most in the Sri Lanka Drama Society for TV. You can find it on Sirasa TV’s Youtube Channel here https://www.youtube.com/@SirasaOfficial. Sarah Makandura (MBA) is Co-Owner & Manages MedSpa Deluxe L.A. Clinic in West Covina, one of the largest in Los Angeles. She has been an animal lover since her young days and inspired the story scripted by Christy Shelton Fernando. The tele series grapples with the rough currents of the elephant-human conflict enacted daily on the rural landscapes of Sri Lanka when a young woman returns to Sri Lanka in
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