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$100 x 100 Fundraiser initiative

The $100 x 100 initiative aims to collect a contribution of $100 (or part of) from ideally 100 individuals or groups ( ie: country teams etc), of friends and family of SL2College, to collect a target amount of $10 000, which is the estimated annual budget for 2012. Lets get together and do what we can to help this fundraiser succeed! Please take a few minutes to send an email to Nimna Ranatunga (nims84@sl2college.org) of the fund raising team, with information regarding your donation or simply pledge, indicating that you can donate later.

Sri Lanka Education Forum (SLEF)

"Sri Lanka Education Forum" (www.sl2college.org/SLEF) is dedicated to support Sri Lankan students by guiding them to suitable higher education qualications in their respective elds present within Sri Lanka. SLEF is being led by Sasanka Jayadasa and a team of 6 undergraduate students from University of Peradeniya and Moratuwa. Several projects are underway to increase awareness about SLEF: creation of a facebook page as a marketing tool, reaching out to various levels of faculty and organising a Sri Lanka Education Seminar Series. The SLEF team can be reached at slef@sl2college .org.

SL2College at Adyapana
"Adyapana 2011", a higher education and career exhibition, was held at BMICH, Colombo, on October 21-23. SL2College participated for the rst time at Adyapana. Eorts at the stall were led by Buddhi Mahindaratne and Rajitha Kumarasinghe. Volunteers from University of Moratuwa were also there to help.

This new program will provide support in the form of technical advice and mentoring to undergraduate students during their nal year thesis project. The mentor will provide relevant information for the thesis project, such as access to current literature, available technologies for implementation, and emerging theories, to name a few. It will be a competitive program and will be implemented only after faculty approval is obtained. The project is led by Chathuri Daluwatte and Shanie Liyanagamage.

Undergraduate thesis mentor program:

Projects with LIRNEasia

US Graduate Workshops
A series of webinars on graduate studies in the US were held via Skype during September and October. Topics covered included how to do a proper university and program search, step by step account of the graduate application process and expectations upon arrival to a new country.

US-SL Faculty Lecture Series begins!

Professor V.A. Samaranayake, from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Missouri University of Science & Technology, spoke to students at the Department of Statistics, University of Colombo (UoC), via Skype on November 4th. This is the beginning of a new project at SL2College - a lecture series which connects Sri Lankan faculty members worldwide with students at universities in Sri Lanka, via Skype. Prof. Samaranayake spoke to nal year students about how to nd a topic for statistical research projects and emerging trends in statistical research. This event was organised at UoC by Devini Senaratna, faculty member at the Department of Statistics and other members of the Stats Circle.

Dr. Sujata Gamage, one of the Board of Directors at SL2College and a lead scientist at LIRNEasia, has been developing the policy research side of SL2College with our rst research member, Tilan Wijesooriya. LIRNEasia is a regional information and communication technology (ICT) policy and regulation think tank which is active across the Asia Pacic. Tilan, a recent graduate from the University of Colombo, is working as an intern at LIRNEasia. He is conducting two projects under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Gamage - the creation of a directory of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Sri Lanka and conduction of a survey which will rank HEIs that oer IT degrees. This is a continuation from Tilans eeorts with Nishad Jayasundara to improve our current understanding of higher educational opportunities for Sri Lankan students.

Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org Or send us your suggestions & comments at info@sl2college.org