- An initiative for the future global leader
In troubled times, we all look to strong leaders, and it is never too early to train ourselves and our youth to become strong leaders who can lead their families, friends, communities, and businesses through troubled waters.
In this spirit of fostering strong leadership among our youth and creating powerful future leaders, AIESEC Sri Lanka has launched Amplifier, its biggest youth leadership development programme yet.
Chatting with Brunch, AIESEC Sri Lanka National Director for Public Relations Sapna Panditha shared that Amplifier, currently on its maiden run, is the first event of its kind by AIESEC to expand its audience, moving beyond undergraduates to engage directly with post-Advanced-Level students regardless of their field of work or study. “As a leadership development organisation, we at AIESEC Sri Lanka thought that we can use Amplifier not just to develop the leadership skills of AIESEC’s undergraduate network, but to also help those students outside the AIESEC network to help develop their leadership and find purpose in their lives for the future,” Panditha explained.
Having commenced on 19 September, Amplifier is a three-month-long programme skills development that combines workshops and knowledge sharing sessions with professional simulations and a mock interview series to help its participants develop their leadership skills using AIESEC’s globally accepted leadership development model framework to inculcate AIESEC’s four core values of leadership; self-awareness, global citizenry, empowering those around you, and being solution-oriented.
“What we want is for Amplifier not to be just another programme, but a different longer-term approach that creates a community of young people from all districts in Sri Lanka, who will be motivated to take action toward sustainable innovation and advocate youth leadership across the country,” Panditha said. “We want to develop leaders who create ripple effects in their communities and find solutions to the problems they see in society.”
One unconventional way that Amplifier will be helping its participants to develop their skills is through its simulation and interview series.
Panditha explained that the conclusion of Amplifier will be a youth forum for the students and young professionals of all backgrounds to provide casual participants with a curated leadership development experience. Throughout the course of the programme, the general publicare able to join Amplifier’s weekly virtual events where they will be able to interact with the 250 Amplifier participants and see how they have learned to develop their leadership skills. This weekly event is held each Sunday, and more details on each event can be found on Amplifier’s Facebook event page.
Leadership development for youth becomes especially important in this context because it is through leadership development that we can create disciplined global citizens who understand their place in the world, and their responsibility to themselves, their communities and their country, And this, at the end of the day, is what Amplifier is trying to create, Panditha said, noting: “Every single person is responsible for what happens in their country and around them. To move forward, we need to take responsibility and become part of the solution instead of blaming and complaining because that simply will not work in the long term. And this is why developing leadership is essential, and why leadership needs to be developed in everyone.”
Facebook: facebook.com/events/828084427899220
