College of Chemical Sciences student Nishal Madhujith changing opportunities into success
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Egodawaththarachchilage Don Nishal Madujith is a star student at the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (IChemC) who has made a name for himself not only as a dedicated and passionate undergraduate chemist but also as an entrepreneur.
Nishal was off to a bright start as a student, toping his class almost every year at St. Joseph’s College, Grandpass, Colombo 14. He joined St. Benedict’s college later on to complete his advanced level examinations where he passed with flying colours.
Thereafter, he was selected to follow food science at the University of Peradeniya, an opportunity that he did not take due to the unfortunate ill health of his father. He was burdened with the responsibility of his family and to cater to their needs, he had to find a suitable job. It was during this time a friend of his encouraged him to start his own business by setting up an aluminum plant.
Nishal initiated his business with the small sum of money he had, and gradually developed it into a flourishing and well off-trade. In his plant, Nishal and his team of five will find enough beer cans and melt them in a steel crucible fueled with black oil to obtain liquid aluminum at a temperature of about 7000C. Two of the five employees under have being designated the job of finding a ton of such beer cans for processing. The facility’s space and technical limitations restrict the amount processed daily.
Liquid aluminum is poured into a brick mold and allowed to cool after which the bricks are cut out and handed over to the relevant dealers for them to send the products to India. A value of one such block is about LKR 2000 and he earns about LKR 20,000 every week.
Eventhough he could have being well off with this job, he decided that he deserved a good education, which made him join IChemC. The income he received was enough for him to pay the necessary tuition and registration fees for his undergraduate studies whilst helping out his family.
Part of his income has been dedicated to charity work, such as making donations to the Apeksha cancer hospital and to becoming a co-founder of Sarvodaya Suwasetha Society, Delgoda (charity for elders). He managed to get himself a vehicle with his income and has motivated his best friend to follow a same donation course as himself. Nishal performed very well at IChemC, making it to the Dean’s list in all three years of his study. Having done an undergraduate research project in synthetic organic chemistry, Nishal is hoping to pursue doctoral studies in this field. He hopes to go abroad soon for this purpose and after graduating from there, he wishes to join the industry for a brief period and has some extended plans to devote his life full time for meditation after attaining complete stability.
Samadhi Nawalage
Project Assistant