“The Nascent” – A huge success
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The third-year second-semester students reading for B.Sc. (honours) in Tourism Management degree programme of the Department of Tourism management, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL) organised a charm and colourful ceremony for the launching of a video series based on the success stories of creative minds into the social media: “THE NASCENT”, on 5th April 2021 at the premises of Faculty of Management Studies, SUSL.
The proud event was graced by Professor Athula C. Gnanapala, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies as the chief guest of the ceremony, Dr. Sarath Munasinghe, Head Department of Tourism Management, Professor D.G. Dharmarathna, Head Department of Accountancy and Finance, Dr. Rasika Priyankara, Head, Department of Business Management, Professor M.S.M Aslam, Department of Tourism Management, and Mrs. Buddhika Dharmarathna, Subject Lecturer, Department of Business Management.
The leader of the project, Mr. Chandeepa Kasun, extended a heartty welcome to all distinguished invitees on behalf of his team “The Nascent”. Further addressing the gathering he commented on the efforts behind the screen, how and why they decided to organise a remarkable ceremony, hence THE NASCENT.
“THE NASCENT” comes to the surface from the uterus of the earth and with no doubt that it creates a greater value to people on earth. But nobody knows the extent to which the nascent has struggled to survive beneath the ground from the conceived. Similarly, in the concept of Entrepreneurship, the outer world sees only their achievements but not the flight corners that they had to experience from their origin to the bliss.
Ms. Malsha Abeyratne and Mr. Yasiru Silva representing their teams stated that, THE NASCENT was an effort taken by the third year second semester students of the B.Sc. (honours) in Tourism Management Degree programme of the Department of Tourism Management as a part of their continuous assessments for the subject; Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management. The project aimed at identifying different types of entrepreneurs and building up a wider awareness among the outer world about them, while providing the young generation with the inspiration, motivation, ideas, tips, experience and networking potentials required to foster entrepreneurship in the community at large.
Another team member, Ms. Shani Fonseka, delivered the student’s speech and stated that “Being exposed to these success stories, as undergraduates we acquired a lot of experience as well as developed a positive mindset about an entrepreneurial career and we are more than grateful to our dearest lecturer for giving us this opportunity”.
Senior Lecturer, Mrs. Buddhika Dharmarathna explicated the purpose of “THE NASCENT”, accounting to her responsibilities as the subject lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. She detailed that a subject like Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management was hard to teach online via zoom as it requires a lot of student-centered activity-based teaching to enhance students’ entrepreneurial skills and mindset. As an attempt to overcome this problem this project was assigned to be completed by students as teams. Further, she stated that the plan was to complete six short videos by six teams, but the project successfully ended up with eight videos. The secret behind the success of the project admits this pandemic was the commitment, dedication and team spirit of the students; she added.
Addressing the gathering, Professor Athula Gnanapala, Dean Faculty of Management Studies emphasised the importance of promoting an entrepreneurial mindset within undergraduates and developing an entrepreneurial culture within universities to produce job creators in place of job seekers from universities. Further, he stated the university curricular must be developed by giving more weight to Entrepreneurship related subjects and components.
Dr Sarath Munasinghe, Head Department of Tourism Management, confirming the ideas of professor Gnanapala remarked that Entrepreneurs and SMEs play a vital role in economic development in many ways. Furthermore, he elaborated on the advantages of being in an entrepreneurial career. Concluding the speech, he thanked all the students of THE NASCENT team and the subject lecturer for bringing the Department of Tourism Management and the Faculty of Management Studies to the notice of the public.
As the most iconic item of the ceremony, the official launch of the video series was honoured by the chief guest of the event Professor Athula C. Gnanapala together with Dr Sarath Munasinghe, Dr Rasika Priyankara and Senior Lecturer Mrs Buddhika Dharmaratne. The official launch of the video series was symbolised by releasing the video of an Entrepreneur, the proprietor of Boocat, Mr Kanishka Asela Widanage.
Entrepreneurs; Ms. Nadee Senanayake the founder of Meuronarz.com, Mr Hareendra Mahakumara, founder of Hela coco, Mr. Indika Siriwardane, founder of the Wild Rabbits Products, Mr. Wasantha Fernando, founder of Cocoshella, Mrs Nalini Kodikara, founder of Coffee Art, Mr Mohamad Ahsan, founder of NAFA Bags & Travelmate, and Mrs Janet Fernando, founder of Belihuloya travels and Belihuloya fuel station, also contributed in the success of the video series, representing Commercial entrepreneurs, green entrepreneurs, mom-preneurs, nonconventional and women entrepreneurs.
Dr, Rasika Priyankara, Dr. Shashi Naotunna and many other academics who graced the occasion praised the team of students for their wonderful effort to make this event such an amazing one. They highlighted the need of assigning more projects like this to give them opportunities to add value to their university career.
Concluding the ceremony Ms Hashini Gamlath, a team member delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of all the members of the team. In her few words she conveyed the gratitude of all the students to key parties; The successful entrepreneurs who accepted the invitation to participate in the video series, all the distinguished guests including the dean, heads, and all academic staff members, all the parties who extended their support in making this project a success.
- Undergraduates of Department of Tourism Management, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka