The LankaCorps Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to professionally engage in social, cultural, and economic development activities in Sri Lanka. The program aims to foster the involvement and understanding of young members of the expatriate Sri Lankan community who have limited in-depth experience with the country of their heritage. Each year, The Asia Foundation selects an outstanding group of LankaCorps Fellows to live and work for six months in Sri Lanka, granting them the unique chance to “explore their roots while giving back.” Meet the 2019 fellows.
LankaCorps Fellowship Program
Introducing the 2019 Class of LankaCorps Fellows
Friday, January 10th, 2020Donate to the LankaCorps Program
Thursday, July 18th, 2019LankaCorps
Wednesday, November 7th, 2018LankaCorps is a unique opportunity for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to professionally engage in social, cultural, and economic development activities in Sri Lanka. The program aims to foster the involvement and understanding of young members of the expatriate Sri Lankan community who have limited in-depth experience with the country of their heritage. Each year, The Asia Foundation selects an outstanding group of LankaCorps Fellows to live and work for six months in Sri Lanka, granting them the unique chance to “explore their roots while giving back.”
Meet the 2018 LankaCorps Fellows
Wednesday, August 1st, 2018The LankaCorps Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to professionally engage in social, cultural, and economic development activities in Sri Lanka. The program aims to foster the involvement and understanding of young members of the expatriate Sri Lankan community who have limited in-depth experience with the country of their heritage. Each year, The Asia Foundation selects an outstanding group of LankaCorps Fellows to live and work for six months in Sri Lanka, granting them the unique chance to “explore their roots while giving back.” Aisha Rupasingha (U.S.A.) recently graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York with a bachelor’s degree in English. Aisha has a strong interest in storytelling and written and visual media, particularly for younger audiences. She has spent time working at The Walt Disney Company for Disney Junior and intends to return to the entertainment industry to pursue a career as a writer focused on diverse narratives. At Disney, she engaged in all aspects of the television production process—from script development to casting to production and post-production. Coupled with her passion for film and TV, Aisha has a keen interest in community-based work. She led job readiness training for newly arrived refugees in the US at her placement at a refugee resettlement agency in Washington, DC. Her hope is to pursue entertainment and refugee aid work concurrently in the future. Aisha is a student of Sinhala, Arabic, and French and comes from a Sinhala-Muslim background. She has previously visited family in Sri Lanka, but this will be her first time staying there long-term in a professional capacity. Fredrick Martyn (Canada) is currently a medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from St. Bonaventure University in New York. Fredrick has performed research in juvenile epilepsy at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and in adolescent sexual health at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is also a director for his medical school’s annual comedy show and writes and performs his own poetry…. Read more
LankaCorps Fellowship Program
Tuesday, February 14th, 2017Sri Lankan Ambassador to U.S. Speaks on How LankaCorps Can Aid Post-Conflict Reconciliation
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016On May 18, The Asia Foundation held a reception at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington, hosted by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the U.S., Prasad Kariyawasam, as an opportunity for members of the area’s Sri Lankan diaspora and policy community to learn about the Foundation’s LankaCorps program. Over the past four years, 25 young professionals have served as LankaCorps Fellows, a unique opportunity developed by The Asia Foundation for young people of Sri Lankan heritage to live and work in Sri Lanka and contribute to the dynamic, multi-ethnic nation’s post-war recovery through six-month fellowships. Senior program officer Diana Kelly Alvord spoke to Ambassador Kariyawasam after the event. Sri Lanka lost significant economic ground and many of its most skilled and educated leaders during the war. It is now on a path to rebuilding and healing social divides – both in-country and among its diaspora. What do you see as the most significant areas of progress since the war ended, and where do you see the biggest challenges ahead? With the end of the conflict, the then-government of Sri Lanka focused on reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected provinces of the North and East, including the rehabilitation and the reintegration into society of former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) child soldiers and combatants. A massive infrastructure development drive was launched to rebuild houses, roads, bridges, schools, and medical facilities in these areas, as well as clearing of large tracts of land from landmines to allow the return of IDP’s to their homes. However, six years after the end of the armed conflict, there remained a sense that Sri Lanka had not succeeded in winning peace and harmony. A new government was elected in January 2015, which adopted the two-pronged policy of reconciliation and development, conscious that one without the other would not lead to genuine reconciliation among the diverse communities that make up Sri Lanka. The new government committed itself to a holistic and ambitious post-conflict reconciliation approach. This was clearly manifested in September 2015, when Sri Lanka co-sponsored – with the United States and several other countries – a Resolution in the… Read more
LankaCorps: A Conversation with Dr. Naj Nagendran
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015Last week in Washington DC, The Asia Foundation held a fund-raising event to present its LankaCorps Fellowship Program, a unique opportunity for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to engage in social, cultural, and economic development activities in post-conflict Sri Lanka. Each year since 2012, the Foundation has selected an outstanding group of young people…
LankaCorps Fellowship Program
Monday, July 13th, 2015LankaCorps is a unique opportunity for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to professionally engage in social, cultural, and economic development activities in Sri Lanka. The program aims to foster the involvement and understanding of young members of the expatriate Sri Lankan community who have limited in-depth experience with the country of their heritage. Each year, The Asia Foundation selects an outstanding group of LankaCorps Fellows to live and work for six months in Sri Lanka, granting them the unique chance to “explore their roots while giving back.”
Asia Foundation Accepting Applications for LankaCorps
Wednesday, January 14th, 2015Dinesha de Silva blogs from Colombo on Sri Lanka’s historic elections, in which citizens demonstrated “extraordinary resilience by voting overwhelmingly for a new president.” After decades of conflict, attention has now turned to rebuilding a cohesive state that restores critical institutions. Learn about LankaCorps, The Asia Foundation’s unique fellowship for young leaders of Sri Lankan heritage to professionally engage in development activities in the country. Now accepting applications.