STC marks 175th Anniversary with essay writing and oratory competitions

Essay 1- Winners of the Essay writing and Oratory competitions held by S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia to celebrate its175th Anniversary 
(Pics by Kithsiri De Mel)

Next year too,  the school will conduct more events and sports competitions to mark the occasion

As part of its 175th Anniversary celebrations of S. Thomas’ College,  Mount Lavinia, the school recently conducted All Island Essay Writing (Junior and Senior) and Oratory Competitions. The year-long celebration which commenced in February 2025 will conclude in December 2026. One of the main objectives of this celebration is to showcase and celebrate everything that the College is proud of. The essay and oratory competition witnessed the participation of students from across the country.  

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Acting Warden Asanka Perera congratulated all participants of the two competitions. The finals of the oratory competition was held prior to the Awards ceremony. 

“I enjoyed listening to the speeches and you have opened our eyes and shown us what oratory is all about. We received many applications from all across the island for these two competitions and we are happy about it. One of the aspects is that we wanted to showcase and celebrate everything that we are proud of as S. Thomas’ College. So writing and oratory are two skills which we are proud of. We are coming up with another competition which focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. We come into the official celebrations of the 175th Anniversary on February 3, 2026. Next year too will be full of events, sports competitions and we encourage as many students as possible to participate in these events,” he added. 

Perera further acknowledged the efforts of the Committee that joined hands with him to make the event possible. In his comments,  Committee member in charge of special events Bertal Pinto Jayawardene said the two events were part of a series of events done throughout the year to celebrate the 175th Anniversary. “This year we are focusing primarily on the youth. By way of community service and outreach we want to build our youth and make them stronger. We want to build their language skills. Whether it is writing an essay or oratory, it requires skill and courage. They become stronger by participating in events of this nature,” he added. 

Jayawardene further said that the upcoming competition on innovation aims at encouraging children to come up with various creative ideas to strengthen the nation. So, we are doing nation building in different ways. Despite winning an award or not, you are a winner, because you had the courage to participate in a competition, encouraged, guided and blessed by your parents,” he said while giving advice to participants and encouraging them to have a positive attitude and face life’s challenges. 

The winners of the two competitions are as follows;
Essay writing competition (junior category):
1st place – Emorah Shyfendran, Ladies’ College, Colombo 
2nd place – Shafa Samidon, Hejaz International School, Mt. Lavinia
3rd place – Sesadi Darika Kannangara, Museaus College, Colombo and Fathima Zahra Samidon, Hejaz International School, Mt. Lavinia
Essay writing competition (senior category): 
1st place – Nathan Liyanage, Wesley College, Colombo
2nd place – Yewan Perera, St. Anthony’s College, Kandy
3rd place – Mohamed Khalifa Jiffry khan, Amal International School and Imandee Jayaweera, Holy Cross College, Gampaha
Essay competition winners from S. Thomas’ College: 
Reshan Christopher De Silva (junior category) and Shevon Anthonypillai (Senior Category)
Oratory competition:
1st place – Yashmith Abeysinghe, Lyceum International School, Nugegoda
2nd place – Thahira Saheed, Ladies’ College, Colombo 
3rd place – Buddhima Senarath, Rahula College, Matara