High achievers on a Strivers’ pathway to leading universities
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For the fifth year in a row, the award-winning youth-led social venture, The Strivers Network (TSN) provided successful zero-cost mentorship and application guidance to a select group of high-achievers as they applied to the world’s leading universities.
Hailing from rural Ampara, Sandil Abeyrathna of D.S. Senanayake College, Ampara won a scholarship to study engineering physics at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Among the less than 5% of international applicants to be admitted, Sandil received 100% funding for his studies at Berea. Sandil started the ‘O/L Athwala’ community service project in his local village Polwatta to inform dozens of secondary school students about educational opportunities available to them.
Jude Rodrigo of De Mazenod College, Kandana secured a full scholarship worth over USD 380,000 to pursue astrophysics at the prestigious Princeton University —ranked #1 in America with a 2.3% acceptance rate for international students. Jude, a silver medalist at the International Astronomy & Astrophysics Competition (IAAC) in 2022, received the opportunity to conduct astronometry binary star research with the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Tokyo in 2025.
Thenura Wickramarathne of D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo will be studying applied physics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in, Singapore—ranked #3 in Asia. Thenura was awarded the coveted Nanyang Global Scholarship worth over SGD 200,000. Thenura is the first Sri Lankan to win 3 silver medals at the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) and in 2025 won a silver medal at the International Nuclear Science Olympiad (INSO) and represented Sri Lanka at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
Senitha Senaratne of Ananda College, Colombo received full financial aid to study physics and mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia—ranked #21 among liberal arts colleges in America with a 1.8% acceptance rate for international students. Both a budding mathematician and a gifted pianist, Senitha has won medals at international mathematics Olympiads and volunteers as a pianist at the Lanka Alzheimer’s Foundation. Fuelled by a passion for quantum computing, he initiated an independent research project to explore how researchers and engineers can build a quantum computer that can add more quantum bits (qubits) without causing the system to be unstable.
Since its inception in 2021, TSN has guided 75+ scholars from 50+ schools to receive over USD 6 million worth of scholarships to 25+ top universities around the globe, including Princeton, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, Brown, NUS, Oxford, and many more.
Through their flagship programme, The Scholars’ Pipeline, TSN identifies high-achieving students from across Sri Lanka who demonstrate a need for financial assistance and guidance in their higher education journey. Admission to this year-long hybrid programme is based on a holistic review of an application and interview. The TSN team then provides mentorship, training for standardized tests, essay-writing guidance, interview prep and financial assistance with application costs.
Applications for The Scholars’ Pipeline are online at https://bit.ly/SP6Application, with the early deadline on May 23rd and the final deadline on June 6th. Applications submitted by the early deadline will receive detailed feedback regardless of outcome.
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