Leadership lecture Series is a platform, where GIIS has been inviting famous personalities to share their inspirational journey with the students. On Tuesday, the 30th of October 2017, Datuk Dr. Dennison Jayasooria, a well-known and highly reputed philanthropist visited the GIISKL campus. He was invited by our country director, Mr. Manoj Nair to promote Leadership Lecture Series.

Dr. Jayasooria is truly an exceptional man, the talk started with the welcoming of our guest with a bouquet of flowers; this was followed by Dr. Jayasooria briefly introducing himself, He told the students about how as a young child he was always drawn towards helping others in need, how he would readily donate to charitable causes. As he grew older, through his life experiences and studies in sociology his viewpoint shifted and he set out to solve problems of the needy with more permanent solutions.

Dr. Jayasooria has worked with prominent organizations like the United Nations and other NGOs dedicated to a good cause. He shared some of his experiences with the students and explained how problems like these were tackled and treated at an international level. He enumerated the ideologies of the UN on sustainable development and how we too can implement world scale plans in our own little ways.

Datuk is one of the highest civil honors one can receive in Malaysia, but it is just the tip of the honors and recognitions Dr. Jayasooria has received. He shared how the work that he did, taught him life lessons. He shared one such trip with the students; He had been researching on tribes in Sabah, Malaysia. Through interaction with one particular tribe, he saw the intricate relationship that the tribe had built with nature and how fragile that balance was. This was just one of the multitudes of things he learnt while physically being there, that he could never have done in any regular class.

Towards the end, Dr. Jayasooria graciously answered all the questions that the students put forward. He also donated three books to the school library, two of which were written by him.

That afternoon, everyone present in the auditorium walked out with a renewed sense of doing good for others and a new outlook on life.