Fri, 2012-09-07 07:53 — editor
Colombo, 07 September, (Asiantribune.com):
Bandula Gunawardhana, Minister of Education and Chairman of the Sri
Lanka National
Commission for UNESCO, praised the appointment of Sri Lankan-born
American diplomat and professor Patrick Mendis to the UNESCO Commission by the
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“As fellow alumni of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, I am very
proud and pleased to congratulate you and remind you of the honour you have
bestowed upon your mother country through such achievements,” the Minister
wrote to American Commissioner Mendis.
The American diplomat was born and educated in a rice farming village of
Polonnaruwa—a World Heritage Site. For his youth activities, he was then
honored with the National UNESCO Award. “I missed my 13-water buffaloes, a
milking cow, and our three-acre rice field,” said Mendis in a phone interview
from Washington, D.C.
At the age of 18, Mendis won one of the nine American Field Service
(AFS) scholarships among over 100,000 applicants in Sri Lanka. He earned his
American high school diploma in the State of Minnesota where he learned to
speak English for the first time.
Commissioner Mendis later obtained his BSc degree (First Class Honours)
from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura before he returned to the United States
on a Hubert Humphrey fellowship for graduate studies at the University of
Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Author of several acclaimed
books, Dr. Mendis is also an alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University.
“You have certainly gone a long way by leaving water buffaloes to
embrace the reindeer in the beautiful snow landscapes of America. It seems
natural that UNESCO-Sri Lanka had recognized the great potential in you from a
young age,” wrote Prithi Perera, the Secretary General of the UNESCO Commission
in Colombo.
Before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, Professor Mendis represented
the Government of Sri Lanka as a “Youth Ambassador” at the UN with
distinguished Sri Lankan Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, who later became a
mentor to Dr. Mendis. To recognize his outstanding leadership at the
International Year of the Youth, the young ambassador was honored with the UN
Medal.
A life-long Sarvodaya volunteer, Professor Mendis worked with legendary
Sarvodaya founder Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne and established a Sarvodaya Peace Prize
and a number of tsunami scholarships in Sri Lanka. From the sales of his books,
he has endowed the leadership and management awards at the University of Sri
Jayewardenepura. The founder of the Tsunami Leaders Caring (“TLC”) Foundation,
Professor Mendis serves as an advisor to the Educate Lanka Foundation that
sponsors underprivileged students with financial scholarships in Sri Lanka.
During his illustrious career in international organizations, government
and academia, Commissioner Mendis worked in and traveled to over 100 countries
and visited all 50 states in America. He is an affiliate professor of public
and international affairs at George Mason University in the United States and a
consulting professor of international relations at the Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies in China.
“We are so fortunate to have Patrick Mendis as a commissioner. The depth
and breadth of his unique experience as a teacher, diplomat, author, traveler,
and scholar make our UNESCO Commission stronger,” said Eric Woodard, Executive
Director of the UNESCO Commission at the U.S. State Department in Washington,
D.C.
“This is a great privilege that has been bestowed on Professor Mendis by
the high echelons of the U.S. government,” said Secretary General Perera. “As a
Sri Lankan born, the commissioner has brought great honour to his country of
birth. It is truly a well-deserved recognition of his acclaimed works and
extensive experiences in various fields of public and foreign policy,” the
Secretary General added.
- Asian Tribune -
