From General Member to President: A Rotaract Story

BY Rtr. Anya Senadhira – President (2026/2027)

Over the past few months, I’ve shared this story more times than I can count. Nevertheless, here we go again.

I joined the WhatsApp group of the Rotaract Club after the world café session at the fresher’s orientation, before I had even picked out my subjects. My actual Rotaract journey started when I stepped into the orientation session on the 23^rd of the July 2025. I was curious and eager, and my intention was quite simple: participate in an extracurricular alongside my friends.

A few weeks later, I was selected as the project chair of the 16^th installation ceremony and as the batch representative alongside my good friend, Tharinsa. Organizing a project as massive as the installation ceremony was nerve wracking and yet, we found so many ways to make it fun and memorable. I still cherish the flower hunts along Dean’s Road, the trips to pettah, the discussions that turned into spontaneous meetings, and making decorations together with the rest of the organizing committee members.

Thereafter, I joined many projects the club did throughout the year covering a wide range of avenues, including Professional Development, Community Service, International Service and Sports and Recreational Service. I truly enjoyed every moment of it.

Additionally, as batch representatives, Tharinsa and I also had the task of recruiting people to the club. We used to come up with various reasons to convince our batchmates to join the club and my personal favourite reason always was “it’s so chill and it’s very laid back” (it is very much true by the way).

Eventually, in April 2026, I was chosen as the President-Elect and that came with many more responsibilities and million more deadlines. As I’m writing this, we’re now over a month into the RI year 2026-27. Sometimes I simply want to have that experience of being a starry-eyed general member again, but oh well, duty calls! As President I can assure each of y’all that we will have a good year and that I will give this club the recognition it deserves. With that in mind, I choose our motto: “service for tomorrow, legacy for a lifetime”, emphasizing on our continued commitment to service and our hope to build something that outlasts our tenure.

My Rotaract journey has had its fair share highs and lows. There have been moments where I truly lost motivation but at end the of the day, it has given me so many opportunities to grow as an individual, made me countless new friends, and left me with memories I will always cherish.

In lieu of the Membership Retention Month, Rotaractors at the University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts have submitted their creative work for the month of August under the theme “My Rotaract Journey”. These works reflect on the memories, trials and tribulations that our members encountered during their Rotaract experience.