Here is a link to my award profile and the 24 other award winners. http://www.canadianimmigrant.ca/VijaySappani

To know more about the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award click here and here is a brief note…..for the lazy ones

Our Top 25 Canadian Immigrants is a peoples’ choice award that recognizes people who have come to Canada and have made a positive difference living here. Whether it’s a community advocate or volunteer, a successful entrepreneur or a cultural icon, this is the first Canadian national award program that recognizes immigrants’ achievements from all walks of life.

When people leave their home country, they also leave behind their role models. Now in Canada, they need new positive role models — by recognizing Canada’s top immigrants we are providing an entire nation of immigrants with such positive examples. The selected 25 immigrants will enthuse and motivate all immigrants as they establish their new life and home in Canada.

For Immediate Release
 
April 15, 2010
 
Tamil and Sinhalese Canadian Young Professionals Network for Success and Seek Out Intercommunal Dialogue
 
Toronto – On April 11, 2010, 50 Tamil and Sinhalese Canadian young professionals came together for a special luncheon to network with various industry leaders and to help build better intercommunal relations in the Sri Lankan diaspora community in Canada.  
 
The decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka has, for many years, strained the relationship between Sinhalese and Tamil diaspora communities in Canada and opportunities for productive dialogue remain scarce.  With the recent conclusion of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, however, there is renewed interest amongst Tamil and Sinhalese Canadian young professionals to initiate genuine and recuperative intercommunal dialogue that would help bridge the gulf that exists in the diaspora community in Canada.
 
Sponsored by community leaders and organized by fellow young professionals, the attendees were provided the opportunity to meet industry leaders in various sectors, including business, financial services, health care, communications, and public policy. For many, it was an opportunity to build a stronger professional network and all attendees acknowledged the great value brought to the table by their mentors.  Many of the mentors were from diverse communities including Indo- and Jewish Canadians. These industry leaders who acted as mentors at the event and helped facilitate group discussions included:
 
·        Stephen Adler, Director, Public Policy and Governmental Affairs, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto
·        Priti Chawla, Chief Executive Officer, Capsule Communications
·        Xavier N. Fernando, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ryerson University
·        Neerja Goyal, Director, Regulatory and Development Operations, GlaxoSmithKline Canada Inc.
·        Aditya Jha, President and Chief Executive Officer, Karma Candy Inc.
·        Pankaj Mehra, Director, India and South Asia Markets, The Bank of Nova Scotia
·        Len Rudner, Ontario Regional Director, Canadian Jewish Congress
 
The occasion was also unique and the first of its kind for Tamil and Sinhalese Canadian young professionals in that it created a safe space to discuss how Sri Lanka and its diasporas might improve relations across communities. As Anupa Khemadasa observed, “It gave me hope that peace is possible.” “It was a perfect opportunity to bridge gaps in our careers and communities,” added Sabitha Kana.
 
The success of this first initiative has given hope to many Tamil and Sinhalese Canadian young professionals that through such exercises they can create a forum to actively work together on common professional interests and community issues that impact both groups, support the amelioration of human rights of all communities in Sri Lanka, and explore opportunities to make positive and meaningful contributions to the future development Sri Lanka.
 
 
-30-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21friedman.html?ref=opinion
 
Thomas L. Friedman
Went to a big Washington dinner last week. You know the kind: Large hall; black ties; long dresses. But this was no ordinary dinner. There were 40 guests of honor. So here’s my Sunday news quiz: I’ll give you the names of most of the honorees, and you tell me what dinner I was at. Ready?
Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.
No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?
O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.
Indeed, if you need any more convincing about the virtues of immigration, just come to the Intel science finals. I am a pro-immigration fanatic. I think keeping a constant flow of legal immigrants into our country — whether they wear blue collars or lab coats — is the key to keeping us ahead of China. Because when you mix all of these energetic, high-aspiring people with a democratic system and free markets, magic happens. If we hope to keep that magic, we need immigration reform that guarantees that we will always attract and retain, in an orderly fashion, the world’s first-round aspirational and intellectual draft choices.
This isn’t complicated. In today’s wired world, the most important economic competition is no longer between countries or companies. The most important economic competition is actually between you and your own imagination. Because what your kids imagine, they can now act on farther, faster, cheaper than ever before — as individuals. Today, just about everything is becoming a commodity, except imagination, except the ability to spark new ideas.
If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it. I can use Amazon.com to handle fulfillment. I can use freelancer.com to find someone to do my logo and manage my backroom. And I can do all this at incredibly low prices. The one thing that is not a commodity and never will be is that spark of an idea. And this Intel dinner was all about our best sparklers.
Before the dinner started, each contestant stood by a storyboard explaining their specific project. Namrata Anand, a 17-year-old from the Harker School in California, patiently explained to me her research, which used spectral analysis and other data to expose information about the chemical enrichment history of “Andromeda Galaxy.” I did not understand a word she said, but I sure caught the gleam in her eye.
My favorite chat, though, was with Amanda Alonzo, a 30-year-old biology teacher at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif. She had taught two of the finalists. When I asked her the secret, she said it was the resources provided by her school, extremely “supportive parents” and a grant from Intel that let her spend part of each day inspiring and preparing students to enter this contest. Then she told me this: Local San Jose realtors are running ads in newspapers in China and India telling potential immigrants to “buy a home” in her Lynbrook school district because it produced “two Intel science winners.”
Seriously, ESPN or MTV should broadcast the Intel finals live. All of the 40 finalists are introduced, with little stories about their lives and aspirations. Then the winners of the nine best projects are announced. And finally, with great drama, the overall winner of the $100,000 award for the best project of the 40 is identified. This year it was Erika Alden DeBenedictis of New Mexico for developing a software navigation system that would enable spacecraft to more efficiently “travel through the solar system.” After her name was called, she was swarmed by her fellow competitor-geeks.
Gotta say, it was the most inspiring evening I’ve had in D.C. in 20 years. It left me thinking, “If we can just get a few things right — immigration, education standards, bandwidth, fiscal policy — maybe we’ll be O.K.” It left me feeling that maybe Alice Wei Zhao of North High School in Sheboygan, Wis., chosen by her fellow finalists to be their spokeswoman, was right when she told the audience: “Don’t sweat about the problems our generation will have to deal with. Believe me, our future is in good hands.”
As long as we don’t shut our doors.

She recommended five key points that I thought I will share with you. Hopefully you can keep a few lbs away! Seasons greetings and happy holidays and most importantly, be safe.

Consider healthier alternatives- Instead of eating a plateful of samosas, pakoras or other fried food, why not eat a bowl of fruit or baked goods? Mangos, cantaloupe, and dates are great fruits, and baked pitas or boiled brown rice are great choices for the holiday. Spice up your creations this holiday season by cooking low-fat, low-sugar treats!

Eat five times per day- Spread out your meals and eat more often to help boost your metabolism. This also keeps your stomach partly full and prevents you from overeating. As a general guideline, try to eat three meals, and two healthy snacks per day.

Don’t deny yourself- It can be hard to give up your favourite foods, but completely depriving yourself of them will make you crave them more, and may result in you overeating! Continue to enjoy your favourite foods, but eat in moderation. (Yes, this means you can eat one samosa!) Try to eat smaller portions to satisfy your cravings.

Weigh yourself often –To motivate you to maintain a healthy weight that will help you look and feel your best, check and keep track of your weight. Weigh yourself at least once a week or every few days at the same time each day to determine if you are at your ideal weight, losing weight or gaining.

Make your holiday active- Exercise not only makes you look good, but it makes you feel good too. Engaging in light or moderate exercise such as dancing to your favourite Bollywood songs or going on the treadmill for 30 minutes a day for at least 3 days a week can really make a difference. As an added bonus, you can also enjoy more of your favourite foods if you workout regularly.

Dua also reminds everyone to see their doctor, dietitian or nutritionist before making any major changes to their diet.