Top Talents 2012 – A Night to Remember!

Written By: CTYA Blogs Team

Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance held the third annual Top Talents Awards Gala this past Sunday, December 30th. Over 370 people, both youth and community members alike attended the event. The Top Talents Awards Gala is about investing in the youth. Through the accomplishments of our youth, is important to show society that Tamil youth are continuing to make positive contributions to society. Hosting an Awards Gala as such will only guarantee that one day in the future we will have our very first Canadian Tamil athlete, artist, or entrepreneur who will be recognized in a more national and international scale.

This year, Top Talents was studded with youth icons: Senthamil Stefi, WessTigga Athavan Anbalagan, Steve Cliff, Lenin Sivam, Vinsia Maharajah, Kokilan Maheswaran, Keerthana Pathmanathan, Rajeev Tha Prophecy, Eindui Thulasi Nanthakumaran, Jena K. Siva, Sarika Navanathan, Boywonder Anoojan Vijayasri, Sanjeev Jayasingam, Menan Nagulendran, Arun Vigneswarajah and Pushpalingam Kandavanam all joined the celebrations. CTYA recognized these youth icons in the community with plaques. Fans were very excited to see all the stars come together. Seeing so many youth icons further highlighted the talented youth we have in the Tamil community.

Congratulations to Top Talents 2012! Over the next few weeks, we will be profiling these Top Talents award winners on our blog, so stay tuned!

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Top Talents 2012 Winners!

Top Talents 2012 – Classical Dance
Yalini Rajakulasingam

Top Talents 2012 -Visual Arts
Shavumiyaa Chandrabalan

Top Talents 2012 -Engineering
Aravinthan Ahileswaran

Top Talents 2012 – Tamil Language
Shagana Thangarajah

Top Talents 2012 – Soccer
Apeeram Balasingam

Top Talents 2012 – Young Entrepreneur
Ahenam Technologies

Top Talents 2012 -Youth Volunteer
Senthan Thirugnanasampanthan

Top Talents 2012 – Special Category
Jesinthan Jeyanthiran

Check out photos on CTYA’s Fanpage

In addition to the Top Talents Awards, CTYA presented Awards to group member organizations.

Two special Awards were also presented at Top Talents Awards Gala: The prestigious Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award was presented by M.P. Glen Murray to Krisna Saravanamuttu. Krisna is a social activist who has worked tirelessly to improve communities and human rights.

The Final Award presented at Top Talents was the Ilamvaahai Award. This was the first year the Ilamvaahai Award was presented. The Ilamvaahai Award is an Award presented to recognize a unique achievement by a Tamil youth. It is not an Award that is presented every year, but awarded in very special circumstances. Ilamvaahai comes from the root words “ilam” meaning young and “vaahai” meaning success. This year’s recipient of the Illamvaahai Award was Menan Nagulendran. Menan was one of the athletes who played for Team Tamileelam in the VIVA F.A. Tournament in Kurdistan, and scored the historic first goal for Team Tamileelam.

A motivational speech was delivered by Manjula Selvarajah. As a vivid successful young entrepreneur, Manjula shared her failures as a lesson and stepping stone for her success. She encouraged youth to continue to dream big and work hard.

Lavaniya Rajah delivered the youth speech, as a strong advocate of youth activism, Lavaniya shared her experiences as well as the importance of civic engagement.

Having a successful role model is important for the youth in the community to draw inspiration from to pursue their talents and ambitions confidently. As such, Neethan Shan delivered the Keynote Speech and shared his experiences and advice with the attendees.

The event ended off with a grand dinner and a night of networking. catching up with friends and fun!

Top Talents 2012 was definitely a night to remember! We are very proud of all our Tamil youth. Thanks to all of our sponsors, media, presenters, speakers, youth icons, performers and all those who joined us! Congrats to all the Award Recipients!

The Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance is the largest combination of youth associations and groups nationwide with Tamil heritage, culture and language backgrounds. Its vision is to empower Canadian Tamil Youth to become outstanding leaders and citizens in our society. Hosting events such as Top Talents, Thaalam, Tamil Eelam Challenge Cup, and CTFF helps the community grows stronger together.

We hope to see you all at CTYA’s Top Talents 2013!

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