Sumudu Weerasuriya

Sumudu Weerasuirya recently graduated with Honors from UC Berkeley, where she majored in English and minored in Disability Studies. Originally of SriLankan ethnicity, born in East Africa (Kenya), and having lived on the island of Cyprus before moving to the U.S. six years ago, she offers a culturally diverse and sensitive approach to her work. In the fall of 2006, she undertook the commitment of writing her honors thesis on Alexander Pope’s The Essay On Man. Under the guidance of her mentor Susan Schweik at Berkeley, she deconstructed this great poem through the lens of disability. She explored the complexities of inhabiting a disabled body, and the challenges that arise in grappling with the social, cultural, and personal, implications of disability at large. Serving as a complement to this work were the classes offered through the disability studies minor, which allowed for a proactive medium for dialogue and the exchange of ideas between faculty and students, ‘able’ and ‘disabled.’

Currently, Sumudu is a Program Representative with the Tarjan Center Service Inclusion Project at UCLA. Her area of focus is Youth Development and Leadership. She is passionate about education. Her goal is to empower youth with disabilities: to equip them with the leadership tools which will allow them to play an inclusive role in society and be part of the next generation of leaders. Her initiatives promote a mentality of sociability and interdependence, rather than exclusivity and fear. In working on the Youth Development and Leadership Project, she endeavors to reinforce her belief that service work is personally rewarding; for individuals with learning disabilities, it will offer something concrete upon which to reflect and be proud. Service and Leadership build self-esteem and confidence by focusing on strengths over weaknesses. By encouraging and creating opportunities for youth/young adults with disabilities to assume the role of service ‘provider’ over ‘recipient,’ she strives to remove the stigma concerning ‘dis-ability,’ and focus on ABILITY.

She continues now to merge her own interest and commitment to the field of Disability Studies with the Youth Development and Leadership Project. By equipping, encouraging, and engaging young adults with tools and knowledge, she seeks to empower them to contribute to this emerging, enigmatic, and thriving arena of disability work and studies.