Channa Amarasekera

Channa_a

“As a physician I’d like to come back to the marginalized communities I’ve seen so far, like the homeless and the poor, and help eliminate the disparities in healthcare access these communities face.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Hometown: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Biography

PROFILE: Channa Amarasekera came to America from his native Sri Lanka in 2001 and spent his high school years in suburban Washington, DC. While attending the University of Maryland (from which he graduated summa cum laude in 2007 with a perfect 4.0 GPA), Channa began volunteering at the Whitman Walker Clinic, one of the first facilities in the US designated to treat HIV/AIDS patients. Channa had already determined that medical school was in his future, but the assignment at Whitman Walker opened his eyes to the health disparities that existed in America. Then, a few months later, Channa returned to Sri Lanka to volunteer at a camp for survivors of a tsunami and was surprised to discover the same healthcare disparities existed in his native land. “It is this sense of knowing how unjust it is that certain groups of people do not have fair access to basic healthcare which sparked within me a desire to pursue a career that might enable me to improve the quality of care for those with inadequate access to health services.”  In addition to his volunteer work in the medical field, Channa compiled a remarkable record of public service at Maryland and the surrounding community and also worked with a professor on genetics research. He did all this while working 30 hours a week at a local video store to help pay his bills. 

INSPIRATION: Channa’s mother had a profound influence on him. “Growing up in a culture where women are encouraged to marry young instead of pursuing an education, my mother never studied beyond the 10th grade. As a result, when my family moved to the US during a time of civil strife in Sri Lanka my mother worked 70-hour-weeks at menial jobs to help support my family and to provide me with the opportunities she never had.” Through his mother’s experiences Channa said he learned never to take for granted the opportunities he has in life. “My mother has also taught me the importance of working through adversity, and maintaining a sense of compassion, even through the darkest of times, and for these reasons I find my mother truly inspiring.”

ASPIRATION: His long-term career plans are to become a physician and provide medical care to underserved communities.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: An achievement of which Channa is particularly proud was the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) book drive he conducted for EQUAL GROUND, a non-profit organization that seeks to decriminalize homosexuality in Sri Lanka (where homosexuality is punishable by law with a prison sentence of up to 10 years). “I was particularly proud of the book drive because it allowed me to go against the culture in which I had been raised, where many people view homosexuality within the framework of parochial laws.”  By helping to establish an LGBT library, “I was proud not only to have helped create the possibility of a more tolerant environment toward human differences in Sri Lanka, but also to have given those people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality a resource to help them see that they are not alone.”

ACCOLADES: Channa is a proud member of Phi Beta Kappa, earned semester academic honors every semester, and earned an Honors Citation from the University of Maryland.

INTERESTING FACT:  Channa was the founder and captain of the Terrapin Cricket Club at the University of Maryland. 

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