I'm T.A.S.Thathsarani Thebuwana from Gampaha. I'm currently a third year undergraduate (2021/2022 students batch) who is studying for BSc.Hons. in Social Studies in Indigenous knowledge of the Faculty of Indigenous Social Sciences and Management Studies in Gampaha Wickramarachchi university of Indigenous Medicine. Also I'm a old student in Newstead Girls College, Negombo and I did my A/L’s from Arts stream.

During the period of time that the university application process was ongoing I was interested about building up a carrier path related to Social Studies and Social Work. Since the degree course was just started an year before I through fully started to gather more information about this university and of course about the degree program. By that time I have understood that this degree program is probably not just only about learning social sciences but also understanding the uniqueness of Indigenousness and the traditional cultural values through representation and application in social phenomenons locally and globally. There for I was really interested on this degree program and also about the faculty sub culture which was anti-rag and student friendly before coming here.

This degree program is not just another Humanities degree program, but also a platform to understand the values of traditional cultures. Also it's not only focused on Sri Lankan context but also about the global indigenous communities and their socio cultural structure. What I personally think is, we assum things by the name but not by understanding the core, many of the outsiders could have different opinions about humanities subjects like social studies. Hence it is so, I think that we, as undergraduates are getting more benefits from this degree program beyond the academic knowledge. We study about sociologically, anthropologically and geographically driven contexts along with the understanding of economics and management too. From there we have a touch on social, environmental and anthropological issues, conditions and situations in a different perspectives. In my opinion, this degree program is simply a highly sustainable and valuable platform to aquire a wide knowledge.

The main and most important thing is the student friendly environment of the department and the faculty. From the Dean of the faculty to the senior students, each an every one act as a great support towards growing up as a successful undergraduate.They sincerely help each student to gain more knowledge about what we study and beyond that they also provide us lots of opportunities for gaining more experience in the aspect of extra curricular activities. In my idea the best thing I see here is any of us students, can talk with any of the academic staff without any hesitation on any personal issue they suffer from or anything else. The kindhearted, unbiased, support without judgements and the wide knowledge they offer for students, makes us to interact freely with each other, be who we are and come up always with new and unique ideas in practice.

As I have explained before, I experience a wonderful free and nice environment in FISSMS. We don't actually have to bother about things like raging, bulling and any kind of discomfort physically or mentally. Although we have small amount of resources and facilities, since we are still building up as an academic institute, FISSMS encourage us to build up strong as individuals with the academic knowledge and also with the practical applications. Again I think it's a great pleasure to study and develop as a student, from a place like this which always feels like home.

I have worked as the Students Representative of my batch from 2023 to 2024, as a Vce Secretary of the faculty Leo Club and a Committee Member of the faculty Rotaract Club. Also I have been currently working as the Secretary of The Arts and Literature Sub Committee and the Newly appointed University Coordinator of G17 University Ambassador Consortium too. From these opportunities I have learned many things about leadership how to be smart an efficient when dealing with issues and challenges. Not only that I have joined and contributed for many of the volunteer community projects that was organized by the Faculty Students Union and the 2021/2022 batch. Beyond that as a participant of The Interfaith Circle (4th phase) of IYAP Organisation for three months in 2024 and currently participating for the Sustainable Leadership Training Program offered by The Center of Sustainability Solutions in The University of Kelaniya. From these, I have obtained a good knowledge about dealing with multi ethnic groups, teamwork and dealing with multiple people with different perspectives, opinions and ideas. Also I have developed myself an idea about sustainability and personal growth through it with all these activities that I have done and currently doing. I'm glad to acknowledge that the encouragement for all these activities were came from FISSMS.