Myrna M. Persaud Education Scholarship

Myrna M. (Banarsee) Persaud was a smart, literate woman, enamored of reading and knowledge: Victorian literature, Shakespeare, the Brothers Grimm, and history.

Myrna, who was dubbed “The Storyteller,” spun wonderful tales to fascinated children, her own and so many others. Before her unexpected death from the corona virus in May of 2020, she had embarked upon the project of writing her life story saying excitedly: “I’ll start from the beginning and describe my childhood… the experience of motherhood…and how each of… my children, are unique." She was a mother of four, grandmother of five, favorite aunt to many, and warm friend to countless others.

Myrna had been, unfortunately, forced quit school at the age of 12, to care for her newborn baby brother when her mother had died in childbirth. She would mourn the simultaneous losses of her parent and her education for the rest of her life and always expressed her view that education was everlasting. Myrna frequently said to her daughter, Professor Nirvani Persaud, an adjunct professor in Nassau’s English Department, “No one can take an education away from you.”
If there was ever a woman who deserved to be educated and to explore the world of ideas and thought, it was Myrna Persaud. As a largely single mother, whose husband passed away when she was 44, she gave each of her four children their roots and the foundation on which to build the rest of their lives—the gift of her time and friendship to countless others.

This scholarship honors and memorializes Myrna M. Persaud so that a Nassau Community College student may pursue this brilliant woman’s lifelong dream of education.