Three scholarship students from Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN), the Hindu Secondary School at Cornelia, West Coast Demerara, have returned home after graduating with degrees from colleges in the United States.
The students, chosen from SVN’s best graduating Carib-bean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) students, have joined the institution as teachers.
They will be an asset to the school when it introduces the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam in 2013; making SVN the only school in the Region 3 to so do, according to a press release from the school.
Natasha Persaud, the first official student to enrol in the school, graduated from York College, City University of New York, with a business degree. Nirmala Singh, SVN’s best CSEC graduating student in 2005, studied Mathematics Education at Brooklyn College, and as part of the requirement for her degree, taught at New York City schools.
Kaminie Singh graduated with honours in English Education from Lehman College. Kaminie Singh was SVN’s Best CSEC graduating student in 2006. She is teaching English Language and Literature at SVN.
The scholarships were financed by a single extended USA-based Guyanese Hindu family, the Ramnarayans, who took care of all expenses, including tuition, books, travel and other incidental expenses, in addition to providing lodging, the release added.
The founder and principal of SVN, Swami Aksharananda, expressed gratitude to family, without whose intervention, the scholarship programme would not have been possible. The family has committed to supporting future scholarship programmes of the school.
According to the release, the principal has indicated that the institution will continue to invest in the training and development of its young teachers. Currently, it is supporting two teachers pursuing the Associate Degree in Education at CPCE, and who plan to move on to the University of Guyana. The school is paying their tuition fees, in addition to providing them a monthly stipend of $50,000 each, plus their travel.
