Downtown
Don the regalia and mortar board
Congratulations to Luvna Yeasmin, class salutatorian 2012 from LIU’s Brooklyn campus. This native of Bangladesh almost didn’t make it. She was just in her freshman year at LIU Brooklyn, when she lost her focus and wanted to quit, but her parents convinced her otherwise. Neither parent went beyond having a junior high school education and they wanted more for their youngest daughter. Now a little more than three years later, Luvna is graduating with a 3.89 GPA and has secured the school’s second highest academic honor. Luvna explained to Standing O that “In Bangladeshi culture, they don’t believe in letting a woman go far with her education. My parents were determined to give me the support and strength to break this pattern.”
Another incentive to succeed in school was that Luvna’s beloved grandma passed away from asthma in a small village in Bangladesh where clinics and hospitals are in short supply. Had there been medical personnel close by her grandmother might be alive today. Luvna commented, “They have doctors and nurses but not respiratory therapists. Respiratory disease is prevalent there because of the high rate of smokers. I want to expand the knowledge of medicine back home and improve the health system for the poor.”
LIU Brooklyn [One University Plaza at DeKalb Avenue in Downtown, (718) 488-1117].
