Education Minister receives honorary degree from Lesley University

Professor Sharlene Cochrane welcomed honorary degree recipient Priya Manickchand and lauded her instrumental role in establishing a relationship between Guyana and Lesley University to develop a unique master’s program for mental health professionals to address the needs of Guyana’s citizens, the first class of which graduated today.

Manickchand, who is the minister of education in Guyana, encouraged Lesley graduates to fight for access to education for people across the globe.

“Education is universally recognized as being one sure way to catalyze change, to improve individual circumstances, to uplift families, to transform communities, to develop countries, to change the human condition for better,” she said.

“You will leave here today with a sound education from Lesley, and that sound education gives you a whole lot of value. That value makes you perfectly poised to be a catalyst of change. … With education you now have a responsibility to use what you have, your body and well-trained mind, to help bring about change.”

Manickchand is a champion for Guyana’s most vulnerable populations, including children, women and the elderly. During her speech, she recalled her homeland — a beautiful, sunny country with the world’s “largest single-drop waterfall” — and said that while South America seems far from Cambridge, Mass., “today’s world is more interconnected than it ever was in human history.”

“We are truly a global village,” she said. “What you do here in your country will affect what happens in mine, and vice versa.”

Manickchand encouraged graduates to join the global cause to attain gender equality, which is connected to pervasive problems of extreme poverty, hunger, health care and educational equality, she said.

“When a girl is not allowed an education somewhere else in the world simply because she is a girl, it will affect your lives, because we are all interconnected,” she said. “Whatever your passion, whatever you plan to pursue, wherever you work, wherever you live, wherever you play, consciously and strategically set to use your value, your training here, to bring about gender equality.”