Our StoryA project born from one student's experience.
The Purple Desk Project is personal. It began with a single student navigating higher education with epilepsy — and a belief that the path could be made easier for others.
Nyah Slater
At 19 years old, thousands of miles away from her family, Nyah Slater experienced her first seizure. What she didn't know at the time was just how much epilepsy would change her college experience.
As her seizures became more frequent, things that once felt manageable became increasingly difficult. Epilepsy affected her memory, independence, attendance, and ability to balance academics with athletics. Eventually, she made the difficult decision to step away from her master's program.
Throughout that experience, Nyah realized that while accommodations and resources were available, there was still a disconnect between having support in place and truly understanding what it means to be a student living with epilepsy.
That realization became the foundation for The Purple Desk Project.
As a graduate student and Miss Ohio Collegiate USA, Nyah is using her experiences and her platform to advocate for greater epilepsy awareness in higher education. Through The Purple Desk Project, she hopes to connect with universities, students, and advocacy organizations to encourage education, campus outreach, and meaningful conversations about epilepsy.
Her goal isn't to change what she's experienced, but to help make the college experience a little easier for the students who come after her.
“Accommodations existed. What was missing was understanding of what living with epilepsy actually looks like.”
Nyah Slater, Founder
From a first seizure to a project for others.
A first seizure, far from home
At 19 years old and thousands of miles from family, Nyah Slater experienced her first seizure. College was already a big transition; epilepsy made it something else entirely.
Changes that reached into everything
Over time, epilepsy affected her memory, her independence, her attendance, her academic life, and her ability to take part in sports. As seizures became more frequent, the ordinary work of being a student grew harder.
Stepping away to regroup
Navigating higher education became difficult enough that Nyah eventually stepped away from her master's program — not for lack of ability, but because the support and understanding around epilepsy hadn't caught up with what she needed.
Noticing the gaps
Accommodations and resources existed. But her experience revealed how much was missing in awareness and understanding of what living with epilepsy actually looks like day to day.
The Purple Desk Project begins
The project grew from a simple desire: to improve that understanding, and to make navigating higher education a little easier for the students who come next.
The Purple Desk Project doesn't claim to have all the answers. It's a growing effort to listen, to share what's been learned, and to help campuses meet students with epilepsy with more understanding.
Connect with the project