{"id":22419,"date":"2016-05-01T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=22419"},"modified":"2016-05-01T20:46:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T01:46:21","slug":"apsu-nursing-student-wins-thec-community-service-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2016\/05\/01\/apsu-nursing-student-wins-thec-community-service-award\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU nursing student wins THEC community service award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Navdeep Saini, who may well be the nicest student attending Austin Peay State University, doesn\u2019t like to talk about himself that much. If pressed, he\u2019ll admit that he speaks six languages and has a degree in biotechnology (that he earned in Russian), but talking about his accomplishments seems to embarrass him.<\/p>\n

He looked particularly shy at APSU\u2019s Einstein Bros. Bagels coffee shop earlier this month when someone asked Saini about another accolade.<\/p>\n

\"Navdeep<\/a>

Navdeep Saini<\/p><\/div>\n

In April, he became one of only five college students from across the state to receive the Tennessee Higher Education Commission\u2019s Harold Love Outstanding Community Service Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for me is, thanks to the Army, I\u2019m here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd what the Army instilled in me is service. If I\u2019m not in the field, I should be giving my time to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saini, a native of India\u2019s Punjab region, is an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army. He arrived at APSU in 2014 to study nursing through the Military\u2019s highly selective Army Nursing Scholarship program. In his short time at APSU, he has become one of the school\u2019s most active community volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have known Mr. Saini for two years through his volunteer work, and during that time I have witnessed a strong work ethic and a passion for helping others,\u201d Alexandra Howard, director of the APSU Center for Service-Learning and Community Engagement (CSLCE), said.<\/p>\n

In early January, Saini participated in an alternative break trip, sponsored by the CSLCE, to the Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida. During that trip, he spent several long days performing manual labor and caring for the some 300 rescued monkeys at the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely impressed to see that Navdeep was as humble as he was hard-working,\u201d Dr. Sheryl Byrd, APSU vice president of Student Affairs and a trip chaperone, said. \u201cHe displayed a strong commitment to accomplish the jobs assigned to the group, even if it meant longer hours or more challenging conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly before Spring Break, Saini helped organize Zika Virus Awareness sessions across the APSU campus. The sessions provided updated information on the infection for students planning to travel to epidemic areas in the Caribbean during the spring holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an outstanding example of selfless service to the community by his numerous community service hours,\u201d Dr. Patty Orr, APSU nursing professor, said.<\/p>\n

Saini also created a multicultural diversity awareness group within APSU\u2019s Student Nursing Association, and that group received the University\u2019s 2016 Thousand Points of Light Award for establishing a new standard in APSU campus life. He serves as a volunteer ambassador for the APSU Office of International Education, and he regularly helps with American Red Cross blood drives and with food distribution through Manna Caf\u00e9 Ministries.<\/p>\n

“Because of the Army, I feel if you\u2019re not directly serving the country, you need to serve indirectly,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the Army really helped me for my dream of being a nurse to come true. I\u2019m so proud of my University. I\u2019m proud to be an Austin Peay student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Saini also received the APSU Impact Award, the APSU Outstanding Campus Service Award and the University\u2019s Halbert Harvill-Civitan Citizenship Award. With the THEC Harold Love Award, named for a late member of the Tennessee General Assembly, Saini will receive a $1,000 cash prize. He has already announced that he is donating the prize money back to the APSU programs he serves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Navdeep Saini, who may well be the nicest student attending Austin Peay State University, doesn\u2019t like to talk about himself that much. If pressed, he\u2019ll admit that he speaks six languages and has a degree in biotechnology (that he earned in Russian), but talking about his accomplishments seems to embarrass him. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[7082,954,23,24595,28140,28138,28136,262,825,9912,27451,28142,28143,28135,7004,28134,4060,9936,4373,1386,28141,8650,28139,1234,28137],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-5PB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22420,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions\/22420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}