Austin Peay celebrates first doctoral graduate

The title in front of her name sometimes causes her to hesitate – Dr. Sarah Dugger. “A lot of my teacher friends will joke and call me Dr. Dugger,” she said. Over the next few months, others might also hesitate when she tells them where she earned her doctorate – Austin Peay State University. For the last 94 years, the University has never awarded anything higher than an Education Specialist graduate degree, but that will change at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 7. That evening, Dugger – let’s say it again, “Dr. Sarah Dugger” – will make history by becoming the first person to earn a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership degree at the University.

Dr. Dugger being hooded

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Deepesh Subedi enrolled at Austin Peay because his goal, once he earns his nurse practitioner degree, is to open a clinic in Tennessee that serves residents with limited English language skills.

APSU student escapes Bhutanese ethnic war, later wins THEC’s top service award

They were coming to arrest his father. Deepesh Subedi, only 5 at the time, helped his family quickly pack a few essentials before the soldiers arrived. It didn’t matter that his father was a quiet farmer, with no interest in politics. It didn’t matter that the Subedi family had lived in Bhutan – a small country on the edge of the Himalayas – as legal citizens for several generations. All that mattered to the soldiers, marching up the slopes with their guns, was that the family had immigrated from Nepal several generations earlier.

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Students hanging out in the latino community resource center

In recent years, the center has become one of the key instruments in that strategy, which is why the University rebranded it this spring from the Hispanic Cultural Center – as it was known for 16 years – to the Latino Community Resource Center (LCRC).

Rebranded Latino Community Resource Center helps APSU lead state in Latino student access

For Kemeliz Fuentes, a sophomore at Austin Peay State University, being a Latina in America often means struggling to exist in two separate worlds. “You’ll ask yourself, ‘Am I being American enough for my American friends and Hispanic enough for my Hispanic friends?’” she said. When these questions begin to overwhelm her, Fuentes heads to the bottom floor of the APSU Morgan University Center where, in a large office suite with couches, tables, a television and small kitchen area, she relaxes with friends dealing with similar concerns. This space, the APSU Latino Community Resource Center, is a second home for students like Fuentes, and it’s helping more Latino students enroll and thrive at Austin Peay.

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APSU President, Dr. Michael Licari, cuts the ribbon in front of the new Aviation Science Facility at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Airport.

APSU unveils Aviation Science Facility during ribbon-cutting ceremony

A black Robinson R44 helicopter emblazoned with the Austin Peay State University logo swooped low over a cheering crowd at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Airport on Friday morning. The aircraft, the newest addition to APSU’s growing helicopter fleet, carried Austin Peay President Michael Licari and his special guest, F&M Bank President and CEO Sammy Stuard, to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new APSU Aviation Science Facility at the airport.