MARTIN, Tenn. — Nathan Powers’ journey through college ended Dec. 13 when he received a bachelor’s degree in information systems during fall commencement exercises at the University of Tennessee at Martin. However, his contributions to the university as a student worker will long be remembered and appreciated.Powers, 26, filled a part-time student worker position in which he regularly inspected about 1,000 fire extinguishers and automated external defibrillators – a job that kept him on the move during his final two years in college and put his classroom knowledge to practical use. His hard work and ingenuity earned him the Beth Maloan Outstanding UT Martin Student Employee Award for fall semester. The award, presented in November, included a plaque and $1,000 recognizing outstanding student worker performance. The award is named after the late Beth Maloan, director of budgeting and payroll at the time of her death in 2001 and a proponent of experience-based work opportunities for students. “I was very honored (to receive the award),” Powers said. “It’s very prestigious in my mind because I’ve always been taught to do the best job you can, no matter what you’re doing.”Powers, who is from Possum Trot near Humboldt, attended Gibson County High School and played saxophone in the band. His parents, Clayton and Paula, taught him the importance of helping people and stirred his interest in emergency management. Paula is currently training and operations officer for the Gibson County Emergency Management Agency, where her volunteer work turned into a full-time position. His own volunteer experience with the county’s EMA began at age eight. “During natural disasters I would help with storm spotting,” Powers said. “I went to all those classes and learned how to do that.” He also earned his amateur radio license and voiced a nightly weather report from his home-based weather station. “It was kind of funny hearing this little eight-year-old kid come over the radio to some of the guys,” he recalled. Powers’ early experience prepared him for one of the region’s most tragic weather events. In spring 2006, he decided to skip his senior marching band trip to Hawaii, so he was home when the April 2 tornado outbreak occurred in West Tennessee. Bradford and the surrounding area in Gibson County were among the hardest hit. “As soon as it was clear enough for us to get our equipment moving, we were there on the scene and just doing everything we could to help people,” he said. A few months later, Powers enrolled at UT Martin as an engineering student, but his career goals lacked direction – leading to a change in 2010 influenced by his emergency management background. “I like building things, and the (engineering) theory just wasn’t as interesting to me as I thought it was going to be,” he said. “So, I left the university and went to work at Weakley County Emergency Management and Emergency 911 Center, and there I helped to upgrade their entire 911 system to get it next-gen 911 ready.” This part-time work opportunity led Powers to focus more clearly on his interests, and he returned to the university in fall 2012 to study information systems. Along with a fresh start in college came another work opportunity with the university’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety. Among his safety-related duties: a monthly inspection of more than 900 portable fire extinguishers and some 50 AEDs to ensure them to be in proper working order. “I was basically given a list of all the equipment and where it was located, a set of keys and basic instructions on my responsibilities as far as what I was supposed to check,” he explained. “And I had to take care of managing my time all on my own and just make sure that everything was checked out each month per National Fire Protection Association specifications.” Not only did Powers accomplish these primary duties, but with programming assistance from Steve Lemond in the Office of Information Technology Services, he also helped to implement a tracking system for the monthly inspections. He considers this his biggest accomplishment, which was made possible by applying what he learned in an information systems course project. “Before we were doing this all with pen and paper on a clipboard, and we moved this to the digital age using an iPad, bar codes and a database system set up over in the IT department,” he said. “ … It cuts out a lot of the paperwork we had to do after we did our monthly checks.” Powers’ supervisors were impressed with his achievements and said so when completing the Beth Maloan Award nomination form. “Nathan Powers’ abilities, initiative, enthusiasm and support for our entire campus program allow him to stand out among his peers,” wrote Doug Sliger, the university’s emergency management coordinator and safety specialist. “Mr. Powers will continue to be a positive reflection on the University of Tennessee at Martin long after his graduation.”Nathan’s wife, Emily, originally from Trenton, said that her husband “relished the challenge of making the system easier for whoever comes after him.” “He is just a hard worker in everything he does,” she said. “He has a passion for making everything better and doing his best.” Next up for the couple is a move on faith to Nashville, where both will test the employment market. Emily, who completed a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences from the university in 2013, will use her education and experience to work with children. “Her passion is children and teaching children,” Nathan said. He will seek a position “where my skills will allow me to continue to serve my community.”Lessons learned as a child still matter to Nathan Powers. He has never outgrown his desire to help others, and he knows that good things happen when you do your best. ###PHOTO CAPTION – Nathan Powers and this wife, Emily, are pictured in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center on Dec. 13 before fall commencement.