Jene Thomas – General Assignment Reporter
For junior Jacqueline Deens, playing basketball and being a full-time nursing student at Southern Connecticut State University just isn’t enough. When she’s out of class and off the court, she can be found volunteering her time, specifically at the Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, NY.
“Jackie’s a very important person on our team”, said Sydni Lester, senior guard. “She’s very caring and loving. She’s always like the go to person whenever you need something.”
According to her teammates, Deens is the motherly figure. She is the person on the team making sure each girl has what she needs. She is considered to be the “mother of the team” due to the fact that she always makes sure that the team is eating the right things and can talk to her about anything.
“She treats us like we’re her children,” Lester said.
Her teammates are not the only ones who feel this way. When asked about her character, Bert Desalvo, the SCSU women’s basketball coach, spoke just as highly of her.
“She’s a great kid, a real model student. The team definitely looks up to her,” he said.
Deens’ days of giving back started when she was in high school back in Old Lyme, CT, where she began volunteering at High Hopes. High Hopes is a facility that offers people with physical or mental disabilities therapeutic relief through interacting with barn animals.
“I worked with children who had special needs and they grabbed my heart,” Deens said.
Over this past summer, Deens spent her time volunteering at the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, working mostly with infants. She said that she was ecstatic to work with them, even though they required a lot of occupational therapy from trained staff and physicians.
“There is just something about making a baby smile, whom usually doesn’t give any feedback at all, that makes your entire day, even week,” said Deens.
Deens said that she is planning on pursuing a career in nursing, her course load is anything but easy. The women’s basketball team is scheduled to play 28 games this season, not counting pre-season or playoffs. With all of that in mind, it is assumed that any student would put volunteering off to the side.
“Yes, being a college student can be time consuming as it is and then to add basketball and volunteering just adds more to my schedule, but I would not have it any other way,” she said. “Doing for others is such a big part of my life, sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing it because it’s nothing off my shoulders.”
Deens said to her, volunteering isn’t a job, but a hobby. She takes great pride in it and is able to be successful on and off the court. She said volunteering is a big part in why she wants to go into nursing. She looks forward to continuing to make others smile.
“Give the world the best you have,” Deens said. “And it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”
Photo Credit: Jackie Deens
