Nathan Prapasiri ’08 with a patient in Thailand.

Courtesy Photo

New Mexico State University alumnus Nathan Prapasiri ’08 is making a difference in the lives of people in both Thailand and the United States through charitable work and by establishing a new scholarship.

While Thailand is his birthplace, Prapasiri has called Las Cruces home for 18 years and is a graduate of Las Cruces High School. After earning his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, he went on to get a master of public health degree from NMSU in 2008. He’s now attending the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

Prapasiri has traveled several times to Thailand to work in a hospital and provide relief aid after the region’s tsunami in 2004. Most recently, he worked for two months at a rural Buddhist temple, which doubles as an AIDS hospice, where he helped with the more than 2,000 patients who receive care there. He has since been back for a second visit to the temple.

“AIDS is a taboo disease in Thailand because people are not educated about it,” Prapasiri says. “A lot of people who visit the hospice are afraid to get too close to the patients because they think they’ll contract the disease.”

Prapasiri first found out about the temple in an online article and decided to raise money for it. He succeeded in collecting $10,000.

Prapasiri gives back in another way, too. He created the Celebrate Health and Social Services Endowed Scholarship, which rotates between the departments of nursing, social work and health science in NMSU’s College of Health and Social Services. He originally received the money in the endowment from his mother, but felt like it could be put to better use.

“I saw a lot of different students who were struggling to make ends meet as they were attending school, so I decided to use it to make a scholarship to help others further their careers,” he says.