Sarabdeep Kochar of India served as the April Student of the Month for the Norman Lions Club.

A native of Delhi, the capital, she received her bachelor of arts with a major in English from Panjab University and her master's with a major in mass communication from the same university. At the University of Oklahoma she is a master's candidate in the Gaylord College of Journalism with a major in public relations, and expects to receive her degree in fall 2009.

She has distinguished herself in India by winning awards from the Delhi Lions Club in public debating and poetry reading, demonstrating her English-language skills. On the OU campus she received the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2008-2009 for serving the International Community.

In the summers of 2007 and 2008 Kochhar worked as a public relations manager in the city of Chandigarh back in India to promote tourism and entertainment, but this summer in 2009 she will fill a similar position for the College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma.

Her father is a retired banker from the State Bank of India, and her mother retired as a government employee working in the tourism department. Her elder sister works as a media manager in Mumbai, and her younger sister and brother are pursuing engineering degrees in India.

She believes with Friedrich Nietzsche that "He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow." She also believes "respecting different people and the different lenses through which they see their world."

Kochhar spoke to the Norman Lions Club in April comparing the sense of community in her native India with the spirit of individualism which she perceives as characteristic of her host country, the United States.

The Norman Lions Club holds a noon luncheon each Tuesday during the academic year at the First Presbyterian Church, and welcomes inquiries about membership at 329-2485.