“Train how you’re going to play.” Yanna Savkova says that’s an ethos she has learned as an EMT and firefighter, and now she’s taking it to heart as she prepares to give the student speech at Temple’s 129th Commencement Ceremony on May 6. Savkova, who will graduate with a BS in Nursing, says that each of her classmates now has tools and training that they need in order to pursue their individual calling—to commit themselves to what they love doing, and to leave a positive mark on the world around them.

Savkova says she’s tried to do just that during her four years at Temple. “My mom always told my sister and I to leave things better than when we found them,” she says. “I try to embody that. My classmates, my friends, my university—I want to leave them a little better than they were when I came here.”

Savkova is the chief of operations at Temple EMS, a student-run organization that responds to medical emergencies on Temple’s Main Campus. She serves as a volunteer firefighter in her hometown. And now the years of training have paid off: after graduation she’s headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she’ll start her new job as a Medical Cardiac ICU Nurse. “I love knowing that I can be there for somebody,” she says. “That’s the best feeling in the world.”