High Point University President Dr. Nido Qubein – who has won plenty of awards in his life and made High Point University pretty much famous worldwide – has been awarded the Wade H. Hargrove Community Leadership Award by the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters (NCAB). The award was presented at the association’s 2022 Awards Lunch at the Angus Barn in Raleigh, which is famous across the state for its steaks.
The Community Leadership Award is one of the highest awards presented by the NC Association of Broadcasters and it honors North Carolinians “who have distinguished themselves with service to our local communities.”
NCAB Board President Michelle Butt – who’s also the president and general manager of WXII-12 in Winston-Salem – described Qubein as “a national leader in higher education.”
The university offers very interesting perks to students – so much so that it got a very flattering write-up in England’s Daily Mail newspaper – and the university has had a long list of renowned experts in their fields come in and work with students. For instance, earlier this year Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak worked with students on technology projects.
Butt said at the ceremony that High Point University is a place where students learn much more than technical skills and that the training helps them grow into “employees, neighbors and global citizens who can communicate, build relationships and thrive in all environments.”
“Dr. Qubein’s transformative vision of what a university can mean and what it can do in the community has helped revitalize the footprint of a town hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs,” Butt said. “The literal growth of High Point University has influenced the Greater High Point and Triad region. It has created new, better-paying jobs for hundreds of families. His legacy will outlive what Dr. Qubein does in his tenure, and that is the embodiment of what the community leadership award means.”
Hopefully, Qubein has a pretty big spot in his home set aside for awards: He’s been honored by local, national and international organizations throughout his life.
He’s been inducted into the Horatio Alger Association for Distinguished Americans – along with Oprah Winfrey and Colin Powell – and he’s also the recipient of the DAR Americanism Award. Also, along with four US presidents, Qubein is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Qubein has been recognized as both the Citizen of the Year and Philanthropist of the Year in his home city of High Point. He was also named the Honorary Chairman for the Wyndham Championship.
Qubein’s comments are always positive and his response to receiving the award was no exception.
“My heart is filled with gratitude for your consideration of me as a recipient of this award,” he said. “You may know I came to America way back in the late ’60s and I landed in Mount Olive, North Carolina. I lived there until I transferred to High Point College, and I’ve been in High Point all these many years. My work took me across the world and across the country from border to border and coast to coast. But I always came back to my home right here in North Carolina. I’m proud to be a North Carolinian.”
Qubein said he was also proud to be associated with NCAB and was grateful to partner with the North Carolina PBS station that airs “Side by Side with Nido Qubein” at 7 p.m. each Tuesday after the PBS Newshour.
We should change his name to MIDAS. Everything the man touches turns to gold. A genuine success story, giving back so much more than he has received.
I’d vote for Nido for President. He gets stuff done.
NIDO for President. He gets stuff done without self praise.
He can’t be president because he wasn’t born here.
But the people that read this rag don’t know that because you’re all so unbelievably ignorant. Seriously— the letters and comment section of this filthy rag is a guilty pleasure for me to read through. But like a desert that is over indulged, I feel kind of bad when it’s over.
Isn’t HPU in debt?
Yes. HPU is in debt to its ear-holes and is “too big to fail”. It’s also next to one of the worst neighborhoods in the triad. The locals don’t benefit at all from having that school near them.