Zachary Denmark即将完成一个他一直在努力的个人目标 for more than seven years. Despite personal health concerns sidelining him from completing 拿到学位后，他很快就能在蒙哥马利县社区走上舞台了 College Commencement ceremony this year as a college graduate.   

The 25-year-old Biotechnology 来自拉斐特希尔的学生被任命为今年MCCC毕业典礼的演讲嘉宾. Denmark’s 给2024届毕业生的信息将是，即使形势严峻，也要坚持不懈 against you at times.

“bt365体育备用网站的每个人都有自己独特的故事，这里有很多人都有 可能我经历过的事情比我自己的经历都要多，我只是想 与他们建立联系，表明我不仅经历了这些事情，而且还告诉了他们 他们，嘿，尽管经历了考验和磨难，你们还是能够做到这一点. I want to acknowledge that.”

Overcoming obstacles

丹麦于2017年开始在中国化工学院学习，他从未动摇过完成学业的目标 他的学位课程，只是花的时间比他一开始预计的要长.

“我最初来到蒙科是因为我小时候身体很不舒服，很不幸 had to withdraw from high school,” he said. “I ended up getting a GED, and Montco 感觉这是一个非常包容的地方，为了过渡到教育 curriculum.”

That was where Denmark’s journey first began. Reintroducing his body to the full courseload 然而，要求他完成他的学位，对他的体力要求太高了 to take a break from school.

“我找了一份工作，让我的生活有一些规律，然后回来，他们非常 accommodating,” he said. “They wanted to help me succeed.”

7岁时被诊断出患有慢性胰腺炎，这是丹麦的病情造成的 him tremendous abdominal pain. He dealt with the disease for eight years, and it culminated when he was in ninth grade. He was hospitalized for much of the school year until 他的家人在明尼苏达州找了一位专业的外科医生切除了他的胰腺. While 手术很成功，但之后他仍然有很多问题.

“这导致我有一段时间永远离开学校，”他说. He also became 糖尿病是因为没有胰腺，身体不能再产生胰岛素.

At first it was very difficult to control his diabetes. “I wasn’t in a very good head space. 患病多年后，我患上了严重的创伤后应激障碍，”他说. “As a consequence of that, I didn’t take care of myself. That’s where my failures at Montco stemmed from.”

一旦他控制了自己的身体健康，他就能够开始取得进步 at MCCC.

利用像测试中心这样的资源帮助丹麦花了他所需要的时间 完成作业，“帮助我回到受教育的思维空间”.”

“It helped me get to where I am now,” he said. Denmark even eventually made the Dean’s List.

Tools to succeed

丹麦选择生物技术作为专业，因为“我本质上是一个生物技术故事，” he said.

“作为一名需要胰岛素的糖尿病患者，我患有胰腺炎，我需要喂食管 也在PICC线上，这基本上是永久性的静脉注射，因为你不能吃或 get any nutrition whatsoever,” he said. “Biotechnology really is a part of my life 故事，它真的给了我继续追求这个职业的动力 help others who have similar stories as myself. I think Montco is giving me the tools to succeed when it comes to that.”

在他作为MCCC学生期间，丹麦参加了默克挑战赛. The event was a collaboration among four Biotechnology students, two Computer Science students and two Engineering Science 学生们的任务是一起工作，证明自动化是否通过机器人 在生物技术领域，机器比人类更准确、更高效.

“It was a great real-world scenario,” said Denmark. “It provided a lot of interaction 你可能会在实验室里找到，这显示了bt365体育备用网站的人脉.”

该小组证明，在准确性方面，自动化优于人工 lab.

“自动化是这个领域的未来发展方向，”他说. “It makes me feel excited. It shows me this field is constantly advancing. With automation doing certain 任务，它让公司的人去做其他任务，比如头脑风暴 解决了一定的问题，不断的研究，就会提高效率 process as well.”

生物技术副教授玛格丽特·布莱恩斯对丹麦的研究成果大加赞赏 work in the classroom.

“扎克是独一无二的，他是一个成绩优异的学生，总是保持乐观 不管挑战是什么，他都受到同龄人的普遍喜爱，”她说. “I am so 我为他在生物技术项目中取得的成就感到骄傲，并祝他继续取得成功 在他的教育之旅中，我期待他能做出贡献 the field in the future.”   

Cutting-edge research

After graduation, he’ll be joining the Wistar Institute in a pre-apprenticeship program. A global leader in biomedical research, Wistar提供在癌症，免疫学，传染病和 vaccine development, according to its website. Denmark will be among students from 加入Wistar生物医学技术人员培训计划的地区社区大学.

“你要花两周的时间学习你将要用到的基本实验室技术 实验室，比如细胞培养，好的移液操作然后他们就把你打发走了 to a lab for five weeks,” he said. “They’ll send you to an academic lab where you 能不能先在研究机构工作，也许是在学校，然后再在工厂工作五周 在实验室里，你可以感受到现实生活中的制造过程. 它真正地向你介绍了现实世界的场景，并给你一个领域的概念 you want to pursue.”

From there, Denmark said he’s looking to continue his education. He’s hoping to transfer 托马斯·杰斐逊大学的两年制学士和硕士学位课程 for biotechnology. Then he wants to begin researching the development of non-opioid pain medications.

“我对止痛药严重上瘾，它在身体上和精神上控制了我的生活 and spiritually,” he said. “I was living from pain dose to pain dose, and I think 找到一种既能减轻痛苦又不需要依赖的方法是我想要的 to dedicate my life.”