Zachary Wallace
2018 Hoyas for Science Recipient
M.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics
We’re given two ultimate gifts in life: the ability give it our best of who we are and the ability to live the day. That is why every day we need to give everything we are in the moment we are given, otherwise we are wasting two great gifts.
About Zachary
Before coming to Georgetown’s Biomedical Graduate Education, Zachary studied at Tufts University where he majored in Applied Mathematics. Zachary is from La Jolla, California.
Why did you choose Biomedical Graduate Education at Georgetown University?
I chose BGE at Georgetown because I felt that the bioinformatics program offered a curriculum that I was looking for, while also allowing for the other biomedical disciplines encompassed within BGE to be involved with the curriculum. I was also very attracted to how the summer internship is stressed to be such an important part of the program. Lastly and most importantly, I liked the idea how of BGE oversaw its multitude of programs and provided its own administrative staff at Georgetown for support. That being said, I felt that by choosing BGE at Georgetown I had an outstandingly amount of support. With the BGE administrators and my own department’s administrators there to provide assistance for academics or career development, I felt that Georgetown was no doubt the place I needed to be.
As a Hoyas for Science Scholarship recipient, you were selected because your application “demonstrated a commitment to biomedical research and graduate studies at the Masters’ level.” What do you hope to accomplish here at Georgetown and/or what is your interest in biomedical research or graduate studies?
My passion is the intersection between technology and the biological sciences, especially computer science and the biological sciences. Moreover, I believe the study of genomics to be the future to understanding and curing complex diseases, with computers leading the way in this mission to study genomics. This is why I’ve had a huge ambition to enter the field of bioinformatics. Bioinformatics and other medical informatics have the ability to completely transform healthcare and the health sciences as we know it. It is my goal here at Georgetown to learn the skills I need in order to be the best possible bioinformatics scientist I want to become, because I plan to one day be a leader in the quest to transform healthcare.
What is your life motto for overcoming challenges and/or supporting diversity and cultural understanding?
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” — Steve Prefontaine
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
The quotes of above are two of my favorite quotes and not only what I think about in overcoming challenges, but in carrying out life. There will always be challenges in life that we will be forced to deal with. They’re unavoidable. I’ve dealt with plenty of my own challenges as someone who is severely hard of hearing, and other challenges not related to my disability. But it’s up to us to focus presently on the challenges that are in front of us, face these challenges in the eye, and give it our absolute best effort to work around them. We’re given two ultimate gifts in life: the ability give it our best of who we are and the ability to live the day. That is why every day we need to give everything we are in the moment we are given, otherwise we are wasting two great gifts. Sometimes our best might be better or worse than other days, and sometimes our best may not be able to work around the challenges in front of us. But by giving it our best day by day we are living to the fullest of who we are, and that’s what really matters. Only with time will our best efforts approach the moment where the challenge is overcome. So my life motto to overcoming challenges: always give it my best and live in the present.