• Current Scholars
• Alumni
• Dream Big
• Scholar Travels
• Scholar Art & Music
• Scholar Stories
• The Scholar Experience

Bukhosi B. Dube

Biography

Summary:  Bukhosi Dube, 27, planned on a career doing research in genetics until he wound up in a hospital bed after a near-fatal auto accident. After four months of surgeries and rehabilitation, he decided instead to become a physician. A native of Zimbabwe, Mr. Dube achieved a 3.85 GPA at Madonna University in Orchard Lake, MI and graduated magna cum laude. He worked at several jobs to pay for his education, including stints at McDonald's and K Mart as well as tutoring students in chemistry and calculus. He will attend the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

Biography:  Growing up in Zimbabwe, Bukhosi was only 12 years old when he began volunteering at a local hospital. He was feeding a very ill patient with AIDS and was moved to tears when a doctor explained that the disease was caused by a virus and was difficult to stop once an infection occurred. The future of medicine lay in genetics and the study of viruses, the doctor said, and Bukhosi resolved to help others by working in a genetics-related field. He also decided to pursue a college education in the United States, enrolling in Navarro College in Corsicana, TX, where he majored in chemistry. Mr. Dube transferred to a four-year college, but the collapse of the Zimbabwean currency cut off his funds from his home country and he had to withdraw.

While washing dishes after feeding homeless persons with a Knights of Columbus group, Bukhosi was informed about Ave Maria College, a new Catholic liberal arts college, and he enrolled there. In the summer of 2000, Ave Maria merged with St. Mary's College, allowing Bukhosi to take science courses and participate in a research project on intra-cranial aneurysms at Wayne State University's Center of Molecular Medicine and Genetics. He was admitted to a molecular biology program at the University of Utah for the fall semester in 2002. It was not to be, however, since Mr. Dube was involved in a near-fatal auto accident in April, 2002 that kept him hospitalized for four months and in rehabilitation for the rest of the year.

"This, however, turned out to be a true blessing in disguise," he writes. "I was afforded a unique opportunity to mature and evaluate the meaning and purpose of life through a life-altering, paradigm-shattering experience." As a result of his treatment, Bukhosi says, he realized that he wanted to become a doctor and work with people directly rather than focus only on research in genetics.

Mr. Dube can be philosophical about his turbulent life. "My undergraduate experiences, though at times difficult and stressful, motivate me in all my endeavors," he says. "It is indeed true that a wounded zebra runs fastest."

Other Scholars Like Bukhosi