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Derid Ure

Biography

Derid Ure, 26, the oldest in a family of seven, learned about hard work while growing up on a farm in rural Idaho. He applied those lessons to his college studies, earning a 3.99 GPA at Idaho State University and winning an outstanding student award. An accomplished actor, singer, and dancer, he took the lead role in a summer theater production of Oklahoma and toured with a group of players. Though he majored in economics, Mr. Ure intends to enroll at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in San Francisco.

Derid Ure wants his life to encompass three passions: art, science, and service. He already has a wealth of experience in all three along with remarkable leadership skills. He integrated learning ballet and musical theater into a busy life of working 20 hours a week while making top grades. Impressed by the infectious zest for life he saw in a professional choreographer, Derid also wants to "inspire passion in the lives of others." He believes that this "deep throb of motivation and excitement is available to anyone willing to become involved in a cause" to which they commit their heart.

Building on this belief, Derid would like to open career doors for others. He knows that sometimes that may mean "exhausting yourself in the service of others," such as he did in Peru during a two-week trip as a volunteer, when he helped build a greenhouse and bathrooms for a village orphanage, then delivered donated books to schools in another impoverished town.

Mr. Ure has big dreams of how he would invest in others, once he himself is a success. He expects to become a dental surgeon and open his own practice. Eventually, he wants to get a graduate degree in business as well, be a leader in his profession, and start a foundation to give college scholarships to US citizens and financial help to foreigners who would take their US education home and become change agents. And he and his wife want to establish a performing arts foundation to underwrite low-cost performance and dance training for underprivileged adolescents. He defines success "not as a level of personal achievement but as a level of generous giving. The driving force behind the majority of my goals is to place me in a position to be able to provide others with opportunities."

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