A Medical Student, an Entrepreneur, Who Got Inspired by his Failures, Zachery Dereniowski
By Space Coast Daily // July 29, 2020
Zachery Dereniowski, born on June 27th, 1993 is a motivational speaker. Born in Windsor, ON Canada. At present, he is a medical student at the University of Sydney in Australia.
He completed his Bachelor of Human Kinetics in June 2016 and Post-Baccalaureate in Pre-Medical Studies in December 2017.
Zachery, as a freshman in college, underachieved. When in the first year, he achieved a 0.59 GPA and was Required to Withdraw from the Biochemistry program.
He was told by the Dean, “Zachery, maybe college isn’t right for you.” He considers his failures beginnings rather than endings and completed his studies with 4.0 GPA and scored over 510 in MCAT in his first attempt.
His entrepreneurial journey began when he got inspired by his previous failures and academic shortcomings. Zachery posted his story of freshman year in college on his Instagram.
People related to his story and he got a good response. From then onwards he began to post daily and host Instagram lives with medical students and doctors from across the world.
Also, he began to work as an MCAT tutor. Examkrackers offered him to work as their first and only MCAT mentor. Zachery accepted this opportunity as this gave him greater reach. As of recent, he has become one of TikTok’s top mental health advocates with over 500K followers.
Moving forward after medical school, he plans to study either orthopaedics, paediatrics, or psychiatry. Zachery also wants to help students worldwide getting into medical school and continue to raise mental health awareness.
“I hope to continue to remain transparent and empower others to use their voice to do the same. To speak up for support from family/loved ones and seek professional support when concerned. I am by no means a doctor yet, and my goal is not to diagnose anyone ever. I hope people recognize that they matter, that they are not alone and they are worthy of recovering from whatever they are going through,” he remarked.
Being a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen and living in a busy border city, he has seen a difference between the medical systems. Healthcare in Canada is affordable but is not easily accessible whereas is accessible in the U.S but not affordable.
Zachery’s purpose in life is to empower others. He believes in the formula Vulnerability = Relatability = Empowerment. He wants to help pre-medical students entering medical school and provide a voice to people battling with mental health issues. “I think life is not about you or me. I think life is about the footprint we leave in bettering the lives of others,” he stated.
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