UW Oshkosh senior and biomedical science major, Zach Zirgibel, was recently awarded the Tommy G. Thompson Leadership Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. This scholarship is granted to only 15 students across the University of Wisconsin System who exemplify leadership, inventiveness and the ability to make an impact on the world around them.
Zirgibel grew up in a lively home of five boys with both his parents holding a job in law. He is a three-time national qualifier for pole vaulting at UWO and plans to pursue a career in the medical field upon graduation.
After sustaining multiple repetitive injuries competing in track at a collegiate level, Zirgibel credits the doctors who got him back to competition condition as the reason for his love for medicine.
“I had an injury where I fell on my head and sprained my neck in Reno, Nevada at a pole vaulting conference and just loved the experience,” Zirgibel said. “Even being hurt, it was just so cool to have people operate at such a high level and have such amazing knowledge of how to help people get better.”
With a passion for both medicine and research, Zirgibel intends on earning his MD-PhD. These programs provide specialized training in both fields for students who aspire to become a physician-scientist.
“I’d have the opportunity to lead healthcare teams and treat patients at the highest of levels,” Zirgibel said. “And then later on I developed the interest for research – wanting to not only be using current knowledge but to discover future knowledge.”
Zirgibel is no stranger to seizing opportunities. He spent the past summer at Stanford University working alongside students from some of the most prestigious schools around the nation. Teams of students were tasked with researching pulmonary hypertension, specifically in children populations born with a congenital heart defect, Zirgibel said.
“I’ve always been high achieving academically, but to be recognized by a school like that … it’s pretty awesome,” Zirgibel said. “My roommate went to Johns Hopkins. There were lots of kids from Yale, Berkeley and UCLA, so it was kind of cool to be among a class of such high achieving people.”
Zirgibel said that although he knew he was qualified and capable for the summer research opportunity at Stanford, a scholarship donor from UWO, who also happens to be a physician in the area, gave him some insight that changed the way he viewed coming from a smaller university.
“He said to me ‘you can make anywhere your Harvard,’” Zirgibel said. “No matter where you go to school, you’re going to have opportunities to be successful.”
Previously, Zirgibel volunteered as a construction crew member and financial advisor for Habitat for Humanity, helped provide free healthcare to those in need at The Saint Francis Free Clinic in Oshkosh and worked with crisis text lines responding to people going through mental health crises in need of support.
In his downtime, Zirgibel can be found on the track or in the weight room with his teammates. But despite his impressive athletic and academic career, Zirgibel said the accolades are the last thing he will remember about his time at UWO.
“I think awards for awards sake is really empty,” Zirgibel said. “If you win, it’s the coolest experience in the moment, but you’re gonna lose a lot more than you win. And so when you lose, who’s there to pick you up? It’s more about the friends and the relationships with the people around you.”
With the need to stay involved in sport and routine, Zirgibel has already been scoping out which medical schools have powerlifting teams. However, Zirgibel says he isn’t competitive in the way most people imagine when they hear the word.
“I’m not competitive in the sense of doing well at the expense of other people, I just want to do well to see how far I can push myself,” Zirgibel said. “And then maybe I’ll try jiu-jitsu. Those are my next two goals athletically – jiu-jitsu and powerlifting.”
Zirgibel has two pieces of advice he would give to any person in any academic field: say yes to any opportunity and build strong relationships along the way, because you never know when they will come in handy.
“I think those two go hand-in-hand,” Zirgibel said. “Just say yes and figure it out later. Even if you don’t know if you can handle it, say yes and figure out how to do it. And when you form those strong relationships – don’t give up on them.”
