Urte Zableckas envisions a future full of border crossings.

A sophomore majoring in biological sciences, Zableckas dreams of one day working as a physician for Medecins sans Frontieres, known to Americans as Doctors Without Borders. With that in mind, she’s minoring in French, a language that will stand her well in many parts of Africa, and taking advantage of DU’s emphasis on internationalization.

“I love, love, love languages, and I like traveling a lot,” Zableckas says. Ever interested in exploration, she’s already packing her bags for winter interterm, when she will join Project Thailand, a DU service-learning experience that emphasizes sustainable development.

To flesh out her classroom learning, Zableckas works weekends at Banner Health North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, where she observes firsthand the hustle and bustle of day-to-day medicine. She’s also looking to volunteer at Denver’s African Community Center, where she wants to help refugees adapt to American life.

That’s something she’s knows a little about. “My family and I immigrated here in December 1991 from Lithuania,” she recalls. “I didn’t speak a word of English.” In fact, her first words—“Merry Christmas Dude—came from an American radio host.

It didn’t take Zableckas long to acclimate, and by the time she was a high school student in Windsor, Colo., she had acquired the typical American teenager’s flair for overscheduling.

“In high school I was involved in pretty much everything you could think of,” she says, ticking off a list of activities that included student council, tennis and drama. To show her solidarity with her high school’s gay and lesbian population, she helped start a gay-straight alliance and organized activities for a Tolerance Day. “I felt like it was really necessary,” she says. “I felt like some of my friends were gay or questioning, and one of my friends got harassed in the locker room. That was totally unacceptable to me.”

That concern continues at DU, where she lends her support to the Queer Straight Alliance. She also participates in the Honors Program and is working with a friend to launch an MCAT prep club. The organization will arrange shadowing opportunities and guest speakers to help students decide whether a medical career is right for them, and if so, what kind of medicine they’d most enjoy. Just as important, the club will help first- and second-year students connect with others who share their career aspirations—in part, Zableckas jokes, “so they can freak out with somebody.”