German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” That would certainly apply to Temple senior Marcda Hilaire.

At the age of five, Hilaire battled and overcame typhoid fever, malaria and anemia — all at the same time — in her native Haiti. At the age of nine, she lost her grandmother to breast cancer.

The events pushed Hilaire to pursue a medical career.

Receiving her bachelor’s degree in biology from Temple is just the latest stop on a journey that began when Hilaire was in the seventh grade in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“My teacher there knew about this program at Temple, which was created by an alumnus, Moses Williams, to help minorities get into the medical fields,” she said.

Hilaire applied and was accepted into Temple’s Physician Scientist Training Program, which for 10 summers — seventh grade through undergraduate — introduces minority students to biomedical research through academia, government and industry. She first came to Temple in 2002, during the summer between seventh and eighth grades.

“Before I ever came to Temple for college, I had the whole college experience: living in the dorms, lectures in Tuttleman Hall, classes in Bio-Life Sciences Building, studying at Paley Library,” she said. “We called it ‘science boot camp’ because 13-year-olds are not usually doing science experiments, research and stuff like that.”

Hilaire spent the summers of 2004-07 working under biochemist Scott Shore at Temple’s Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, conducting research on breast cancer — the same disease that had afflicted her grandmother; doing rounds with doctors at Temple University Hospital; completing a research internship at the National Institutes of Health working on HIV/AIDS; and working as a research intern at Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of Merck and Co.

“It was right along the lines of wanting to become a doctor,” she said. “I was doing hardcore research in a lab with a real scientist. I was really humbled by that whole experience.”

In 12th grade, Hilaire was selected to be a Gates Millennium Scholar. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it provides 10 years of financial, academic and personal support to minorities studying in the fields of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health and the sciences.

She enrolled as an undergraduate biology major at Temple in fall of 2007.

“I don’t think I would have had the same experience somewhere else,” she said. “Being somewhere where you’re already connected and you have a relationship — I say Temple and I have had a long-term relationship — is really important.

“I also love the people here,” Hilaire added. “I think that’s one of the special things about Temple; it’s the people you meet here from all over the world, all sorts of religions and cultures. The people here at Temple made my experience very enriching.”

But she is also quick to point out how important her faith has been in her success.

“I owe everything I am and everything I’ve gotten to God,” said Hilaire. “There have been some really hard times, and without God, I just wouldn’t be who I am today.”

She will next pursue her master’s degree in public health — possibly at Tulane University — then go on to medical school with the thought of one day starting her own medical practice.

“An education is the greatest gift I have gained in America and as an aspiring doctor, I intend on sharing it with the disadvantaged communities, people just like me,” Hilaire said. “My life-long dream is to open a hospital in Haiti, especially for children. It may start off as a clinic, but a hospital is my dream.”