Dwight Duffy — a senior at Paducah Tilghman High School and this week’s Murray State University Teen of the Week — intends to become a pharmaceutical scientist after graduation.
Duffy has a passion for helping others, and he wants to continue that by creating new medications and therapy approaches to help patients.
Originally from Menomonee Falls near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Duffy and his family sought a better life away from rising crime and violence. Hoping for a better future, Duffy’s family moved to Paducah in 2016.
“In Milwaukee, I found it hard to leave the house because of the constant shootings and violence going on outside my home,” Duffy said. “Our safety was no more since our home was robbed; there was nothing more we could do. So, we moved to Paducah rather than live off the streets of Milwaukee, and my mother made the right choice.”
One in Paducah, Duffy still had to overcome challenges within the home. At the age of 9, his mother developed severe mental and physical health conditions, he said. Between his father trying to provide for his family and his mother coping with memory loss from seizures, Duffy said he acted as a therapist to both parents.
“I just wanted to live in a reality I was in control of, where I had the power to stop all the problems. This made me the person I am today,” he said.
Drawing passion from his experiences and his love for chemistry, Duffy intends to earn a pharmaceutical degree. He wants to become a pharmacist and, one day, a pharmaceutical scientist.
Duffy has received acceptance letters from five colleges. While he hasn’t chosen which school he’ll attend yet, he said he’s most interested in the University of Kentucky and Berea College.
Julie Price, a counselor at Paducah Tilghman High School, said Duffy works harder than many students with whom she interacts. She accredits that to his determination and will to obtain higher education.
“It doesn’t matter where I see him,” Price said. “He always has a ready smile on his face for whomever is there. I see him being a spirit leader for the band, doing cheers with his big tuba on his back, and all the kids laughing with him and having a good time.”
Price said she believes Duffy will succeed anywhere he goes.
“This young man will do the work necessary to find success everywhere his path takes him,” Price said. “He knows he’s ready and absolutely willing, wants to find a college home, and will do everything he can to get there and stay there successfully. I don’t doubt him one bit. He can do it.”
Duffy wants his peers to know that it is OK to fail, because to him failing means another chance to start over and try again.
“For example, I used to try out for the All-State Band,” Duffy said. “When I would go and try out and ultimately fail, it taught me something, rather than just beating myself up or things of that sort. It taught me there’s a better way I could have gone about it.”