Rajan Dhakal February 2023

Rajan Dhakal moved to Maine from his native Nepal in 2017 to attend college at the University of Southern Maine. Since graduating in December of 2021, he’s been working as a chemist at Abbott Laboratories, although he plans to go back to school in the fall of 2022. “I personally feel like education is one of those tools which could be really, really helpful. I’m the first college graduate in my family, so I guess that counts as something. It’s helping me and my family economically, helping my family to upgrade our quality of life.” Helping others is a passion for Rajan: “Whenever I can, I help the people who move here from other parts of the U.S., especially the people who move from Nepal. It feels really awesome to be a part of that.” As a biological chemist, he sees the potential for his career to have an impact on the public health crisis, and believes other social problems, like housing or homelessness, can be solved with the right tools and resources. “I don’t feel like I’m in any kind of position to give anybody advice, but from my personal experience what I would say is keep working on whatever you are interested in, just keep working, and one day it’ll be worth it.”