ABOUT 775 people will graduate from La Trobe University in Bendigo this week, each with a unique story.

Yong Deng’s journey from a refugee camp in Kenya to the stage of Ulumbarra Theatre was motivated by his twin passions of chemistry and physics. 

The 24-year-old was born to Sudanese parents and is the second oldest of six children. 

Family and friends cheered as he received a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours on Thursday. 

It was a time of immense pride and joy, a world away from the horrors of war. 

Mr Deng lost his father to the same conflict that saw him raised in the refugee camp. 

He, his mother and five siblings moved to Dandenong in 2009. 

“Finishing Year 12, I was one of those kids who didn’t know what to do,” Mr Deng said. 

He knew he had a passion for science, but wasn’t sure which discipline would best suit him. 

“Almost every morning I would read physics books,” Mr Deng said. 

They belonged to his older brother, who was studying engineering. 

“I always looked up to him – he’s really good at physics and chemistry – but I knew if I did something like engineering I wouldn’t be as good at him, so I thought along the way of medicine,” Mr Deng said.

He studied a Bachelor of Medicinal Chemistry at La Trobe University in Bundoora for about a year, but was not satisfied.  

“I had a lot of cousins telling me I should do pharmacy,” Mr Deng said.

“That’s when I changed my mind.”

He transferred to the Bendigo campus, started studying pharmacy, and realised he had found the combination of physics and chemistry he had been searching for. 

Mr Deng is now interning at a pharmacy in Epping and studying a Master of Clinical Pharmacy at Monash University. 

He is interested in diabetes care, especially about potential complications involving wounds.

“We had a few sessions where we covered it [wound care], but it is not intensively covered in pharmacy,” Mr Deng said. 

Although he has since relocated to Melbourne, Mr Deng has fond memories of Bendigo.

He was joined for a time by his 14-year-old brother, who loved the area so much and found so many new friends that he persuaded his mother to extend his stay.