This unique combination of academic interests helped DeLury when he volunteered with the Foundation for AIDS Orphaned Children (FAOC). In 2007, he spent three months in Uganda working with households affected by AIDS related deaths. He participated in a variety of tasks, from animal management to setting up a lab.

For DeLury, one of the highlights was “working with these people and seeing them better their situation and learning a lot at the same time.” He was also able to see first-hand how a lot of different people and systems can work together with positive outcomes.

In between his degrees, DeLury taught in China and Thailand, an experience he described as satisfying but demanding. While he sees himself possibly teaching at a university in the future, he feels there is a more essential element to his future career choice. He wants to work in an environment with “people supporting each other in their efforts and everyone benefitting from it.”

DeLury said many benefits come from even informal gatherings of people with different specialties. There is always something to be learned from someone with a different background. DeLury added that learning happens in different ways. “You need to discover how you learn. Once you discover how you learn, you can excel.”