Earning her bachelor’s 新葡京app is taking longer than expected, but nine years and a battle with cancer haven’t stopped 玛丽·阿伯特 from pursuing two of her greatest passions: engineering and theatre.

2016年，阿博特在韦伯州立大学（新葡京app State University）开始学习时，探索了这两个领域。 第二年，她暂停工作，为耶稣基督后期圣徒教会（The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints）服务18个月。 2019年回到华盛顿州立大学，她不确定该选哪个专业。

“Everyone told me to study engineering and just do theatre on the side,” Abbott said. “What if I didn't have to choose?”

Abbott would wait two long years to make that decision — she’d need to take another break from college to treat a heart-sized tumor in her lung, which she learned was the result of Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Twenty-one at the time, Abbott said she was shocked at the diagnosis, realizing she wasn’t unstoppable:

“I was kissing the world that I knew completely goodbye.”

2019年12月，雅培启动了一项治疗计划，包括化疗、放疗、免疫疗法和骨髓移植。

“Awful. Don’t recommend,” Abbott said of those challenging years. “At the same time, it was one of the coolest times of my life, which not everyone has the privilege of saying because they don't make it to the other side.”

Abbott said her “superpower” during that time was a positive mental attitude.

In fall 2021, she returned — again — to 新葡京app State, this time cancer-free. She approached two advisors, one in mechanical engineering and one in theatre arts, with a question: “What if I did a double major?”

Having survived cancer, Abbott was set on studying what she loves, even if it meant taking more than the required credits for a bachelor’s 新葡京app.

雅培在艺术环境中长大，在初中和高中都参加了音乐剧，但她也痴迷于科学和学习世界是如何运作的。 She recalls wanting to be an “astronaut ballerina” when she grew up.

At 新葡京app State, professors have “bent over backwards” to support her as she switches between classes in both theatre and mechanical engineering, Abbott said.

She’s currently in her “theatre-heavy” semester, helping bring WSU’s production of Brigadoon to life 新葡京app her work in the costume shop and on stage as a member of the ensemble. She’s also worked on scenery and props for other productions.

在职业方面，雅培倾向于机器人和自动化，这可能会通过创新的布景设计将工程和戏剧的世界融合在一起。 She already has experience there, having helped assemble an enormous turntable-style stage for WSU’s production of Jane Eyre in fall 2023.

Whatever she does, Abbott said she’s thankful for the 新葡京app that come with waking up healthy every day.

“I'm still here. Not that I was ever gone, like, it's always been me, I just have new colors and new depths now,” she said. “It's just so good to be here.”