Graduating from a prestigious Ivy League school would be enough for most high achievers.

But for Mt. Lebanon's Tenley Brownwright, earning a degree from Dartmouth University, in Hanover, N.H., also demonstrates her determination to overcome -- and to excel -- in the most trying of circumstances.

Ms. Brownwright, 21, is on track to graduate with a degree in environmental studies. She also has had a successful figure skating career to go along with her immense class load.

In addition, she plans to study abroad in South Africa and Namibia. To top it off, she soon will defend her honors thesis, which examines how a devastating 2001 cholera outbreak affects colonial legacies in South Africa.

But for nearly six years, she had continuous digestive health issues that could have derailed her dreams.

"I was sick for a good bit of the time starting when I was a junior in high school," Ms. Brownwright said. "Up until a year ago, doctors thought I had gastro paresis."

Gastro paresis is a digestive disorder that affects the stomach's ability to digest food. Those suffering from the disease often find eating painful plus they have to deal with vomiting and constant weight loss.

"I could not keep any weight on at all," Ms. Brownwright said. "I was going to the hospital every three days to get fluids through an IV. I just kept getting weaker and weaker."

But through it all, the tenacious Ms. Brownwright continued with her classes and her skating regiment.

"The skating actually was a help because it allowed me to take my mind off being sick," she said.

Last year, Ms. Brownwright and her family saw a specialist who discovered that she had a rare condition called median arcuate ligament syndrome. The condition is characterized by abdominal pain attributed to compression of the celiac artery that leads into the stomach.

"Basically, the blood supply to my stomach was getting cut off by this ligament that was wrapped around the artery," she explained. "The surgeon clipped the artery and ever since, I've been healthy as I've ever been."

Even through the pain, Ms. Brownwright, who specializes in freestyle skating, won an individual title in 2008. She also was an integral part of Dartmouth's back-to-back national championship teams in 2007 and 2008.

In April, she capped off her collegiate skating career at the 2010 U.S. Intercollegiate Figure Skating National Championships at the University of Delaware with another individual title in the freestyle long program.

Ms. Brownwright also served as the events chair of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority and as webmaster for the skating team. Her overall achievements resulted in her inducation into Dartmouth's Wearers of the Green in 2009.

She said her drive to succeed was instilled in her by her parents, Nancy Brown and Michael Wright.

"They have always supported me," she said. "As long as I did the best of my ability, they were cool."

Her future is still uncertain, but that is fine with the young woman who has earned multiple national skating titles.

"I may choose to enter the medical field or pursue a Fulbright Scholarship," Ms. Brownwright said.