Remembering Alex Lebovic
Alexandra Marie Lebovic lived the life she believed in—one built around caring for animals, helping others and embracing every opportunity in front of her.
She was a student at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine when she passed away in 2019 at age 23 from Ewing’s Sarcoma. She had a passion for life that included travel, learning, adventure and animals. Her lifelong dream was to become a veterinarian—caring for animals and the people who love them. In her memory, her family has created this foundation so others might have the opportunities she was denied.
At Patterson Mill High School in Bel Air, MD, Alex was deeply involved in athletics, music and academics—competing in track and field and field hockey, performing in the orchestra, and earning recognition in both the French National Honor Society and Tri-M Music Honor Society.
Upon graduation from Patterson Mill, Alex was accepted into the Animal Science program at the University of Maryland in College Park. She enjoyed an active academic and social life as a member of the Dean’s List, Primannum Honor Society, Terps for Animal Welfare and the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She also worked at Hyattsville Animal Hospital to gain experience for her veterinary career.
As a junior at University of Maryland, Alex was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma – a rare form of cancer that affects bones and soft tissue. In Alex’s case, the main tumor site was her left femur. There was also a small nodule in her left lung. In the middle of her junior year, she was told, “You have metastatic Ewing’s Sarcoma. The five-year survival rate is 30 percent.”
With her new puppy, Dakota, by her side, Alex endured months of chemotherapy. That was followed by surgery to remove most of her left femur, additional chemotherapy and radiation. Throughout this grueling treatment, Alex remained enrolled in the University of Maryland. She took classes online during the spring and summer semesters. She and Dakota returned to campus in the fall of 2016—classes in the morning, Johns Hopkins Hospital in the afternoon.
She was declared cancer-free in the fall of her senior year. She returned to work at Hyattsville Animal Hospital, worked as a research assistant for one of her professors, interned at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), completed her studies and graduated with her classmates in May of 2017.
Because of her illness, Alex missed the application deadline to start veterinary school in the fall of 2017. She identified the University of Florida as her top choice and moved with Dakota to St. Petersburg to establish residency.
She spent the year working as a veterinary nurse, embracing everything Florida had to offer. In May of 2018, she was accepted into the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
Just weeks before Alex was to start vet school, her cancer recurred. She was encouraged by her family and her doctors to put off vet school and focus on cancer treatment, but she insisted on moving forward. She finished 18th in her class that fall—despite everything.
She did it while starting chemotherapy two weeks before the semester, taking time away for surgery, enduring radiation through the second half of the term and, just before exams, being hospitalized in severe pain.
Two days after her final exam, she returned to Maryland, where doctors at Johns Hopkins told her the cancer would take her life.
Alex was the kind of person who moved forward when others would have stopped. She lived with purpose, cared deeply and refused to let circumstances define what she could achieve.
She was taken from this world too soon. But her name—and the impact she made—continues through the work of this foundation.
