Where are they now?

April DeLaPaz had a perfectly good job at the Marshall County Courthouse in Plymouth. She graduated from Plymouth High School in 1998 and had a child. She worked full time and was raising her son, Caleb. But there was something that drew her back to education. Thinking back, she said, “It was office work. It was so confining. I knew I had to go back to school.”

She started to take one class per semester in 2003 at Plymouth High School where IU South Bend classes are taught in the evenings.

It has been a long time in coming but she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Through her studies she has acquired a passion for the earth, ecology and research. She plans to attend graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in marine ecology and to teach at a university someday.

When she first came to IU South Bend, she was intending on pursuing an education degree. However, through three summer study trips abroad – two in Belize and one to Africa – she became excited about research. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of field work. I like to plug in the numbers,” she said. “I learned so much from the trips. I wish every student could do a study trip.”

April had a few second thoughts about pursing a degree in biology. “I didn’t think I could do it but (biology) Professor (Ann) Grens said I could to it and she was right.”

There were adjustments to becoming a student and a full-time parent. She is first generation in her family to go on to college. Her mother, Irma, is originally from Mexico. Both her mother and father, Chris, have supported her educational cause and have helped with Caleb.

Her son will turn 11 in August and he is so proud of his mother’s accomplishments that he also is thinking of becoming a biologist.