Punk rock, Pixie and possibilities

Ivy Tech graduation

By Steve Hinnefeld 331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com
May 11, 2007

Jacob Cagan wasn’t thinking much about education when he was a student at Bloomington High School North. He left school without graduating, opting to pass a test and get his GED certificate.

“I just felt like I wasn’t learning much in high school,” he said.

He traveled around the country, working unskilled jobs, and spent some time in Philadelphia, a guitar player drawn by the city’s punk-rock scene. He wasn’t thinking about college.

“I guess I thought I could make my living without it somehow,” he said. “It turned out, I realized that wasn’t really possible — or at least not likely.”

Eventually Cagan returned to Bloomington and started taking classes at Ivy Tech Community College. Now 24, married and the father of a 2-year-old girl named Pixie, he will receive an associate’s degree tonight, one of two students to receive top honors in the biotechnology program.

He has an internship this summer at BioConvergence, a Bloomington life-sciences company, where he beat out candidates from four-year universities. Beyond that, he plans to keep working in the industry and possibly pursue a four-year degree part-time at Indiana University.

Cagan enrolled at Ivy Tech four years ago, attracted by its low cost and convenience, and needing its remedial courses, especially in math. He found he liked the small sections, personal attention and chances for interaction with instructors.

“I figured it would be a good place to start with an academic career,” he said. “I took a philosophy course and I realized I was into that. I realized I’m really into math. I was kind of behind in it, but it turns out I love it.”

But he didn’t decide on a degree path until Ivy Tech-Bloomington started its biotechnology program at the prompting of regional life-science companies.

“I figured there was opportunity in it,” he said. “It was pretty new and wide open. And this is a good area for it.”