Heather Bouwhuis has spent the past four years juggling her studies, raising a family and working a full-time job — all while commuting more than two hours each way from her home in Pickering for every lecture, lab and test at Brock University.

Every moment spent braving traffic and hitting the books was worth it for the 57-year-old wife and mother-of-two, who came to Brock to pursue a second career after decades working as a medical laboratory technologist at a Toronto hospital.

It was in the fall of 2013, after deciding a career change was needed, that Bouwhuis enrolled in Brock’s Certificate in Grape and Wine Technology program, offered through the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).

All her hard work will pay off Friday, Oct. 13, when Bouwhuis walks across the stage at Brock’s Fall Convocation ready to retire from her lab position to pursue her second career in the wine industry. Read the full story here