Carmen Nightfall BS’x22 did not have a positive outlook on advanced education as a child. But when a truck accident forced her father into early retirement, they both began to look at things differently. Her dad ended up getting an MD, and that got Nightfall thinking that it’s never too late. Now, at age 40, she is a genetics and genomics major and considering a switch to biology. Nightfall is part Pascua Yaqui and part Irish, and her great-grandmother was a curandera, a Pascua Yaqui medicine woman. Her grandmother would tell her stories of treatments using herbs and foods, and she became interested in how food affects health. Her fascination took a poignant twist in December 2017, when she was diagnosed with cancer. After surgery in October 2018 and radiation therapy in May 2019, she is now looking forward, excited to see where her degree might take her next. go.wisc.edu/5syc67