Beth Bauer Capocci graduated from Gillespie High School (GHS) in 2002, earning a W.E. Schmidt Family Foundation Scholarship. She used the $500 Partnership award toward tuition at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.

Beth earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Millikin in 2006 and immediately pursued her Master’s Degree, also in mathematics, at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), graduating in 2008.

“I then worked for nine years teaching high school mathematics in Los Angeles,” she recounts. These years included three years at a charter school in downtown LA and then six years at a private all-girls Catholic school. “I also served as an academic advisor and the math department chair” at the Catholic school, says Beth.

In June 2013 Beth married Matthew Capocci. They welcomed their son Milo in 2016.

Currently “I am taking a pause from teaching to spend time with Milo,” she says. “Aside from work and my family, I enjoy hiking, baking, and playing with my dog, Ash.”

A committed and talented educator herself, Beth very much values her post-GHS college years.

“I absolutely cherish my post-secondary education,” she says. In addition to providing her with an interesting and challenging career, her six years of college shaped her as a person, “letting me enrich myself. I truly feel those years allowed me to take advantage of opportunities to learn about myself and the world around me,” says Beth.

Beth concludes: “My scholarship from The Partnership certainly helped me to be able to attend the college of my choice.”

Beth is the daughter of the late Tom Bauer and Evelyn Bilyeu of Gillespie.