Brooke Schaefers of Butler was in the Galápagos Islands in March conducting an ecosystem biology field study. She also got to see a famous Galapagos tortoise.

Brooke Schaefers was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country.

Schaefers, the daughter of Mark and Suzanne Schaefers of Butler, was conducting an ecosystem biology field study in the Galápagos Islands 563 miles west of the coast of Ecuador.

A biology major with a focus on marine biology, Schaefers set out with 10 classmates, as well as a graduate student and professors, on March 7 for the trip to the islands while her school, Youngstown State University, was on spring break, a break that never ended.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Sunday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.