“You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room to be impactful.”

Erro Delaplane, a Capital High School senior exemplifies this. They have demonstrated hard work, ambition, and intellectual humility throughout their four years at Capital!

Erro lives in Shelton and takes on a rigorous course load by taking both running start and IB classes. Their perseverance is clear as they explain, “The commute can be very difficult sometimes but I still do it every day.” They enjoy archery and Dungeons and Dragons explaining that, “I’ve even played in our school clubs.” While they enjoy reading and writing in their free time, Erro has an affinity for the sciences and has particularly excelled in their high-level IB chemistry class.

Erro’s passion for the Sciences is evident as they’ve described that some of their favorite classes over their educational career included Biology, Physical Science, and IB chemistry of course! 

In the IB program students write a lengthy research paper called the Internal Assessment (IA). In the IB chemistry class, planning started towards the end of junior year and the projects were completed by March of senior year. Typically, the IA for chemistry includes a lab that explores a specific topic in chemistry. From the beginning, it was clear that Erro wanted to truly use the IA as an opportunity to investigate topics they were interested in and could engage with the content more personally. Their investigation was about the evaporation rates of different compounds in nail polish remover. Erro explained that “My project was inspired by my mom since she has sensitivities to different chemicals, including nail polish removers.” Erro spent many Saturdays at school performing their lab and collecting data. Erro reflects that while the process was very time-consuming, they got the opportunity to self-lead a project on their passion for chemistry. They added that they had to learn to be very patient and methodical in their lab. Erro explained that they learned methods of distillation which prepares them for topics they’ll cover in college. Erro’s IA is impactful because of the genuine investigation behind their project. This personal engagement has given them the motivation to keep working through the difficult research paper. When asked about their advice to incoming students on their IA projects, Erro advises to “Start planning early, It’ll save you a lot of time.” They also advised students to pick topics they are genuinely interested in.

Even during this interview, Erro constantly gave words of encouragement to incoming high school students, a testament to their constant care for their high school community. Erro’s IA demonstrates their ability to utilize their passion for science to help others!

When reflecting on their overall high school journey, Erro advises that incoming freshmen should not overthink high school. “It’s like a bigger version of middle school. It may seem scary at first, but things will work out.” They recommend that incoming IB and running start students should be prepared for the heavy workload by managing their time. “Start on long projects as soon as possible”, they added. 

When asked about what advice they would give their freshman-year self, Erro responded that “I would tell myself to not overthink things too much and don’t be too intimidated by the prospect of coming to high school.”

Erro credits the support of their parents and science teachers for their successes in school. They will also be majoring in engineering at Saint Martin’s University. Erro explains that although choosing potential majors was difficult, they felt that engineering best fit their aspirations to enter the workforce after college. It is clear that they will bring positive contributions and insights to their future endeavors.

Erro represents the countless students at Capital who have been working consistently in their craft and through it, improving our school every day. A big congratulations and thank you to Erro for leaving their positive legacy for incoming freshmen, IB, and running start students at Capital.