Nearly 140 new attorneys took their oaths of office administered by Supreme Court of Ohio Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy.

Many of those lawyers are among the 147 applicants who passed the Ohio Bar Examination in February. Their dedication to their studies and the profession was celebrated during the spring bar admissions ceremony at the Palace Theatre, followed by a reception at the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Kennedy pointed out that the ceremony is a culmination of 20 years or more of formal education for each of the honorees.

“But your education will continue every day of your professional life,” she said.

At least one of the new attorneys in the room knows that from personal experience.

April Stevens will be transitioning from her already established career into the legal profession. The change is one that the now 49-year-old made many sacrifices to reach.

Being an attorney was something Stevens dreamed of since she was little.

Yet, she said, “It wasn’t really ever at the forefront of what I thought I would do.”

After graduating high school, Stevens immediately went to college to study engineering. After two years, she realized it wasn’t the right fit and dropped out of school. Instead, she took a job in advertising sales, got married, and had a baby. At the age of 33, she decided she was ready to finish her undergraduate degree and went back to study environmental science.

“I grew up in West Virginia and was really passionate about the outdoors, the mountains, and the beauty,” she said.

But she also saw a dark side in her home state.

“I really hated what was happening in West Virginia with the landscape and in the environment,” said Stevens. “There's a lot of mountaintop removal mining.”

She knew she wanted to be part of a change. After graduating, Stevens began her new career at the Ohio Department of Development, in the energy office.

A few years into the job, Stevens considered going to law school to further empower herself but realized the timing wasn’t right. She’d be missing out on her teenage daughter’s most pivotal high school years.

“That was in 2014, and I just kind of put law school out of my head,” she said.

Half-a-decade later, Stevens revisited the idea. She was working at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Her daughter was grown, and the nation was beginning to experience the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were all shut down. Everybody’s at home all the time, and I just started thinking about what I wanted to do because I knew what I was doing wouldn’t fulfill me for the rest of my life,” Stevens said.

Around the same time, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away.

“I’ve always been such a fan of her fight for equality,” said Stevens. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘You could do that.’”

So, she did and never looked back.

“I just showed up and just kept showing up,” said Stevens.

For the past three-and-a-half years, Stevens spent her days working for the Ohio EPA and her evenings attending night classes at Capital University Law School. She would dedicate an additional eight hours each weekend to studying, writing papers, and preparing for classes. It required giving up many of the things she enjoyed, including exercise classes and socializing with friends and family.

Now that she is on the other side of law school and the bar exam, Stevens believes the sacrifices were worth the feeling of accomplishment.

“I wanted to grow and learn and stretch and just evolve. I've been kind of a late bloomer in my life. I didn't do everything on the traditional path, and so I really wanted that growth experience,” said Stevens. “It did take going through the bar exam and successfully passing for me to feel that.”

Stevens enters the job market in hopes of finding a policy-related legal position where she can do what she’s most passionate about -- advocating for the environment.

“If you look at the people who are making big decisions, they’re all attorneys,” said Stevens.