Growing up as a child in Connecticut, biology and oceanography teacher Victoria Tripp believed she had a passion for animals starting from a young age. According to Tripp, as her passion grew over the years, this interest led to the start of teaching.
“I used to study the Long Island Sound, even as a kid,” Tripp said. “I’d go away [to] visit the beach and my family went away for one to two weeks every summer in Old Wine, Conn. And I always studied all the animals and crabs and things I collected there.”
After gaining experience teaching about the Chesapeake Bay and watersheds, Tripp moved to Virginia where she was given the opportunity to teach oceanography. She’s been teaching biology and oceanography for 18 years and one of her favorite parts is how active she can be.
“I still get to play outside with students; we’re going on a field trip this week in D.C.,” Tripp said. “I like to see that the students are very hands-on. I still get to learn with them as well.”
In addition to her teaching, Tripp says one of her favorite hobbies is watching physiological horror shows and movies. She feels the concepts such as DNA usage and tissue remnants found in shows draw similarities to science.
“Lots of science goes behind the different crime scenes we get shown,” Tripp said. “Whenever someone in the field is doing science, I really feel like I’m in my element. That’s the part of these movies I really like.”
(Saaya Patel)
Though now in science, Tripp considered studying psychology in college. She believed, through experience, that it was not right and did not give her an idea for an interesting job.
“I took psychology in high school,” Tripp said. “But to me, it was more like sitting at a desk and I wanted to work more in the field which is why I chose working in bio.”
