“Life is tough but you are tougher. Take it day by day and never stop learning.”
Meet Ms. Joy Southworth, a Science Teacher at Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech. Ms. Southworth was a previous student at GNBVT, and is now an alumna. She quickly fell in love with biology in her freshman and sophomore years at GNBVT, and later decided to major in Biology at UMass Dartmouth for a Bachelors and Masters degree. Ms Southworth graduated and started working as a Safety Technician and Chemical Inventory Manager at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Working as a Safety Technician, she was responsible for training college students in laboratory safety. That is when she realized that she enjoyed working with children. For two years, Ms. Southworth worked at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School. There Ms. Southworth taught biology, anatomy, physiology and zoology. After those two years, Ms. Southworth saw that there was a teaching assistant position available in the science department. One of Ms. Southworth’s favorite projects or sections to teach at GNBVT in biology is Genetics of Parenthood. Students choose their traits, and then draw their child. She says that the results are very interesting, and the students seem to enjoy this project a lot.
Ms. Southworth loves to be in a classroom with students, she says that students always bring new and interesting things to the classroom, brightening her day. As a child, her only dream was to be a kindergarten teacher, and look at her now. In Ms. Southworth’s free time, she reads nonfiction or science related books, while also enjoying being around friends and family. She also loves to spend the day at the zoo with her children. Her biggest inspiration throughout her life has been her mother. Raising four children as a single mother can be hard, but Ms. Southworth believes that her mother did a good job.
Within the next ten years, Ms. Southworth does not see herself leaving GNBVT. She’s happy working here as a teacher, or hopefully becoming an administrator at GNBVT.
Article and Picture by: Jaymey-Lea Weston, Senior Media Technology