Scott Atkinson

Scott Atkinson

    Mr. Scott Atkinson is the biotechnology teacher at GNB Voc Tech. Mr. Atkinson grew up in New Bedford and attended GNBVT as an electrical student. One of his biggest role models growing up was his math teacher, and now retired hockey coach from GNBVT, Mr. Frey. Atkinson joined the U.S. Army as an Infantry soldier in a mortar platoon. During his time in the Army, Mr. Atkinson was trained in firing mortars, land navigation, 50 Caliber machine guns, M16s, and M60s. This was the training required for what he called “basic combat position”. Mr. Atkinson believes he learned valuable lessons from his time in the service. His battalion motto was “Deeds, not Words”, an idea that he wholeheartedly agrees with regarding self-pride. He also believes the military taught him a lot about leading by example, that setting a good example is an important form of leadership. Lessons like those have stuck with Mr. Atkinson to this day. By the time he got out of the Army, he was a Corporal, also known as E4. He had almost made E5, Sergeant, but due to a dislocated shoulder injury, he never completed the Primary Leadership Development course required to move up in rank. After his time in the Army, Atkinson worked many jobs in the field of science. His first job was as a diver for Marine Ecology at the Darling Marine Center in Maine, where he worked for three years. From there, he moved on to a Molecular Biology lab at the LSU Medical Center, then at Massachusetts General Hospital, then at the Medical College of Wisconsin, all of which were in the field of Human Molecular Genetics. He then became a teacher at GNB Voc Tech, and he’s been working here for seven years now. Mr. Atkinson has taught ninth, tenth, and twelfth graders, teaching freshman and sophomore biology, one year of horticulture, and for the last two years, senior biotechnology. Atkinson says the reason he became a biotechnology teacher is that he loves the subject matter and enjoys working with teenagers. He sees biotechnology as the wave of the future, and that it fits perfectly in a vocational school. He believes he has a lot in common with the students at Voc Tech. “I think we’re like-minded individuals, my world is hands-on, I like doing things, making things, I have a sort of project-based life, and the students here are driven to that kind of thing as well, to be able to produce a product, to build or make something, it’s one of the things I like about biotech.”

“Setting a good example is an important form of leadership”