{"id":44285,"date":"2024-09-20T08:39:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T12:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/?p=44285"},"modified":"2024-09-20T08:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T12:46:36","slug":"farm-to-desk-mrs-amy-hrinyaks-life-on-a-tractor-and-in-a-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/top-stories\/2024\/09\/20\/farm-to-desk-mrs-amy-hrinyaks-life-on-a-tractor-and-in-a-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm to Desk: Mrs. Amy Hrinyak&#8217;s life on a tractor and in a classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From working on tobacco farms and driving tractors, to teaching high school math classes and driving bright yellow sports cars, North Penn High School teacher Mrs. Amy Hrinyak shows students that fun doesn\u2019t stop at adulthood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To some, having a 2023 Toyota Supra as your only car might seem impractical, but to Hrinyak, it gives her a reason to be completely and inevitably herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI like to be different and have fun,\u201d Hrinyak stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is clear that Hrinyak embraces her individuality, despite how hard it might be sometimes to stand out from the crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m unique. It\u2019s kind of my favorite and least favorite [trait] at the same time. It makes me who I am, but it makes it hard to fit in too,\u201d Hrinyak explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many students who are familiar with Mrs. Hrinyak have most likely noticed that her accent isn&#8217;t native to Pennsylvania. In fact, she actually grew up almost thirteen hours from our hometown of Lansdale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI grew up on a farm in Tennessee. It was very beautiful. My favorite part was helping with the animals, with the cows, and sometimes we had pigs. I also had my own sheep. They were definitely my favorite,\u201d Hrinyak said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Hrinyak enjoyed taking care of the animals, some of her other responsibilities proved difficult to carry\u2014especially when she was a high schooler herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThrough high school, my dad made me work in the Tobacco [fields]. I did not like that. It was hard. I mostly did the part where you rode on the back\u2014there was this contraption on the back of the tractor\u2014where you would put the baby plant in, and the machine would put it in the soil. You would have to go really slow,\u201d Hrinyak admitted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<aside>\n    <div class='pullquote sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a sno-animate pullquote-shadow'>\n                <div class=\"quotebody\">\n                        <div class='largequote'>&ldquo;<\/div>\n                                    <p class='pullquotetext'>Through high school, my dad made me work in the Tobacco [fields]. I did not like that. It was hard. I mostly did the part where you rode on the back\u2014there was this contraption on the back of the tractor\u2014where you would put the baby plant in, and the machine would put it in the soil.<\/p>\n                            <p class='quotespeaker'>&mdash; Mrs. Amy Hrinyak. NPHS Math Teacher <\/p>\n                        <div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<style>\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a {\n    display: flex;\n    float: left;\n    margin: 30px 30px 30px 0;\n    width: 50%;\n    border-color: #0c2e4f;\n    border-top-width: 5px;\n    border-right-width: 5px;\n    border-bottom-width: 5px;\n    border-left-width: 5px;\n    background-color: #bae2fc;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a p.pullquotetext,\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a p.quotespeaker {\n    color: #000000 !important;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a .pullquotepic {\n    width: 33%;\n    margin-left: 25px;\n}\n.sno-story-body .sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a p.pullquotetext {\n    font-size: 22px;\n    line-height: 1.4em;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a .quotebar {\n    background: #dddddd;\n    flex: 0 0 90px;\n    margin-top: -15px;\n    margin-left: -15px;\n    padding-left: 15px;\n    padding-top: 15px;\n    margin-right: 15px;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a .largequote {\n\tcolor: #888888;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a6070fb9fb7a .quotebody {\n    width: unset;\n}\n<\/style>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time she was harboring her love for animals and driving tractors, she held another love close to her: her passion for math. Eventually, this love led her away from her home state where she majored in something completely unexpected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAfter Tennessee, I went to Georgia Tech, and I got an engineering degree,\u201d Hrinyak remarked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It might be puzzling trying to decipher how an engineering degree could have resulted in a teaching position at North Penn, but to Hrinyak, the frightening decision to change passions after college was a leap she was willing to take for her happiness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI loved engineering in school, but I just didn\u2019t ever like any job that I tried. I don\u2019t know if it was misogyny or just my personality, but I didn\u2019t like it. For a while, I was in between jobs, and I started subbing. I fell in love with it. When we moved to Pennsylavia, that\u2019s when I got my teaching degree\u201d she declared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hrinyak has now been a teacher for twenty-four years and has loved every second of it\u2014especially when it comes to her students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI really value my relationship with the kids. I want them to see my enthusiasm and make that contagious and not such a chore. I think having rapport with the kids makes all the difference,\u201d Hrinyak noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These strong morals as a teacher have really impacted many students here at North Penn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI loved having Mrs. Hrinyak for Precalculus. I was pretty nervous about the class, but her welcoming and cheery personality really helped to make me comfortable in the classroom. Her lessons were always very engaging,\u201d North Penn senior Haruka Weir commented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hrinyak has touched the hearts of our high school. Her infectious laugh and funny jokes have made her a wonderful addition to our staff. But most importantly, she cares about the students that walk these halls.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI always like to tell kids, \u2018You never know what you\u2019re going to do in the future, so you need to try a lot of things\u2019,\u201d she announced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether she\u2019s teaching you derivatives or whirling past you in her fashionable car, Amy Hrinyak sure knows how to live life to the fullest. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From working on tobacco farms and driving tractors, to teaching high school math classes and driving bright yellow sports cars, North Penn High School teacher Mrs. Amy Hrinyak shows students that fun doesn\u2019t stop at adulthood. To some, having a 2023 Toyota Supra as your only car might seem impractical, but to Hrinyak, it gives&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,25,11],"tags":[],"staff_name":[1429],"class_list":["post-44285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-people-in-the-pods","category-top-stories","staff_name-alyssa-valdivia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44288,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44285\/revisions\/44288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44285"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=44285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}