Over two decades Jennifer Ruppel has been teaching science classes at North Penn High School. She has since never looked back. 

Ruppel teaches 5.0 Chemistry and Honors Chemistry this year and loves everything about it. She taught practical applications in chemistry for a long time. She is closing out this year with 26 years of teaching under her apron and lab goggles, and couldn’t be more excited for the upcoming ones.

She attended The College of New Jersey with no plans of becoming a teacher, but life took her on a different path. She originally had plans to become a pharmacist, but was still keeping her options open.

“I was thinking about being a pharmacist, and it was in a working corporation with a company called PCPS back then. Now it’s part of St. Joe’s. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a pharmacist though, so when I was accepted there I didn’t want to lock myself in,” Ruppel explained. 

Thankfully, she decided to keep her options open and ended up as a teacher. 

“After my freshman year I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I never looked back. This was the right thing for me,” Ruppel said. 

Straight out of college at 22, Ruppel came back to Pennsylvania where she found her way to North Penn. Her first year she had a homeroom class of seniors and was finding it crazy that she was only about five or six years older than them. That was definitely a challenge for her to overcome, but she really loved teaching. 

Her love for teaching and chemistry really showed this year with the renovations going on. She had to pack up and move twice and that was no easy task. Luckily, the whole science department lent a helping hand.

“The moving aspect was hard, we packed up everything last May with the help of the entire science department. So many of our colleagues changed their rooms, so that we could keep the chemistry program going. If not, we wouldn’t have been able to do any labs in the fall,” Ruppel shared.

She felt really grateful that other teachers moved their rooms, so that chemistry classes could keep going strong.

“The fact that other teachers moved for us was really awesome, and they even helped us physically move,” Ruppel said. 

Teaching in C-pod was weird for her during the fall because in her whole 26 years at North Penn she was in K-pod until this year. She has also been in the same room in K-pod for 25 years.

Ruppel doesn’t just have a passion for teaching, but also a passion for chemistry and watching the students understand it how she does. 

“I love teaching stoichiometry especially because students learn how it works, and just seeing it in their eyes when they realize it is all coming together is amazing. I love watching students make those connections at school,” Ruppel explained.

Ruppel enjoys school a lot, but that isn’t her only hobby. She loves to bake, garden, and spend time with her family. She didn’t know that much about baking when she started, but another teacher gave her some great advice. 

“I love baking, when I first started teaching I did not know how to bake anything. I remember Mr. Keagy, who’s a chemistry teacher, was making a joke to me, and said ‘Jen, it’s fine, it’s just like chemistry,’ and it is,” Ruppel joked. 

She also loves gardening, and could never give that up for anything.

“I really like gardening, I plant mostly annuals which is probably not the best, but it’s okay. I spend way too much on flowers, but I don’t really care because I enjoy it,” Ruppel added.

She loves to make her home beautiful with flowers, and that makes it so her three kids have something nice to come home too. She has two daughters in college and one son in high school. Although she doesn’t get much time with her daughters because of them not living at home she still gets every chance to spend time with them. 

This summer though her family will get to spend lots of time together because the five of them are going to Europe for the first time. 

“This summer we’re going to Europe. We will be going to London and Paris. This is going to be the first time we ever do this, so I’m really excited about that,” Ruppel noted.

Mrs. Ruppel is a kind, and enthusiastic chemistry teacher who puts her students first which is one of the many things that make her so amazing. If you have her in class she’ll make sure to acknowledge your birthday, or put a chemistry joke on the board to make a bad day better. Summer couldn’t come faster for her, so she can enjoy her time in Europe, but even with that exciting trip coming up she will still be tuned in to her students every single day without fail.