Akin to her love of flamingos, VanTries looks to spread her passion for math throughout TJ.
New Math Teacher Ruth Van Tries displays her love for all things flamingo! photo by Rebecca Holt
As a young girl growing up in Pennsylvania, for Ruth Van Tries the world revolved around one thing and one thing only: the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I watched every single game,” she said proudly. “I was even lucky enough to attend a few.” Ruth was different than the rest of the girls, but she had her own unique take on life.
At a young age, Van Tries was already good at math and it quickly became her favorite subject. “It just made sense to me!” she exclaimed. All throughout her scholastic career, she knew that her passion was mathematics, and being a high school math teacher was her goal. Van Tries graduated high school with a very high GPA and was accepted into Temple University in Philadelphia, and later attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Van Tries moved to Colorado when she was in the business world, because she had received a promotion for a job in Denver. “Colorado is much different than Pennsylvania; it’s a very different atmosphere but I absolutely love it here,” she explains with a smile.
As the years progressed, though, Van Tries developed a new passion: a passion for what she says is, “The most beautiful creature on earth.” The flamingo. Her room is glowing pink in flamingo crossing posters, small flamingo figurines and the large, life-like flamingos she places in her garden. “I own over 400 flamingos. It’s what I do. I collect them and I love it,” she said. “I even have a flamingo tattoo!” she said of a permanently emblazoned pink flamingo on her leg. “I am probably one of the only people in the world with such a tattoo!” she said with a chuckle. Flamingos aren’t her only devotion, though; her hobbies include poetry, long walks during the evening, and computer games, especially sudoku.
Now back to the teaching part. Van Tries has been teaching for the last eleven years at two other DPS schools, North and Kennedy. “Teaching is the greatest job in the world,” claims Van Tries, who already loves her new home here at TJ. “The students. I love every one of them; they are all so wonderful,” she remarked on what her favorite thing about being a Spartan is. “I have never had such a great group of kids in my eleven years of teaching. They make me so happy.” Van Tries was so thrilled to be at TJ she even had her nails done, specially painted with the Spartan colors brown and gold.
You can find Van Tries in the math hall, in room 129 where she is usually always at her desk, grading the homework from the night before. Van Tries teaches algebra 1, geometry, and probability statistics, but has experience in teaching trig and advanced algebra, as well. Van Tries is very excited to be here and she came with a purpose: “I feel that I can really make a difference in these teens’ lives.” So when you see her in the halls, make sure you give her a loud “Go Steelers!” and if getting on her good side is one of your priorities, make sure to drop off a pink flamingo knick-knack to add to her growing collection.
