TOWAMENCIN – Living on an island, photographing turtles and coral reefs, and being a talented artist all sound like things out of a dream. Waking up every day, putting on your wet suit and diving gear, and taking pictures of sea life is something everyone dreams of being able to do. However, for art and photography teacher Alyssa Crawford, this was her daily life. Although Crawford now lives in Pennsylvania, she was not always a resident of the Keystone state.

“I was born in Billings, Montana. When I was 2 and a half we moved to Kailua, Hawaii (on Oahu, southeastern shore). I lived there until I was 13, and then we moved to southern Connecticut, right outside New York City. All of the moving was because of my dad’s job, he was an accountant.”

Living on an island and then suddenly going to Connecticut was certainly a culture shock for Crawford. However, she made it work by sticking to her true passion-photography.

“I started [photography] really young, actually. My mom is an artist, and I always knew that I wanted to be an artist-I actually entered school for my undergrad as a painting major, and then switched. But before then, I asked for a camera for Christmas when I was in 5th grade, and I was also taking the SSAT’s to get into private school. I’ll never forget this really weird moment when, in the SSAT prep course I was enrolled in, we were going around and you were introducing who you were, what school you were going to and what schools you were applying to, and what you wanted to be when you grew up. And it was ‘doctor, lawyer, doctor, lawyer’, then it got to me and I said I wanted to be a photographer, and everyone in the room stared at me like I had five heads.”

When she moved to Connecticut, she took film photography in her sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school. She went on to get an undergrad, bachelor of fine arts in photography and in print making from the University of Delaware. She also attained a master’s degree in art education from the University of Arts in Philly. Because of her career path, teaching was not her first career choice. However, after reflecting on her life and experiences, what she should do in her life became clear. She did an apprenticeship with her favorite professor as a senior at Delaware and took a few months off after graduation to go back to Hawaii and study underwater photography. Following that, Crawford began her first career.

“I worked for Field and Stream magazine as an assistant photo editor, which was what I thought was my dream job. It is so widely circulated; it is the most largely circulated men’s outdoor magazine in the world. I thought it was exactly what I wanted to do- I worked in New York City, I worked on Park Avenue; I went to all these photo-shoots, I worked with a creative department, and the editors for a very large publication. I thought it was going to be everything, [but] it was not satisfying my creative needs. I was constantly calling photographers all across the United States, and I would get on the phone with them and ask them for certain shots I needed. And they would always ask me, ‘How is New York?’ It’s gray, it’s winter, and it’s awful!” she explained. “Everyone is angry, all the time.

“I lived in my cubicle if I was not on a shoot; I wasn’t shooting, I was directing, so it was not satisfying my creative needs,” said Crawford. “My unhappiness in New York and working in the industry and thinking about how happy I was teaching, led me to go down the education path. It’s really hard to get a job as an art teacher, let alone a public high school teaching position. Getting this job was the greatest moment ever.”

Although traveling for most is something they do when they are either in their 20s or retired, Crawford has more experience with traveling than most others her age.

“I started traveling at a very young age,” she explained. “The first time I went abroad without my parents was when I went to Spain and Morocco in middle school. When I was in college, I studied abroad twice. My first was a combination of Patagonia and Antarctica, and I studied wildlife conservation and wildlife photography. I lived on a ship for a month, and we would go ashore 2-3 times a day to take pictures of the wildlife.”

Crawford then spent her senior year of college studying in Tanzania.

“I lived in a tent for a month, showered maybe 3 times,” she joked, “and I studied wildlife conservation, wildlife photography, and the conservation of indigenous peoples, which was probably one of the cooler things I did there. We weren’t in resorts, we weren’t anywhere with any westerners, we were right in the heart of all these different tribes. The Hadza and the Maasai, we were right there with them. [We talked] about how people were coming in and trying to change them, trying to change who they were-their customs, their religion, and they didn’t want to change. That was very cool.”

Because of how much traveling has impacted her life, when she got older, she wanted to be able to give that same experience to other teens. When she got to North Penn High School, she immediately talked to the principal and other members of the school board to be able to take a group of students abroad for a week, and it went through.

“This summer I am taking 45 students to Italy for 9 days and we are going to Venice, Florence, Como, and Cinque Terre. I think it is going to be a really great thing and it’s something I want to instate and be a really big staple of my teaching career. I would love to do it every year, and I’m doing the beginning stages of my next trip, which I want to do back in Tanzania and make it a community service trip.”

Of course, through all that art and photography have done for her in her life, Crawford advocates taking art classes or even majoring in art or photography in college.

“I think art is something you can do for the rest of your life. I think it’s difficult to make it a career, but it’s not something that should push you away. It’s definitely difficult, and you have to be willing to work really, really hard, but it’s also something you can do forever. If you do it on the side, and that’s what makes you happy, then that’s great.”