TOWAMENCIN- “The more I do math the more I like it. Seeing all the different interactions between different subjects and the way it fits together is just beautiful,” said North Penn math teacher, Mrs. Amy Hrinyak. Everyday, Hrinyak gets to share her passion of math and teaching with her students.

Hrinyak has been teaching at North Penn for 17 years, and many students have known her as a teacher, ski and board chaperone, or National Honor Society adviser. But what many don’t know, is that Hrinyak grew up far away from here, on a farm in Tennessee.

“I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee. I liked having all the space when I  was a little kid, but once I became a teenager, I felt so far from everything,” Hrinyak recalls.

When the time came for college, Hrinyak was ready to go somewhere new.

“I’m proud that I grew up on a farm, but I knew that I wanted to move away. Georgia Tech wasn’t too far from home, but it felt like a different world,” she said.

Hrinyak went to college at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studied engineering, and met her husband.

“At the time I didn’t even realize how hard it was to get into Georgia Tech, I just got accepted and went. Mr. Hrinyak and I met in class when our teacher put us together in a homework group,” she commented.

After graduating from college for engineering, she occupied jobs in sales, drafting, and designing.

“It’s funny because I had three engineering jobs but I didn’t really like any of them. About the time I got married was when I decided I didn’t like engineering anymore,” Hrinyak remembered.

When she decided engineering was not for her, Hrinyak started day-to-day subbing while Mr. Matt Hrinyak finished school.

“I started subbing because I was broke and in Georgia you could sub without certifications. But as soon as I started, I just loved it and decided that’s what I wanted to do,” she said.

They moved up to Lansdale when her husband got a job at Merck for engineering, and Hrinyak had the chance to go back to school to become a teacher.

“When we moved up here I went to school at Temple to become a teacher. Temple had a nice program where if you already had an undergrad, then you could get a teaching masters and certificate all together,” Hrinyak commented.

She got hired in 2001 at North Penn, and has been here ever since. These days, she enjoys spending time with her husband, her cats Sawyer and Spot, travelling, and crafting.

“I’m very crafty; I especially love ceramics. I have a pottery wheel in my house,” said Hrinyak.

She takes ceramics classes every week, and some of her pieces can be seen holding pens and pencils in her classroom.

Hrinyak teaches a variety of math courses, such as Calculus, Pre-Calculus, Geometry, Statistics, and Probability.

“Right now, Calculus is my favorite to teach. All the maths meet up together and you never know what kind of math you will have to do each day,” said Hrinyak.

Hrinyak is so glad to have found her passion of teaching math at North Penn, and plans to teach here for 13 more years. Her proudest moments as a teacher are seeing students come back successful.

“I really like when kids come back and tell me how well they’re doing in college [and] that they used what we taught them,” said Hrinyak, smiling.