Delaware Valley Regional High School art teacher, Ms. Ruppert, has had quite the journey to get where she is today.

Ms. Ruppert was first introduced to art in high school, and now she is always a part of anything that involves art and photography at Del Val.

Her photography teacher truly initiated Ms. Ruppert’s journey by wanting her to submit her art portfolio to an art school. However, Ms. Ruppert, however, was set on studying Environmental Education at Penn State. 

Ms. Ruppert finally had a change of heart after her photography teacher persisted to show off her talent, which convinced her to send out a portfolio to three art institutes. She ended up not going to Penn State for Environmental Education, as she got a full ride to The Art Institute Of Pittsburgh. 

She dedicated a lot of time and energy to earn her fine arts degree while she majored in photography. Ms. Ruppert took the path to work in the commercial industry and do large format advertising for Morton Buildings in the magazine and fashion industry. 

“When you’re starting out in the newspaper world, you’re covering a dog show, and then listening to your scanner and running after the ambulance,” Ms. Ruppert said.

Although photography was involved, it was too much activity for Ms. Ruppert.

 She went back to school at Ohio University for photojournalism. After a year of photojournalism, she disliked the intrusiveness and craved to move on to bigger opportunities.

While looking for the occupation she was meant to do, she worked for the United Nations. During this time, Ruppert was comfortable and felt this job was right up her alley. As she transitioned into journalistic work, she continued to work for the United Nations.

After three years with the U.N., the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources had seen her work and started to hire her. 

In her new job, work fluctuated from six to eight months depending on the assignment. She even got to take headshots of Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Taylor.

These jobs still didn’t have enough involvement with photography, so Ms. Ruppert started to work with Rockport College and taught photography to her students. 

As a teacher, her position was connected with National Geographic and The New York Times. National Geographic even sent her to Cuba.

“I was sent to Cuba for a National Geographic assignment to help them kind of set up shop for a darkroom and they would need me to do supplemental work,” Ruppert said.

Before getting her next assignment for National Geographic, Ms. Ruppert got married. She and her husband both agreed they wanted to teach in school and to settle down and start a family. 

Everything came together for Ms. Ruppert, as Del Val was a convenient distance from her house and the old photography teacher, Ms. Eberle, had just retired. 

Ms. Ruppert got to meet new families in and out of the school, as her two children are involved with sports. Evie plays soccer and Silas plays football and lacrosse.

Her past photography careers taught her valuable lessons that she applies to her current job as a photography teacher at Del Val.

If you aren’t in one of her classes, you can still learn from Ms. Ruppert as part of Art Club.