TRITIA MONEYPENNY

5/16/2020

ACADEMIC COACH, SERVICE LEARNING COORDINATOR, 8TH GRADE CLASS DEAN | TMONEYPENNY@YORK.ORG

Guided by Passion

Tritia was born in L.A. and has lived in Lodi, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. Growing up, she was fortunate enough to have extremely adventurous parents who picked up her and her two brothers on the last day of her fourth grade year and went on an adventure she has never forgotten. The family ambitiously set out in a 26-foot trailer to see the United States. Between this excursion and additional opportunities, Tritia has visited 45 states. When asked, it is understandably easier for Tritia to name the states she hasn’t visited instead of the states she has.

Her love of marine biology and an opportunity to work with a sea lion named Beaver brought Tritia to UC Santa Cruz, where she majored in Marine Biology and minored in Education. While at UCSC, she worked closely with Beaver to train him to swim alongside grey whales and videotape them in their natural habitat. While this specific experiment didn’t yield the expected results, Tritia gained much knowledge and memories to last a lifetime.

Before starting her master’s program, Tritia worked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for over 11 years. During her time there, she did everything from reservations, school orientations, and discovery lab programs to running the Young Women in Science camp for middle schoolers and designing and implementing the high school volunteer program, Teen Conservation Leaders. Tritia left the Aquarium to get her Master's Degree in Youth Development from Kansas State University. Tritia’s passion has led her on a trail from Bali to Berkley, not to mention York. Tritia had the opportunity to be a co-facilitator in the local iLead+Design program at the Lyceum of Monterey County with York’s very own Sean Raymond. Her work with iLead+Design lead her to a similar program at the Green School in Bali. The course offered a chance for students to develop and implement answers to real problems in the community. Upon graduation and in keeping with her quest to empower teens, Tritia traveled to Berkeley to instruct 100 young minds at the Civic Leadership Institute run by John Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth and Northwestern’s Civic Education Project. It is this type of hands-on experience that sets Tritia apart and makes her a perfect fit for York School.

Tritia started at York in January 2016. As part of the requirements for her Master’s Degree, Tritia first arrived at York as an intern analyzing our service learning program. She provided thoughtful and well researched recommendations for improvement. After an extremely successful semester interning, and a master’s degree firmly in hand, York decided they just couldn’t let her go.

When asked about the most rewarding part of working with teens, Tritia didn’t hesitate to answer. Tritia receives her greatest satisfaction watching students grow into “autonomous, confident, responsible, and super thoughtful” people, as well as having the opportunity to find out later how her instruction impacted their futures. When not molding young minds, Tritia can be found enjoying both land, walking her three small dogs, and sea, scuba diving.

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