Anne-Marie Vaduva, Substitute Teacher
Anne-Marie grew up in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to New York City at 11 years old. She went on to study psychology and environmental science at Barnard College, which included a semester at the Biosphere 2 in Arizona where Anne-Marie developed a deep love of the southwest landscape.
She attributes her love of the natural world, as well as her recognition of the beneficial impact of nature exploration to her personal experiences as a child, freely exploring the countryside of Romania, with cousins or by herself, discovering bugs in the forests and swimming in shallow rivers, collecting sunflower leaves to feed the domesticated ducks, and seeing the Milky Way at night. She is grateful for family vacations to the Carpathian mountains and the Black Sea which further expanded her knowledge and love of the natural world.
In her adult life, Anne-Marie's connection to nature is strengthened via bird watching, photography, hiking, reading nature poetry and spending time with children who are exploring nature, including her own 7-year-old. In the past, Anne-Marie has worked as a zoo keeper, park ranger, and native woodlands gardener. She is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the BOPN community, to facilitate children's discovery of the natural world.
