Name, where you currently live, family info, and the year you graduated
Laura Pennington, Jacksonville Florida, Married to Allen, with 2 dogs and a cat, 1993
What was your favorite high school memory?
Band trips and football games
Who was your favorite teacher and why?
If I were forced to choose, I would have to say Sandra Stricklen, because she always believed we could do more and expected us to show it. Randall Wallace was also great, he treated us as equals while still maintaining discipline in class.
What was the most important thing you learned in school?
How to interact with all types of people and situations, and that I didn’t want to be a high schoolteacher-I don’t have the patience!
What are you currently doing and how did you arrive at this point in your life?
After graduating from Dora, I went to Bevill for a couple of years and got my AS in Biology, then started working as a Medical Assistant at Carraway in 1995. While I was there I decided to become a nurse, so I went back to Bevill and took LPN classes full-time at night while I continued working at Carraway. After a while working as an LPN, I decided I was tired of HMO’s and whiny people wanting drugs, so I went to UAB and finished my BS in Biology in 1999. Allen and I then packed up and moved to Pensacola in 2000. I also enlisted in the Army Reserve as an LPN shortly after moving to Pensacola, and went to Basic Training at Ft. Jackson SC. After returning from SC, I started graduate school at the U. of West Florida in 2001. I have finished all my coursework, and am planning on defending my thesis this summer (2004). In 2002, I was commissioned as an Environmental Science Officer in the Reserves. Currently, I am working in Jacksonville for the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an Environmental Scientist.
Who are your heroes?
All my fellow soldiers serving around the world
What do you want to do when you grow up? What are your dreams?
I would eventually like to be a natural resource manager for a State or National Park here in Florida, or somewhere just as warm!
How do you want to be remembered?
As someone who always tried to better herself, and make others feel better about themselves
Any hobbies, special activities, pets, or anything of interest?
Allen and I SCUBA dive, deep-sea fish, and ride motorcycles