Get to Know Belinda Ringpfeil: Love of marine science, education drew her to the coast

BLog.al.com: Get to Know Belinda Ringpfeil: Love of marine science, education drew her to the coast

GULF SHORES, Alabama -- Birmingham native Belinda Ringpfeil has been making the coast her home over the past four years.

I just belong near the water," she said.

For two years Ringpfeil rented a place in Orange Beach while teaching in Baldwin County’s public schools.

She taught full time at Elsanor Elementary School in Robertsdale and part time at Daphne East Elementary School and J. Larry Newton School in Fairhope.

Upon leaving Elsanor, Ringpfeil said, she chose to be a self-employed entrepreneur with her two passions: traveling and marine sciences/marine education. She runs a part-time travel business called Coastal Dreams Travel and a part-time marine education program.

Ringpfeil said she travels to public and private schools with her marine education program, and also holds events for youth groups.

This month she is contracted to teach a summer program for children ages 4 to 12 years old called Ocean Camp at Faulkner State Community College’s Gulf Shores campus.

Get to Know Belinda Ringpfeil
Birthplace: Birmingham
Hometown: Gulf Shores
Family: Husband, Chris; two children
Occupation: Self-employed entrepreneur
Activities: Traveling, scuba, photography, water sports
Ringpfeil received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master’s in gifted education from the University of Alabama.

She taught for 10 years as a gifted education teacher in Jefferson and Shelby counties’ schools, and because she taught gifted education, she said, she had a flexible curriculum that allowed her to teach marine sciences as long as her children were interested in it.

But she wanted to teach it full time, which brought her to the coast.

One of her goals, she said, is to open a marine education center in Gulf Shores in hopes of helping people to gain awareness and respect for the ocean.
Ringpfeil said she has also received training at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, has attended numerous National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration workshops, and for at least 10 years has been a member of the National Marine Educators Association.

"I’m a life-long learner," Ringpfeil said, "Fun for me has to do with always learning something new."

Ringpfeil said she has been a scuba diver for many years, and among the more famous places she has explored by diving is the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean west of the Ecuador mainland.

The animals, which include an iguana that swims, are various and unique there and have no fear of people, she said, recalling stepping over sea lions on the beaches.
Two locations she hopes to dive are the barrier reefs in Australia and Indonesia, Ringpfeil said. "I still have goals," she said.

She also enjoys salt and fresh water sports of all kinds, including boating, kayaking and canoeing, Ringpfeil said.

She is a member of the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and works with the sea turtle "Share the Beach" volunteer program.