Teaching AP World History requires a vast knowledge regarding topics from all periods of history worldwide. Caitlin Tripp, North Atlanta’s new AP World History teacher, is not fazed by this challenge. Instead, the subject drives her passion for exploration. Tripp was born in Cote d’Ivoire and spent part of her childhood in Guinea in West Africa. In middle and high school, she lived in Costa Rica and Ecuador in Latin America. As a child of missionaries, she developed from a young age a love for foreign cultures, and it’s this love that explains her international mindset that she brings to her classroom.

Some high schoolers take years to discover their life ambitions. However, from an early age, Tripp knew that she wanted to be a teacher. “I realized that my natural instinct was to teach and decided not to fight it,” she said.

Her exceptional intuition about her career path has made Tripp into the successful person she is today.

For undergraduate school, Tripp attended the University of North Georgia where she majored in secondary education and minoring in Spanish. With four years of teaching under her belt, Tripp has taught a plethora of classes ranging from Spanish, American Government, and Current Issues, to Sub-Saharan Studies and Latin American Studies. Her first two years of teaching were at Lumpkin County High School in Dahlonega.  

“History, in general, excites me, but the history of humanity as a whole lights me up,” she said. “It’s a huge, wonderful, weird story, and I love getting to tell it,” she said.  

Tripp is eager to watch her students evolve, make connections, and “really get it.” And it’s obvious that plenty of her students do get it given their enthusiasm about her as a teacher. “The class is very challenging but Ms. Tripp’s teaching style helps me understand the material,” said sophomore Lenox Johnson.  

Because of her enthusiasm for the history of humanity, international experience and profound intelligence, AP World History taught by Ms. Tripp is sure to be an engaging and compelling class for North Atlanta students.