VB Sea Camp Staff Sea Camp Staff (pdf) Bob Carroll, Sea Camp Director and Camp Leader Bob (aka Captain Octopus) is the director of Virginia Beach Sea Camp. He has over 20 years of professional experience leading field trips on beaches, canoes, boats and islands throughout the Chesapeake Bay while working in various education positions for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Bob begin teaching 4th and 5th grade science at Norfolk Academy in September 2015. He taught 7th grade life science for the Virginia Beach City Public School system at the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program housed at Plaza Middle School for 9 years prior to moving to Norfolk Academy. Bob led the marine biology summer camps at the Baylake Pines School from the summer of 2008 until they closed in 2014. Recent accomplishments include: His two young sons have caught 'surfing fever’ and the trio enjoys getting out there in anything from small wind slop to hurricane ground swells when they aren’t playing soccer. Surfing with youngsters is awesome. Bob brought home one of two the Norfolk Academy Lower School teacher of the year awards at the end of last school year. Bob was in the final three for teacher of the year while at Plaza MS but was surpassed by truly incredible teachers each time. He became a National Board Certified Teacher as of Nov 21, 2013. Twenty-two teachers with the Virginia Beach City Public Schools passed this certification process in 2013. He was awarded the Plaza MS Trojan Medallion by Principal Burnsworth in June 2015. Bob feels that this may be his highest professional honor considering the caliber of people given this recognition. He was awarded the Presidential Award for Innovative Environmental Education in 2011/12. He has raised over $250,000 through competitive grant proposals and awards over the course of his career to fund environmental education projects. Bob studied fresh water ecosystems at Cornell University in college. He also studied nautical science and oceanography on the Sea Education Association (SEA) Westward-108 cruise during a semester abroad. He received a masters degree in marine science from the College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where he assisted on a host of research projects on the Georges Banks, Antarctica and all over the Chesapeake Bay. He has a 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard captains license and a Commonwealth of Virginia teaching license. Bob grew up on the Jersey Shore in Spring Lake. He started working as a beach cleaner when he was 14 years old which was the 2nd best job he ever had. He was an ocean lifeguard for 6 summers through high school and college which was the best job he ever had. Bob currently has 8 aquaria in his life as well as three young children, a mermaid (The Oyster Queen), a bearded dragon, a crested gecko, a Russian tortoise, a red-eared slider, a rabbit, a snake, a dog and an amazing greenhouse attached to his classroom. Bob lives in the Pelican Dunes area of Ocean Park, Virginia Beach. Please wave if you see him on Shore Drive.   Laurie Sorabella, Director of Oyster Reef Keepers of Virginia and Camp Leader Laurie (aka The Oyster Queen) is an oyster restoration scientist and environmental education expert. She has over 20 years of experience inspiring students and teachers to understand, embrace and contribute to the restoration of the environment. She worked for several years as a field educator on the Chesapeake Bay where she was the first female manager of the Fox Island education center, a remote residential education center. She later formed Oyster Reef Keepers of Virginia, a non-profit organization that works to restore oyster reefs in Virginia waterways through community-based restoration, education, scientific research and monitoring. For the past 16 years, Laurie has led and directed the “Schools Restoring Oysters to the Chesapeake” program that annually engages 200 teachers and 20,000 students in an educational restoration project where students raise and stock almost 1,000,000 oysters (yes that’s 1 MILLION oysters) to Virginia’s oyster reefs every year. If your child has raised oysters in school, than he or she has already been impacted by Laurie’s passion. Recent accomplishments include:  Laurie is a team manager for two Destination Imagination teams. One of her previous teams went all the way to the global competition round in Nashville.  Laurie was recognized as a Model Community Partner by the City of Virginia Beach Public Schools in spring 2014 for her volunteer work with city teachers in creating inquiry based units of study that use oyster restoration as a focal point. This award is a significant accomplishment that shows Lauries commitment to personally working with schools to implement meaningful education based on the oyster restoration project.  She was awarded the Virginia Association of Science Teachers (VAST) Community Partner award in November, 2013.  She has raised over $775,000 through competitive grant proposals thus far in her career to fund environmental education and restoration projects in Virginia.  She was awarded Virginia’s Environmental Educator of the Year in 2006 to recognize her major contributions to the environmental education of Virginia’s youth and the restoration of Virginia’s vital natural resources. Laurie has a bachelor of arts from Wesleyan University, (Middleton, Connecticut) and a master of science degree in marine science from The College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She served as the director of Lynnhaven River Now for three years and more recently worked as their oyster scientists for many years. She also shares her oyster expertise with the Elizabeth River Project, the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance, the City of Virginia Beach, and hundreds of schools throughout Virginia. Laurie has always loved of the outdoors. She told her father that her dream house was a 2-story tent when she was young. Her love of the outdoors grew while working as a counselor at Camp Thoreau in Vermont during her college summers. She ran her 4th Shamrock Half Marathon this March and is one heck of a mother bear to her three children.