Julia Pryde, 23, taught children and adults about the world around them, even as she pursued a demanding engineering graduate degree at Virginia Tech.

The New Jersey native came to Blacksburg in 2001 to study biological systems engineering, earning her undergraduate degree and choosing to stay at the school for her master's degree.

Not content with just studying, she was active in SEEDS, a local nonprofit group that teaches children and adults in the area about the environment, with a "learning is fun" approach that includes field trips, modeling rivers with mud and water, and watching diving ducks with underwater periscopes.

Last year, she wrote a feasibility study urging Virginia Tech to compost leftovers from its dining halls. Over the summer, she went to South America to help coordinate cooperative research programs on erosion and water use in Ecuador and Peru.

"I used to tease her about having an old soul," assistant professor Brian Benham told The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. "Julia was fun, she was sincere, she was thoughtful, she was very genuine."

Pryde was a 2001 graduate of Middletown North High School in central New Jersey, where she was a standout on the swimming team. She also played softball in youth recreation leagues.

On Monday afternoon, not knowing where Pryde was, her parents headed straight for Blacksburg, where they learned after a nearly nine-hour drive that their daughter was among the dead, The Star-Ledger reported. -- David Ress