melissa manaker

St. Rita School's Own Little Miss Sunshine

By Suzanne Till
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 3/15/07)

ALEXANDRIA — When Melissa Manaker was selected as the staff’s Sunshine Person for the second consecutive year at St. Rita School in Alexandria, she feigned protest before graciously accepting the position. “It’s important to have someone to acknowledge and celebrate life’s milestones,” she says, “It makes people feel special.”
Making people feel special is Manaker’s personal mission and what she tries to do every day with her eighth-grade students. It is, in Manaker’s opinion, what makes for an effective teacher. “I try to figure out what makes each of my students tick, to find what talents or traits they possess that I can use to get them to learn.”
In addition to her duties as Sunshine Person, Manaker teaches math, science and religion to a mix of 78 seventh- and eighth-graders. She recognizes that these students will soon leave St. Rita for the much more complex world of high school, where increased academic and social pressures can overwhelm students without adequate preparation or self confidence. Manaker fees a duty and obligation to ensure that each of her students is equipped with solid academic skills, a sense of personal integrity, and the support of the community of faith at the root of a St. Rita education. “I want my students to be good people, good citizens,” she says.
Manaker is well familiar with the duties and obligations of being a good person and good citizen. For over 20 years, she has followed her husband, an Air Force physician, from duty station to duty station, having two children along the way. “Building any sense of community is hard for a military family,” she says, “but it is so important to feel a part of something, especially for my kids and it is what has made teaching so rewarding.” Manaker did not begin her teaching career immediately after college. Following in the footsteps of strong female role models, she decided that she needed to experience the corporate world, where she says she learned “to think outside the box, that conventional methods don’t always work, and that you need to do whatever it takes.” She took what she learned there with her into the classroom when she volunteered to teach in Department of Defense schools. Manaker works hard toward what she calls that “aha! moment” with each of her students, “where I know they get it — there’s nothing more rewarding.”
She does whatever it takes to get them there and generously shares the credit for her successes. “Faith is tangible at St. Rita,” says Manaker, who cites school Principal Mary Pat Schlickenmaier and the pastoral team of three priests for creating an environment in which faith is lived, every day. Both the faculty and the students begin each morning with prayer intentions. “It helps build a strong connection between all of us, that we are each supported by and accepted as part of the community.” Students are encouraged to embrace their faith and take advantage of any opportunity to participate in the sacraments and then to take that grace out into the world.
As part of the eighth-grade class confirmation preparation, several students took on volunteer duties at a local nursing home to pray the rosary with residents on the first Friday of every month. Even though the confirmation ceremony took place weeks ago, the students intend to continue with their first Friday visits.
Manaker has tried to make her classroom and St. Rita a “safe zone” for her students, a place where they are secure and free to explore and question. There is a sealed box sitting on her desk where students may place any question they have, on any topic, which they know will be answered by one of the priests who visits weekly for religious instruction. It is a method by which Manaker can demonstrate trust and respect to her students, two things she feels strongly about in today’s world.
So strong is the sense of community at St. Rita that Manaker sees herself staying there indefinitely, now that her family has reached its final duty station before her husband retires. It is not, however, her only teaching stint at St. Rita. Seven years ago, Manaker taught at St. Rita for three years and missed that “we care” sensibility. She kept in touch with the school and stood ready to accept her mission when the administration contacted her a mere 12 hours before relocating back to the Washington area to inquire as to whether she would be interested in returning. “I can’t think of any place I’d rather be,” she responded. It’s the place where Manaker can discover the special gifts and talents of her students and let them blossom in the sunshine.

Till is a freelance writer in Northern Virginia.