By Doug Carroll
GCU News Bureau
The weather in Oregon, GCU junior Lyttia McManus reports from having lived there, is just as dreary as advertised.
“There were days when it would pour all day,” says McManus, a Phoenix native. “We’d be hidden in rain jackets and umbrellas.
“I love overcast days, but after a year, I needed the Vitamin D.”
With a career in elementary education in her plans, she settled on transferring from the University of Oregon to GCU, drawn to its College of Education and Christian foundation. She was on the dance team in her first year, and she has worked on campus since November 2010.
In recognition of her exceptional performance as an administrative assistant in the Ken Blanchard College of Business, McManus has been chosen as Student Worker of the Month by the Office of Career Services.
“Her service goes far beyond answering phones or making copies,” says Dawn Vinh, her supervisor in KBCOB. “She has become the first point of contact…. She takes pride in ensuring that everything runs smoothly in the college.”
Properly nourished again by Arizona sunshine, McManus has come to appreciate GCU’s climate for learning.
In high school, she says, she made mental notes on the kind of teacher she didn’t want to become. But her college instructors, particularly Sherman Elliott and Mindi Kugler, have helped her formulate a teaching philosophy that she hopes to carry into the classroom.
“They’re hard-working, they’re prepared and I know they care,” McManus says of Elliott and Kugler. “The important thing is to show kids that you care about their lives. It’s learning through living, trying to serve them.”
Although her preference is to teach third or fourth grade, she says she will “be happy with anything” in the K-8 spectrum. She says she won’t be the type who teaches only to the test.
She wants her lessons to last.
“I want to teach kids how to use their knowledge to make the world a better place,” says McManus, who carries a 3.98 GPA. “Everything I teach will need to have a meaning to it.”
For information on how to nominate a student for Student Worker of the Month, call the Office of Career Services at 639.6606.
Contact Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
