Greetings! My name is Erin McManness and I am the new Annual Giving Coordinator at Messiah! I am so excited to be working with all of the returning and future callers for Phonathon this year. As a very recent graduate of Messiah, I am so happy and proud to be working here now! It truly feels like coming home.
A little about me:
I grew up in Baltimore, MD, and came to Messiah as a first year student in 2004 as a Theatre major. I really enjoyed musical theatre in high school, and if we have the pleasure of meeting, you will soon find that I have a very deep love for singing and music. I took a scenic painting course from Timberley Wittrig as part of my theatre experience, and knew I was hooked on art. Growing up with an artistic father, I always had a natural knack for the subject matter. Sophomore year I changed my major to Art Education, with high school as my target audience. Among the first things I learned from shadowing actual high school teachers was that I didn’t want to teach art – I wanted to sit down and DO it! So I changed my major once again to Studio Art with a concentration in Two-Dimensional Studies (aka, painting and drawing). This just goes to show that when you enter college, sometimes you are in to surprise yourself – I certainly did! If you are a first year student reading this entry, I can offer this one piece of advice (among many!): take your Gen Ed’s first. My second semester Senior Year was a 19-credit double whammy!
Any way you slice it, I loved being an Art Major. Among the many things I was involved in at Messiah, I studied abroad in the small town of Orvieto, Italy. It was the best experience of my entire life. Another piece of advice from me to you (no matter how far along you are in your college education): study abroad! You will be changed and molded in ways you cannot even begin to imagine, and it is just really a TON of fun! If you’d like to hear more about my Italy experience or just studying abroad in general, I warmly welcome you to email me (emcmanness@messiah.edu), and I would love to share with you.
I finished my major with Senior Show, the Art Department’s Capstone project. My colleagues and I devoted an entire eight months to developing ideas, working on preliminary sketches, and finalizing and installing our senior pieces – the culmination of our entire studio art experience – for the reception in March 2008, which drew over 200 viewers in one night! It was certainly an evening to remember.
And now, here I am: back at Messiah for more! I loved my experience as a student, and if you are a student reading this, it is my deepest wish that you too will feel a profound sense of belonging and pride here with us.
I am very excited to work with Phonathon. Phonathon is a work-study job where current students call alumni , parents, and friends of the college to develop relationships by encouraging financial support of the institution. The money raised during Phonathon goes to the Student Impact Fund (SIF). As a student, I had never heard the words, “Student Impact Fund”, even though this fund was – unbeknownst to me - supporting my life as I knew it at Messiah. Student Impact Fund does exactly what its name says: it impacts students on a daily basis. Without the generous giving of alumni, parents, and friends of the college, some students would not be able to even come here! Not to mention all of the numerous events, missions trips, and study abroad opportunities that SIF supports financially. One of the best parts about a Messiah College experience is the ability to GO. We are given so many opportunities to experience life as others do; we are called to be servants – it is an integral part of our mission. As students wanting to make a difference, we choose to give: our time, our money, our compassion. That’s why it is so important to have the Student Impact fund. It is based on giving back to the College as alumni, parents, and friends so that our students continually have the ability to give to others in kind. This circle of giving and giving back is essential to the character of Messiah, and it makes me proud that I can continue to be a part of it.
- Erin McManness, Annual Giving Coordinator