Taylor Drew Manalo is the College of Education’s student marshal for Penn State’s spring Commencement Ceremony, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. May 8 at the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. Manalo selected Carla Zembal-Saul to escort her as the College’s faculty marshal.
Manalo, a Schreyer Honors College student from Pittsburgh, will graduate from the college’s integrated undergraduate/graduate (IUG) program with a bachelor’s degree in childhood and early adolescent education (PK-4 option) and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis on language, culture and society. Although the program typically requires a five-year commitment, she completed it in just four years.
She is a Professional Development School (PDS) intern and teaches third grade at Park Forest Elementary School. PDS is a collaborative, 185-day student-teaching program in conjunction with the State College Area School District.
Manalo’s PDS experience enabled her to prepare and implement lessons using various technologies for 25 third-grade students in all subject areas. She taught reading and language arts through a balanced literacy program, with an emphasis in reading strategy instruction, and utilized the Math Expressions program to help students learn basic mathematics skills through conceptual approaches and project-based learning.
She received the College of Education Undergraduate Student Leadership and Service Award in 2015, the President Sparks Award in 2014 and the President’s Freshman Award in 2013. She has been on the Dean’s List in each of her first seven semesters at Penn State and has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. She earned a 3.97 GPA within the master’s program.
Manalo also has been president and member of the College of Education Student Council, a member of the Teaching Elementary Science Leadership Academy, the THON family relations chair and THON dancer, a family and child development lab research assistant and a tutor for the Friendship Tutoring Program.
She has served on the Childhood and Early Adolescent Education steering committee and the College of Education Recruitment and Retention Task Force.
Manalo’s parents, Arsenio and Jill Manalo, will attend the commencement ceremony along with her siblings -- Emily, Noah, Jonah, Natalie, Mia and Lily – and her fiancé, Shane Heil.
Manalo has accepted a teaching job in the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.
College of Education program marshals are:
· Childhood and Early Adolescent Education: Michelle Elizabeth Hart, escorted by Marion Sheridan.
· Education and Public Policy: Alexandra Marlene Harper, escorted by William Hartman.
· Rehabilitation and Human Services: Isabella Dibileo, escorted by Deirdre O’Sullivan.
· Secondary Education: JoAnna Frances Hofstaedter, escorted by William Carlsen.
· Special Education: Kaby-Ann Speck, escorted by Richard Kubina.
· World Languages Education: Caitlin Nicole Dininni-Parker, escorted by Michelle Pasterick.