Bridge (Spring 2001) - SUNY Institute of Technology

Alumni Spotlight
The Road to Success
Michelle Manning
By Ellen Portnoy
Most students grow up in
one town, attend local schools
for 18 years, move on to college
and, with luck, find a job.
Not Michelle Manning.
She’s lived in six towns in
three states. She’s attended six
colleges, earning a bachelor’s in
science degree in applied math
from SUNYIT in 1999 – after
working as a cashier, a portrait
developer, a security guard and
a nanny. “I took my time growing
up,” Manning, 34, says.
She also grew up on the
move, living with various family
members. Born in New
Hartford, she moved to
Gloversville as a preschooler. At
12, she returned to Utica,
briefly attending Kernan School
before spending her junior high
school years in Chaumont,
New York. From 1985 to 1990,
she lived with her father in
Orange, California.
Manning began her college
odyssey in 1985, first at California
State University at Fullerton.
Experiencing classes of
200 to 300, she left after a year.
“Teachers didn’t know who you
were and didn’t want to,” she
recalls. In 1986, she enrolled in
Rancho Santiago Community
College in Santa Anna. After
considering physical therapy,
she switched to criminal
justice. After a semester, she
realized she was unsuited for
police work.“I take everything
to heart,” she explains.
In 1987, Manning returned
to Utica to live with her
mother. She had no game plan.
“I didn’t know what I wanted
to do, “she says. A series of jobs
followed: cashier at Chicago
Market, then Great American,
for six months; student portrait
developer at Fraternal Composite
for over a year; plainclothes
security guard at J.C.
Penney for nine months.
Restless, Manning read a
newspaper advertisement for a
nanny. After telephone interviews
and photo exchanges,
she was hired. “They took a risk
and so did I,” she admits. In
1989, Manning moved to
Bernardsville, New Jersey, becoming
a nanny for three girls,
ages 6, 8 and 10. Her tasks:
housekeeping, homework and
shuttling children to ice hockey
practice and games. She stayed
for eight years.
Although she remains close
to the family, she recalls her
nanny years with mixed feelings.
“I had all the responsibilities
of parenthood without the
rights,” she says. Still, she attributes
her driving confidence
to years of chauffeuring the
girls to games throughout the
Northeast. “I can find my way
anywhere,” she says. She also
learned how to budget her time
and do homework anywhere –
even at hockey rinks.
When the girls’ mother – a
former emergency medical
technician – encouraged her to
explore that field, Manning attended
St. Barnabas School in
Roseland, New Jersey, for EMT
training. Monday nights, she
also took anatomy and physiology
courses at nearby Raritan
Valley Community College. As
a volunteer EMT, she hung out
in the local firehouse, responding
to calls. One evening, she
performed CPR for 45 minutes
on an 85-year-old neighbor.
2 The Bridge