Members of the community and the Prince William Chamber of Commerce gathered for the annual Education & Innovation Breakfast in Manassas to hear about how the local school districts are doing, and honor three scholarship award recipients.
Superintendents Dr. Steven Walts of Prince William County Public Schools, Dr. Catherine Magouryk of Manassas City Public Schools, and Dr. Bruce McDade of Manassas Park City Schools provided the audience with a “State of the Schools” update.
“We are doing great things in the City of Manassas. We’re only ten square miles, but we get a lot of things done in that ten square miles, with 66 buses traveling almost 500,000 miles a year…we are very, very excited about how we reach our students,” said Magouryk.
Magouryk spoke about Manassas’ dual enrollment program, AP classes, and the programs in place to help English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, as well as her hopes to bring a Governor’s School to the city.
“We’re also right on the edge – and I keep saying this because I think if I say it enough that it’s gonna happen – of having a Governor’s STEM Academy at Osbourn High School,” said Magouryk.
In Manassas Park, McDade spoke about how the school system has persisted, in spite of financial limitations.
“All four of Manassas Parks’ schools are fully accredited, and that’s a big deal. There are 25 school divisions in the Commonwealth that are considered to be Virginia’s ‘small schools’ – we’re part of a consortium – with high poverty rates in excess of 50%,” McDade said.
McDade also spoke about how Manassas Park schools don’t run on a “traditional” calendar. Instead, they’ve broken up the 180 mandated days of instructional time with more frequent week-long breaks called “intersessions” where students work on fun programs related to SOL skills.
For Walts, creating a school system that brought in businesses was a focus for him.
“We know that we’re preparing students for the future, and that’s a consideration when new businesses – especially ones that consider Prince William County, our region – they wanna make sure that their employees are going to have a top-quality education for their own children, and for the businesses that they bring to Prince William,” said Walts.
According to Walts, Prince William County students have a 91.8% graduation rate – far higher than the 81% nationwide.
“We’ve had a very strong week in a lot of ways…we had the Principal of the Year come from Prince William County this year – Nathaniel Provencio from Minnieville Elementary School…and yesterday we had the Virginia Elementary Principals Association Principal of the Year for the state of Virginia – a surprise announcement was given at Occoquan Elementary for Hamish Brewer…yesterday we had a visit from Secretary of Education DeVos,” said Walts.
In addition to hearing about each of the school systems, scholarships were presented by Lockheed Martin, Micron, and Bookworm Central to three local students.
Norman Jones, a Stonewall Jackson High School student, was one of the recipients. More on Jones, from a release:
Norman will graduate from Stonewall Jackson High School earning his International Baccalaureate diploma. Ranked in the top 5% of his senior class with a 4.4 GPA, he not only challenged himself by completing the IB program classes but also completed 150 hours of community service.
Just a sampling of Norman’s accomplishments and activities: Senior Class President; Recipient of the Human Rights Youth Leadership Service Award; the Public Speaking Regional & State Champion; National Semi-Finalist for Future Business Leaders of America; Youth Representative for the naming of the George M. Hampton Middle School; winner of Martin Luther King Oratorical Competition; Keynote speaker for SPARK’s Student Leadership Conference and far too many other organizations to mention!
Norman has been a volunteer for Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Teachers; Peer Diversity, his school’s Indoor & Outdoor track and tennis teams; and he is the drummer in the Music Ministry at First Baptist Church in Manassas.
Fatima Dyfan, a Woodbridge Senior High School student, was another scholarship recipient. More on Dyfan, from a release:
Throughout her 4 years at Woodbridge Senior High School, Fatima has been an involved leader. She was the first female minority Class President, President of the Thespian Honor Society, a Member of the Virginia Student Council Advisory Committee and the Varsity Cheerleading Team, to name a few. Through her leadership as Class President, Fatima executed 3 school dances, an outdoor movie night, and the school’s first Multicultural Night. These and several other events raised over $15,000 for her Class in under 2 years.
Fatima has been a math tutor for middle schools students and a volunteer at the Fairfax Nursing Center. She helped teach dance, and track & field to the students at Rippon Middle School. In addition to her volunteer work, Fatima is an employee at Laser Quest in Woodbridge.
The final recipient was Maryam Janjua, a student at Osbourn Park High School in Manassas Park. More on Janjua in a release:
In addition to being an accomplished student, Maryam is fluent in English, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and French. Her leadership roles include being the President of the Manassas Park Medical Leaders Society, Treasurer of the National BETA Club, and Treasurer and Ambassador of the National Society of High School Scholars. She also launched a project in Manassas Park to help eradicate bullying.
A favorite quote of Maryam’s is from Ghandi, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Outside the classroom, Maryam has volunteered her time in the community. For four years she has volunteered at the Family Food Market and aiding the elderly. Last summer, she was an intern for Novant Health UVA Prince William Medical Center. Through her internship, she took care of patients who were sick, injured and disabled when nurses were occupied with other patients. Maryam also worked at the front desk as the first person seen when patients arrived, offering her assistance.
