29 Apr 2024 501Der Women 2024: Kid of the Month – Malaney Mansfield
By Becky Bell
For seventh-grader Malaney Mansfield, numbers started making so much sense in the fifth grade that math quickly became her favorite subject because it came naturally.
In fact, Malaney enjoys math so much she likes helping her friends get through equations when they suffer from mathematical mental roadblocks. Malaney and her friends attend Quitman High School, which serves seventh through 12th grades.
Although she isn’t sure what she wants to be when she grows up, she has considered teaching, and she seems to be already practicing some of the skills of a future teacher.
“Sometimes I try to make [equations] that I know we’ve been through, or if it makes more sense, I draw a picture,” Malaney explained about helping her friends with math problems they don’t understand. “If it’s one of my friends who plays [a sport], I try to relate it back to volleyball or just any sport in general.”
While math is her favorite subject, she gets top grades in all her classes. Although she doesn’t always like English class, she does enjoy reading her favorite book in life so far, “The Outsiders.”
“I like all the exciting parts that make you want to keep reading,” she said, regarding the reason she couldn’t stop turning pages in the coming-of-age novel published in 1967 about the social divide between the working-class Greasers and the upper-middle-class Socs.
Malaney’s English teacher, Renee Clemmons, calls her a “role model for everyone who meets her” and said she feels lucky to have her in class.
“Kind. Supportive. Friendly. Academic. These four words describe Malaney perfectly! She has a kind heart in everything she does. She is enthusiastically supportive of all her peers, whether athletically or academically,” Clemmons said. “She is one of the friendliest young ladies you will ever meet. Her academic work ethic puts her at the top of her class. She strives for perfection and, most of the time, exceeds it.”
For Malaney, sports are secondary to academics yet still a key part of her life. The time she spends on them takes up a good bit of her time outside of school that she formerly dedicated to helping her father, Mark Mansfield, on their family’s rural farm outside Quitman with all the chores of feeding the animals, including three dogs, a fish, some chickens and cows. Her favorite animal is her new dog, Mae, an Australian shepherd who is medium-sized and is mostly black with white spots.
Malaney plays basketball, volleyball, runs track and is on the cross country team. She has played basketball the longest of all her sports, starting in a community league in third grade.
The person who is most supportive of her sporting activities is her sister, McKinley Mansfield, 15. She said playing with her sister is encouraging on multiple levels. First, it is fun and another way to push herself to be the best she can be. But her sister also lifts her spirits when she needs reassurance about her athletic abilities.
“She is an athlete and does all the same sports as me,” Malaney said, describing her older sister. “She’s very encouraging and makes me feel good when I’m feeling down and thinking I’m not as good as someone else. She helps me when I need it. She doesn’t bring me down, and any questions I have, she tries to explain them to me and pushes me to be the best I can.”
Another supportive person in Malaney’s life is her mother, Magen Mansfield. “I will say it really amazes me how busy she stays with sports but still maintains straight A’s and helps out with the house. Last year, I was in nursing school and the girls really stepped up to take care of things around here. She really amazes me about how much she can juggle, and she does it well.”
Malaney’s mother said she enjoys sitting on the sidelines and watching her daughter compete in sports, but that’s not what makes her the proudest.
“The grades and the kind words I get from parents and teachers about what a great kid she is are what I’m most proud of,” Magen said.
