MPrint | Encouraging courage: Scholarship will honor life of extraordinary friend
Sharon Manson was a mentor to countless young people finding direction in their careers and lives at Mississippi State University and beyond. The positive impact she had on those she served remains an inspiration. When she passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, Jennifer and Joe Winterscheidt knew they needed to help continue her legacy. Through a gift to MSU, the couple created the Sharon K. Manson Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which will help students follow the path Sharon’s life defined.
Sharon worked in student and faculty services, which is a broad field. Those who work in it every day interact with many different departments and meet a wide assortment of tests, but the overarching goal is always to help the person they’re assisting succeed. Through her career, Sharon helped people make decisions about courses, classes and places to live. She worked with them to find scholarships and explore new fields. Most of all, through her own talent, she encouraged people to believe in themselves, work through difficulties and tackle challenges whose solutions would direct them throughout their lives.
“She was just an amazing person,” Jennifer Winterscheidt said.
In 1987, around the same time Joe Winterscheidt and Jennifer Praul (later to become Winterscheidt) met as student workers in Mississippi State’s Department of Housing and Residence Life, they also met Sharon Manson. Sharon had recently graduated from college herself and started her career at MSU in Housing and Residence Life. Joe and Jennifer worked for Sharon and with Sharon, which led to a lifelong friendship.
Jennifer and Joe soon began dating and were married after each earned their bachelor’s degrees—Jennifer in special education in 1990, Joe in nuclear engineering in 1991. Life took them to Atlanta, to their own growing family and satisfying, successful careers, but their friendship with Sharon made mileage a minor concern. Regular visits and constant communication with her continued, even when Sharon moved further away. After many years in Starkville, Sharon moved to Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. There, as at Mississippi State, she worked in development roles as a problem-solver, and also a mentor, encourager and guide. She was the executive director of the university’s Faculty Development Center and worked with programs, professors, residents and other executives throughout campus.
Though her career took her to Texas, she was always a Bulldog at heart. After Sharon passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, Jennifer and Joe made a gift to create an endowed scholarship in her name at Mississippi State. Their time working with her professionally had been brief, but the impact she made was permanent.
“She was so encouraging,” Jennifer said, remembering the time she and Sharon worked together. “She encouraged me to recommend a new position to be created in Housing and Residence Life, and to push for more responsibility in my job. She really helped me create the new job, which was good for the university and for me, but the main thing she did was encourage me to believe more strongly in myself. That’s a job she never stopped doing.”
That was Sharon’s talent. She saw potential in people and made sure they saw it in themselves. Over the course of a career, she continued to support people who would go on to practice medicine, lead universities, and achieve things they might never have imagined they could.
Patricia Courville, who met Sharon while both were college students themselves and came to know the Winterscheidts through her, was a constant friend for 45 years. Sharon would become dear to all three of Patricia’s children, and her mentorship to them will remain a guide throughout their lives.
“One of her letters to my daughter hangs on the wall of my daughter’s apartment and reads, ‘You’re stronger than you know—life throws you these things to see what kind of person you’ll become—you’ll become a strong woman,’” Patricia said. “My daughter keeps that on her wall and is inspired by it every day. Sharon lived and communicated an amazing, inspirational message, always. She was one of those people you meet and instantly want in your life forever.”
Now, the Sharon K. Manson Memorial Endowed Scholarship will carry her mission forward by helping those seeking to encourage others like she did. Preference for the scholarship’s recipients will go to students working campus jobs in housing or residence life, or to those pursuing careers in student affairs. The Winterscheidts’ gift ensures Sharon’s legacy and life are not only remembered, but that both continue to serve.
“My friendship with Sharon was very close, deeply personal,” Jennifer said. “We talked practically every day, and she was one of my very best friends. Anyone who has one friend like her in their life is blessed, but there were hundreds of people at her memorial service, people who had met her throughout her life, and they all felt the same way about her. They loved her just as strongly. She was in close, personal contact with so many people it was amazing. I know how important my relationship with her was, and she cultivated that with so many people.”
Sharon’s care for the quality and potential of her friends’ lives made her own life extraordinary. Working with students seeking to fulfill their own promise put her in a position to matter. Thanks to Jennifer and Joe Winterscheidt, that’s a promise more students will have the potential to meet.