Distinguished Women

Mannuela Ceglinski

Manuela (better known as Mannie) is the oldest of seven children of Mexican immigrants. Overcoming language and cultural barriers, by the time she finished high school in El Paso, Texas, she had earned her U.S. citizenship and completed certification as a Licensed Vocational Nurse.

Later, working as a nurse in Houston, Texas, Mannie married Mark Ceglinski and had a son Michael. She returned to college and obtained a B. A. degree while simultaneously running an interfaith HIV/AIDS support group and teaching computer classes at a program for the elderly in her church and secretaries in the Houston Galveston Diocese.

When Mannie's family moved to Oklahoma seeking a quieter lifestyle and pursuing a business opportunity, Mannie held the family together, worked as a visiting nurse, helped in the business, and worked as a substitute teacher at her son's school.

Mannie's family relocated to Western New York, birthplace of her husband, and now resides in the Town of Tonawanda. Putting her bilingual skills to immediate use, Mannie first joined Heritage Centers, a social services agency, where she helped developmentally disabled children and adults, then she joined Hispanics United of Buffalo, where she worked as Community-Based Resource Coordinator overseeing four Community Centers in Buffalo, to strengthen community collaborations for the purpose of empowering the family. At this time, she also began teaching advanced Spanish to adults.

In the five-plus years that Mannie's been in Western New York, she has developed programs and presented seminars on conflict resolution, anger control, character development, and violence prevention. At the same time, Mannie has developed a network of people who can augment the ideas she presents in the seminars as well as provide additional support.

Currently, Mannie teaches Spanish, Computers, and Religion at St. Leo the Great School in Amherst. She is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, is active at her church, the Newman Center at UB, translates English documents into Spanish, and is the regional consultant for a character-development company (ages Pre-school to 5th grade.)

Since moving to Western New York five and a half years ago, Mannie's role as a teacher has led her to some memorable moments. She cherishes the letters she has received from her students that thank her for listening to them, believing in them, always being positive, and not putting them down. In addition, Mannie also is pleased that her students trust her enough to share private confidences with her that have allowed her to get help for the most vulnerable of young people. Seeing how she was able to touch-or save-lives, when others may not have bothered, inspired her to work with her current character-development program to help children cope in situations when the child most needs someone, but others like Mannie are not around.

One of Mannie's most memorable moments came when she received her black belt in Tae Kwon Do along with her son. Mannie and her son Michael worked for three-and-a-half years to receive the black belt. The love of her son was the catalyst for working with children.

Mannie's hobbies include cooking-especially Mexican food, reading, meeting new people and Tae Kwon Do. She is a member and student of Master Chong's Tae Kwon Do School.

Mannie's goal is to provide parents, teachers, counselors or anyone concerned for children the tools for Character Development. Mannie's philosophy is "Who and what you are makes a Difference!"

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