Meet Malana Malonson, WVJC Morgantown & Bridgeport Career Management Director!
Malana Malonson is the new Career Management Director at WVJC Morgantown and Bridgeport campuses. Malana got her associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from North Shore Community College before going on to receive her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Salem State University. She then took a year off of school and worked in an animal laboratory studying impulsive behavior in rats. Finding her interest in behavior analysis, she went on to receive her Master’s degree in Behavior Analysis from Salem State University.
Malana moved to West Virginia to continue her research in animal learning but ultimately found her passion in teaching and mentoring students. This led her to WVJC, where she is extremely excited to teach students about career preparation, current events, research, and psychology and assist them in finding job placement after their time at WVJC. Malana strives to make her classes a welcoming and comfortable environment. She always takes the time to help students who are struggling with concepts and will explain a concept as many ways as she can until she can see that the student is grasping the concept and is comfortable with the content.
She chose WVJC because it will allow her to mentor and teach courses, ultimately preparing students for the workforce and going out on their own. One of her favorite quotes is, “Be who you needed when you were younger.” Since she was mainly navigating higher education on her own, she hopes to help other students navigate this process and succeed in the best way she can. She is familiar with the pressure school can put on students and aims to help alleviate that pressure while still providing top-tier education.
Her favorite part about WVJC is the welcoming atmosphere of faculty, staff, and students. “The environment here at WVJC has made it an enjoyable place to come to work.” She stated that her students are what motivates her. When she sees a student have the “light bulb moment,” it makes all the hard work worth it, which is why she loves what she does. She especially enjoys it when students come back to tell her how they are doing and all the great things they’ve accomplished in their time after school.
She is most proud of her ability to find the positives in any situation. There is always something to learn, and looking for the positives in a bad situation can teach you that there is something new to learn every day.
Her future career goals are to continue working in education and academia and mentoring and teaching students. She hopes to move up in her career here at WVJC and put her best foot forward each and every day.
In her spare time, Malana likes to take walks in nature, do arts and crafts, play video games, and spend time with her two cats, Louie and Chewy, and her two rats, Rufus and Pierre. Family is also very important to Malana. She was born and raised in a suburb of Boston, MA, and likes to visit family whenever possible. She said that if anyone has plans to visit New England, she is a “not-so-professional” tour guide and is always happy to show off her home cities. Something that people may not know about Malana is that she used to work with the Shriners as a clown and face painter and started her own face-painting business at the age of 16. Malana looks forward to meeting all the current and incoming students in the coming months and can’t wait to work with students on finding their careers after graduation!