Tyler Lericos contributed to this story.

Manual has made a variety of changes this year, including alterations in staff. New teachers have come from many places, but one is simply returning home.

Julie Clinkingbeard is a VA graduate who has returned to her alma mater to teach a variety of classes.

“It has always been my dream to come back and I was super excited when there was an opening,” Clinkingbeard said.

This year, Mrs Clinkingbeard has a busy schedule teaching Drawing and Painting 3 and 4, Visual Art 2 and 3, AP Art History, and HSU 101.

HSU 101 is a prerequisite for HSU students. In the class, HSU freshmen take a total of four courses that switch every 6 weeks.

The courses touch on subjects from financing to art. Since Clinkingbeard normally teachers VA classes, she approaches this class differently than the rest of her schedule.

“I want them to try their best,” she explained. Her motto, she said, was to “remember it’s more about the process than the final product.” 

Before coming to teach at Manual, Mrs Clinkingbeard taught Iroquois High School students for four years.

During her transition she has noticed many differences.

“It has been a big change,” she said. “The students here are very different from a lot of the students at Iroquois. It’s a different population with a lot of different needs and different challenges.”

Outside of school, Mrs. Clinkingbeard has a two-month-old baby with her husband. She loves spending her time with them as her husband plays the guitar.

“He plays anything from the blues to The Beatles,” she said.

She also is a Harry Potter fanatic, and considers herself to be in the “Ravenpuff” house, a mix between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

To find out more about Mrs. Clinkingbeard, watch her draw her life or visit her in room 354 in the VA annex. 

Clinkingbeard Interview from duPont Manual on Vimeo.