Professional Profile: Miss Slater

For most students, we have been attending Neshannock High School for many years now. If you are in ninth grade or above, and have been at Neshannock, you have had many of our amazing teachers. What most of us haven’t done, is sit down with our teachers and learn more about who they are as a person. We know the simple things, but we don’t know them as people. I was lucky enough to sit down with Miss Anita Slater and get to learn more about her and her life. 

Miss Slater with two women who inspire her–her sister & her mother. Photo courtesy of Miss Slater

Miss Slater attended Neshannock High School and graduated in 2000. In high school, Miss Slater participated in activities such as National Honors Society and student government. She also had our former Junior High Principal, Dr. Tracy McCalla, as her history teacher. Dr. McCalla actually became Miss Slater’s inspiration, and she hoped to be like Dr. McCalla one day. Miss Slater attended Slippery Rock and Westminster College, which was the beginning of her teaching career; however, she did not know that the job she had hoped to have would be the exact job she got, working alongside her inspiration. She hopes to teach her students all about history but also she tries to teach them other valuable lessons. She wants her students to know that it is okay to fail. She says, “Sometimes the struggle is what teaches you something”. 

Although she loves being a teacher, that is not all there is to Miss Slater. She is very family oriented, and believes “Family is the most important thing to me, and I work really hard to make them a priority.” Her mom was her biggest inspiration in life, teaching her that being a strong woman is not only okay, but very important. She is most proud of being an amazing sister and aunt. She loves to go visit her family, especially her nephews, and spend time with them. Outside of family she loves traveling and going to concerts as well.

Miss Slater enjoys cheesin’ it up with her nephews. Photo courtesy of Miss Slater

Although we have many more teachers in our school, I am happy I got to sit down and learn more about Miss Slater. I learned so much from talking to her for just a short amount of time and it was very interesting to learn more about someone that I was seeing every day.