Northwest grad recognized during governor’s State of the State Address

A Northwest Missouri State University alumna was among Gov. Mike Parson’s guests on Wednesday when he delivered his 2023 State of the State Address to the Missouri General Assembly.

During his address, the governor recognized Emily Meneely Fluckey – who is in her second year of teaching after graduating from Northwest in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. Parson invited Fluckey to the State of the State Address as a representative of the more than 6,000 Missouri educators who received a salary increase after implementation of the Governor’s Teacher Baseline Salary Grant Program.

“She was able to move out of her parents’ house, get married and begin pursuing a master’s degree,” Parson said during his address. “Mrs. Fluckey is a great example of the majority of our educators who do it for the right reasons. She represents our educators who certainly don’t do it for the money, but do it for our children and the future of our state.”

Fluckey, a first grade teacher in the Meadville R-IV School District where she grew up, received the invite after sharing her story with Parson last fall when he toured the school and visited her classroom.

While she is appreciative of the Teacher Baseline Salary Grant Program, Fluckey said her passion for the education field rests more with teaching and helping children succeed than with the salary she earns.

“Every day we get to be that structure, that stability for the children,” she said. “When they walk through that door, you’re the first person they see. If they’re having a bad morning, it’s my job to figure out what’s wrong. How do I fix it? How do we start our day good?”

Interestingly, Fluckey grew up on a farm and arrived at Northwest with intentions to build on that background by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the School of Agricultural Sciences. She quickly realized, however, that teaching might be a better career path for her.

Within weeks of that decision, she began gaining valuable profession-based experience through coursework in the School of Education and during interactions with children and teachers at Northwest’s Horace Mann Laboratory School. Fluckey completed her student teaching in the nearby South Nodaway R-IV School District and says she continues to implement the teaching strategies she learned at Northwest in her Meadville classroom.

“I was knee deep in the water freshman year, able to get neck deep by senior year, and I was comfortable coming into my career,” Fluckey said.

Additionally, Fluckey was active in a variety of organizations at Northwest, including Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority, Panhellenic Council and Order of Omega while serving as a student ambassador throughout her undergraduate years.

“I had lots of connections that kept me there and grounded, and it was the best years of my life,” Fluckey said.

Now, Fluckey is a Northwest student again, working toward her master’s degree in educational leadership. In addition to building personal leadership skills, Fluckey said she has interest in advancing her career to become a school principal.

“I just really enjoy Northwest, all the professors there, and I was just very comfortable and I couldn't think of going to another school,” she said. “Someone asked me, ‘Why didn’t you try somewhere different?’ I’m like, ‘Well, why would I? I love Northwest.’”

Parson’s State of the State Address centered on progress the state government has made in infrastructure, workforce and education, mental health and health, government reform and public safety.

His budget proposal for the coming fiscal year includes several key investments in workforce development and higher education, including $275 million for transformational capital improvement projects at Missouri’s public higher education institutions; a 7 percent increase, amounting to about $71 million, in core funding to Missouri’s public higher education institutions – the largest increase in 25 years; and $38 million for MoExcels workforce development projects on college campuses.