Melody is a student at the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science and English and minoring in Urban Education and Legal Studies/History. Her interests include analyzing Taiwanese political relations, advancing educational equity for marginalized communities, and diversifying the stories told in popular media.
Originally from Long Island, New York, Melody first understood the importance of having civil, informed discourse across ideological and cultural divides at a local board of education meeting in her junior year of high school. It was there that, following parental complaints that the novel promoted “un-American values,” she witnessed the rescission of Persepolis (italicize), a story detailing the experiences of a young woman during the Iranian Revolution, in spite of student protests. This choice ultimately left students with a curriculum inundated by homogenous authors and thus homogenous perspectives.
Since then, she has been adamant about advocating for education free of censorship and learning how to use her voice to further minority interests without resorting to rhetorics of injury. This has manifested itself in manners such as advocating for Taiwanese involvement in the United Nations and World Health Organization through the formosa Association of Student Cultural Ambassadors and working as a Bank of America Student Leader over the past summer.
In Philadelphia, Melody can be found singing with her friends in PennYo A Cappella, attending cultural eents with Penn Taiwanese Society, volunteering as a choir teaching assistant at Henry C. Lea Elementary School through her ABCS course, and working at the Nationalities Service Center as a resettlement Intern. She looks forward to hearing the diverse symphony of student perspectives in the SNF Paideia Program and collaborating with them in service-learning opportunities.