Who is Melyssa Munn? She isn’t just the girl that sits in the front of the class; she’s full of curiosity, passion, and determination. Melyssa was born in Berryville a small town in Virginia on May 26, 2003. Melyssa currently attends Tucker High School but is a full-time dual enrollment student. She’s currently taking English 1102, Biology Lecture Lab, and Intro to Human Development while being in high school. She was home-schooled until 8th grade and with that, she had to teach herself fractions. When her parents decided to let her go to public school, they told her the high expectations they had for their kids when it came to school and grades. She has multiple siblings but looked up to her older sister Jessica the most who currently works at the CDC. Unfortunately, both of her parents passed due to cancer then the pandemic started. For most people, it would discourage them, but for Melyssa, it only made her more determined to make her parents proud. Some of her favorite things that she has done in high school were joining dual enrollment full-time, becoming the President of two honor societies: the National Honors Society and Beta Club, and actively running them. Melyssa wants to attend college at Emory, UGA, or Harvard to major in Psychology and minor in Neuro. She said that she “finds interest in why people do and think things”; since she likes to travel while in college she plans to study aboard. After graduating she wants to travel the world as a Traveling Psychologist.
Melyssa has worked hard academically to be where she is today. So far in college, she likes that she’s able to make her schedule and how reposed to professors are. She has overcome many things, but her proudest triumph academically is how she was able to make it through school despite being homeschooled and then thrown into more complex curriculums while still struggling with the basics. Another one of Melyssa’s proudest moments academically was when she went head-to-head with another classmate for class President and won. Melyssa is proud of her academic self because, despite everything she has been through, she still has high expectations for herself. She decided to join dual enrollment to avoid taking multiple AP courses, continue the high expectations she has for herself, and maintain her mental health. Melyssa used “curious, creative, and problem-solving” as the three words to describe her academic self; she chose those words because she’s curious about what she learns, and even when she doesn’t find interest in what she’s learning, she finds something within the class that keeps her engaged. Since she was homeschooled, she didn’t learn good studying habits because she was mainly self-taught. Like many students, Melyssa procrastinates, although she did tell me during our interview that she works better “by herself while under pressure” of the assignment’s deadline. She likes the subject’s math and english, mostly math. Although one of her favorite books is “Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, which is about the holocaust while death is narrating it. As a writer, Melyssa would rather edit and revise her papers as she writes them. She says she “absolutely cannot stand rough drafts” like many, because “they feel so dirty and messy”. A lot of students including myself don’t like rough drafts, because it feels like wasted labor when we can just “edit our comments or return to clarify them”. Melyssa is a very determined person because she a lot to prove from the obstacles she has experienced throughout life.
To conclude the interview with Melyssa, we’ve learned that she has high standards for herself. She’s well-rounded, always challenging herself academically, and being involved in multiple different activities. Her experiences do not define her, while the work she has done shows how determined she is to be successful. I want to leave you all with question, what keeps you motivated to succeed academically, even when it seems like the odds are against you?
Citations:
Melyssa Munn, Peer Interview: Academic Self
Laura Giovanelli, Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision: page 107, lines: 4-5
Rebecca Weaver, PhD. Major Project 1, Academic Profile. February 2023