Senior Fellows

As a political science student Stephanie Woodard had a strong desire to learn more about how our world is interconnected. Impressed by the existing set of Melton Fellows at Dillard University and having a positive view of globalization, she applied to be a part of the Melton Foundation. She barely realized the impact of her decision; not only did she gain firsthand information about international affairs from Melton Fellows in other countries, but she also had her first chance to experience foreign cultures by traveling abroad.

The travel experience only increased her curiosity about global issues and after graduating from Dillard, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. Currently a United States Foreign Service Diplomat, Stephanie now focuses on immigration and human rights issues – interests that she developed in the MF.

Speaking about the Foundation’s mission, she said: “Global Citizenship matters because it creates both awareness and understanding of people from different cultures. Often people are not aware of many international events and even when they are aware, they don’t understand why the event is happening. This lack of understanding can lead to apathy, frustration, or worse, the creation of obstructive solutions. The Melton Foundation has fostered a powerful combination of awareness and understanding.”

For Stephanie, the MF has not just been a strong influence on her career and ideas but has given her – and other Melton Fellows – the tools to become a Global Citizen. She feels that the MF experience has given the confidence to interact with anyone from any background. While people are often reluctant to interact with strangers, Melton Fellows are unafraid to engage with a variety of people, simply because they have learned that people have more similarities than differences. In addition, during the three-year Junior Fellowship program, Melton Fellows refine skills in writing, communication, analysis, and community outreach – all of which are essential to any profession.

But in addition to skills, experiences, awareness and exposure to global affairs, being a Melton Fellow has given Stephanie life-long friendships. A sophomore at Dillard during hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed the university campus, Stephanie recollects this incident with pain and with gratitude: “While many people around the world watched the sad event on television, the Melton leadership made a special trip to visit us in New Orleans. We received countless correspondences from Melton Fellows around the world asking how we were doing and what they could do to help us. I’ll never forget that even though I was stuck in a small hotel room away from my college campus, I was still connected to my friends in India, Germany, Chile, and China because I was a Global Citizen and a Melton Fellow.”
 

Li Zhen 

His business card says General Manager, Shenzhen Xishantang Culture Spreading Ltd. but we’re talking about a computer science student who spent most of his working life in finance and consulting. “Without the MF experience, this could hardly be possible,” says Li Zhen, popularly known as Lion in the Melton Foundation.

After graduation, Lion worked with a prestigious financial consulting firm. But despite the high pay and exalted social status, he recognized that data crunching and chart preparation didn’t really excite him. After working for a few years, he started a company to spread cultural awareness and develop people’s tastes for art. When asked about this shift, he said, It’s the MF seed in my heart that leads me this way. To appreciate different arts, to love nature, to protect cultural inheritance – these are simple but powerful things and it is the MF experience that inspired me to follow my heart.”

In 2012, after attending the SF workshop in Morocco, he wrote a travel blog in Chinese to share his experience. He wanted more Chinese people to know about what some considered to be a “mysterious” world and clarify some misunderstandings about Muslims.He juxtaposed personal stories with the theories learned at the workshop. Several people who read his blog began to reconsider their stereotypes, and expressed their desire to visit Morocco.

“The MF taught me a very important lesson,” says Lion, “and that is we should not judge things from only one perspective.”

When Divya Tyam joined the Melton Foundation in Bangalore ten years ago, she did not realize the impact that her decision would have on her life. Today, as a software engineer at Microsoft Corporation in Seattle, Divya’s approach to her projects is “understanding the core human need for social contact.”

This view is partly due to her Fellowship experiences – where she confronts, understands and values differences across identity, place and even discipline. For instance, she loves experimenting with the convergence of art, math and science, and has dabbled in painting, geocaching, graphic design, and time-lapse photography.

Working in a male-dominated field, she is passionate about getting more women into technology and regularly participates in various supporting programs.

She finds the Melton Foundation,“…a fantastic place for creative thinkers and young entrepreneurs. New ideas are celebrated and the supported to make them real. “

"I grew up in a small, rural town in northern Minnesota and although I always dreamed bigger than small town America, I didn't "know" it would happen for me."

Jenny Town has traveled a great distance from Minnesota in her 20-odd years as a Melton Fellow. Today, her focus is on one of the most unfamiliar parts of the world - North Korea.

She says, “The Melton Foundation changed my life in so many ways, the most significant of which were the reinforcement of the belief that I could both exist and succeed within a global context and the opportunity to actually experience that.”

As a Research Associate at the US-Korea Institute, and manager of the 38 North website, Jennyis deeply embedded in the Korea policy community both in Washington, DC and abroad. Her work helps inform policy, educate the general public, and build person-to-person relations between students and scholars in the US and those in North Korea and beyond. While most of us can't know what is really going on in North Korea, one person to ask is JennyTown.

To Fang Min, the world outside China was a mystery. Until he joined the Melton Foundation. “Through my projects and travel to symposiums,” he says, “I gained exposure to many different opinions and learned about many different religions, cultural conflicts and global issues.”

Today a venture capitalist in Shanghai, Fang Min is excited about the Melton Foundation’s focus on global citizenship. “We need to collaborate and have a sense of shared social responsibility if we are to solve global problems,” he says.

Raised in a small German village of about 800 people, Susan Steiner’s chances of travel outside the former German Democratic Republic were limited.

Today, having traveled to countries like China and India, Susan lives in Berlin, working as a Development Economist to identify micro-finance possibilities for communities in developing countries.

As a Melton Fellow, Susan had the opportunity to work with small farmers in Chile to design a micro-credit program and to intern with an organization helping women in an impoverished part of India to develop a handicrafts industry so they could support themselves.

“I credit my career choice to the Melton Foundation,” says Susan. “I especially owe it to Bill Melton who told me about a micro-credit program in Bangladesh. I just fell in love with the idea and have been pursuing it since.”

Cedric Blair’s journey from farm work in a small town in California to teaching in Las Vegas began with the Melton Foundation.

“I have always wanted to be useful,” says Cedric, “and today I feel like I am living a purposeful life. What I do now, how I live my life, how I teach, and how I set my priorities were all influenced by my experience with the Melton Foundation.”

As a Fellow he gained exposure to community and global issues, and spent a semester in Chile volunteering for a non-profit organization that helps small businesses get up and ¬¬running.

Today, Cedric teaches third grade at a low-income school in Las Vegas through the “Teach For America” program while he pursues his Master’s degree in education.

When Daniel Vera started university, he never believed that economic growth and community development were possible in his native Chile.

That all changed when he became a Melton Fellow.

“My travels to developed countries like Germany and the U.S., combined with my conversations with my {Melton Foundation} work groups showed me that economic development really is possible,” says Daniel.

Today, Daniel is putting that lesson to work as a social community psychologist who works with local government agencies to develop strategic plans that address poverty, education and public health issues in Temuco.

“The Melton Foundation not only helped me grow as a professional but also shaped me as a person,” says Daniel. “I am certain I would not be the person I am today without the Melton Foundation.”

"Why follow the beaten path?”
"Why not try something different?”

These are questions that Nikhil Raghavan found himself asking throughout his time as a Melton Fellow that eventually led him to become an entrepreneur.

“Bill Melton had a major influence on my decision to attend Stanford,” says Nikhil. “I was inspired by him and learned from him and know that he influenced my decision to become an entrepreneur.”

Today, Nikhil is an entrepreneur in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. After completing the computer science graduate program at Stanford University, Nikhil went on to work on cutting edge projects at Google and Oracle before co-founding Ness Computing – a company that employs 35 people and recently raised $15 million in venture capital.

“As a Melton Fellow, I was exposed to different countries and different cultures where people did things differently,” says Nikhil. “It taught me to reject the status quo, think outside the box and consider other ways of doing things.”