But his journey from the gridiron to the stars was riddled with adversity and wouldn鈥檛 have happened if it weren鈥檛 for 鈥済rit, grace and second chances.鈥�

鈥淎s you think about your careers and about the things that you鈥檙e doing with your life, it鈥檚 about those people that you choose to help you get through those second chances,鈥� Melvin told the audience gathered for the 2022 Baird Lecture in Alumni Gym on Thursday, March 31.

Melvin鈥檚 STEM curiosity was first piqued through experiential learning as a child when his father bought a bread truck. The father and son repurposed the delivery truck into a camper by rewiring it completely, allowing Melvin to hone his engineering skills without realizing it.

It was one of many lessons as youth that set him on a path toward science and exploration. His mother once bought him a chemistry set and told him to 鈥渇ollow the instructions and have fun.鈥� Soon enough, he flung the instructions over his shoulder and concocted 鈥渢he most incredible explosion鈥� in the living room, burning a hole in the carpet in the process.

鈥淢y mom was 5鈥�2鈥欌�� and I learned about physics when she wound up and launched me off to space,鈥� Melvin said. 鈥淏ut my brain was activated to science. All I need is a lab coat and goggles and I鈥檓 a scientist. What is that thing that you need to launch you into your future? Experiential learning did it for me.鈥�

Several books offered themes that would play out again and again in Melvin’s life, including the books about “Curious George,” the inquisitive monkey who always had the “man in the yellow hat” to support him, catch him when he failed and urge him on.

Despite this scientific curiosity, his first dream was to be an NFL player. In his high school Homecoming game, a coach from the University of Richmond football program was in the stands. During the game, Melvin dropped a touchdown pass in the endzone. He walked to the sideline, where his head coach grabbed him by the face mask and told him to run the same play the same way, but this time to catch it.

Melvin lined up, galloped down the sideline and caught a touchdown in one of the important games of the season. The scout was on his way out of the stadium after the first dropped pass and heard the cheers from the crowd. He walked back in to see Melvin celebrating in the endzone. The scout said, 鈥渋f this guy can overcome such a horrific failure and not give up, I鈥檓 going to give him a scholarship.鈥�

鈥淥ne catch resulted in a $180,000 scholarship to the University of Richmond because I did not give up,鈥� Melvin said. 鈥淏ut I had given up. I didn鈥檛 want to go back into the game, but I had a 鈥榤an in the yellow hat鈥� in Jimmy Green, my head coach, who believed in me, put me back in and gave me a second chance.鈥�

While at Richmond, he studied chemistry while playing for the Spiders. Although the team has limited success, Melvin was named to the AP honorable mention All-America team in his junior and senior years and was the team captain his senior year.

He was selected in the 11th round of the 1986 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions. During the second week of training camp, he pulled his hamstring and was cut. The next season, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys and while waiting to go to training camp in the spring, he started working as a research assistant at the University of Virginia.

As he prepared to leave for training camp, his professor said that he should think about the master鈥檚 program. Danny White, the quarterback for the Cowboys at the time, asked Melvin to go out and practice. While running a route, Melvin tears his hamstring for a second time thus ending his football career.

鈥淪o, I thank Danny White for helping me get to space,鈥� Melvin said.

With his material science engineering degree, Melvin went to go work with NASA at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He applied to become an astronaut and graduated with the NASA Astronaut Group 17 in 1998. He spent two years working in Russia with the first crew that was going to the International Space Station.

After that, he returned to Houston to continue his flight training when another obstacle in his journey occurred. The spacesuit has a Styrofoam block inside which allows the astronaut to press their nose against it to clear their ears.

While conducting underwater training in the five-million-gallon tank at National Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, he didn鈥檛 have his Styrofoam block in his suit as he was submerged. Once he surfaced, a stream of blood came from his ears and he was completely deaf.

Three weeks after surgery and recovery in Houston, Melvin did regain speaking frequency hearing in his right ear. His dream of doing to space seemed to be over. Until he was shown grace and received a waiver from Richard Williams, who was the chief health and medical officer at NASA, granted him a waiver to fly to space.

Melvin was on board for two space missions, STS-122 (2008) and STS-129 (2009), to help construct the International Space Station, realizing his dream and defeating the odds.

鈥淵ou always have to be preserving, you always have to stay resilient and you always have to do the right thing,鈥� Melvin said.

The Baird Lecture Series was endowed in 2002 by a generous gift from James H. Baird and his late wife, Jane M. Baird of Burlington, N.C. The Bairds were the first presidents of the 黑料不打烊 Parents Council and their involvement with the university has spanned more than 35 years.

The 黑料不打烊 Speaker Series welcomes distinguished thought leaders and change-makers who are actively taking on society鈥檚 most pressing issues. This year鈥檚 Speaker Series, presented by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio, thematically explores the 鈥淧ower of Relationships.鈥�

The concert describes places and periods of time that thematically explore the means of connection or transition.聽After almost two years of dancing alone together, the dance program will celebrate interconnection and togetherness with each other and the audience in McCrary Theatre.

Associate Professor of Dance Renay Aumiller will be the artistic director of the concert and well as a faculty choreographer. Ashley Lindsey from the UNC School of the Arts is the guest choreographer for the concert.聽Other faculty choreographers are Shaleigh Comerford, Jen Guy Metcalf, Jasmine Powell and Keshia Wall.

Admission for the concert is $15 or 黑料不打烊 ID. Tickets are available .

“Aid Worker Voices” is the intersection of multiple interests — Arcaro’s role as director of Project Pericles at 黑料不打烊, a program helps instill students with a sense of social responsibility and civic concern, and his growing interest in global development aid and those that work in the field. “Over the years, I’ve gotten more and more immersed in development aid material and literature, and reading more and more about development aid workers,” Arcaro said. 

That led him to the book “Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit,” a book by a veteran professional humanitarian worker who goes by the pen name J.  The work of fiction about global aid workers in Africa attracted Arcaro’s attention, and eventually led him to connect with the author. That connection led Arcaro to work with J on the development of a “fairly long survey” centered around the lives of aid workers, and setting out to see what insights the responses produced. 

Arcaro said he was overwhelmed by the volume of respondents to the survey, which was made available online for about eight months, as well as the depth of the responses that aid workers provided. “The people that responded are the real deal — these are the aid workers with a lot of experience,” Arcaro said. “I was just amazed at the thoughtfulness that some people put into their answers.”

Many took the time to write a “short essay” in response to some survey questions, with Arcaro saying he heard from some that “it was cathartic to do the survey because no one had ever asked them about these things before.”

Arcaro digested the survey responses, and used the findings to produce a series of blog entries that were then molded into the chapters of “Aid Worker Voices.” Among the areas explored are the motivations workers as they entered the field, their thoughts on bureaucracies and aid organizations, how faith enters into their work, the impact of their gender on the work they do and how they are received, and issues surrounding race and identity. 

Arcaro also dives into the challenges aid workers might face explaining the work they do to those that aren’t involved in the field and why those who have changed careers left this line of work. Arcaro also used the insights he gained from the survey to look at the future of the development aid sector. 

“There were some gold nuggets to be found in this thing,” Arcaro said of the survey. 

Work on the book led Arcaro to collaborate with a former student, Becca Price ’01, who is a senior program operations manager for the RTI International, a nonprofit based in Research Triangle Park that uses research and technical services to address a broad range of global challenges. Price connected with Arcaro after reading an article by Arcaro about the results of the survey in The Guardian, and was “very integral” to the production of the book, Arcaro said, by offering valuable feedback as the book was coming together. 

Price said the insights from the survey resonated with her given how well they reflected her own experiences in the field of global development aid work. “His passion about everything struck me — he really wants to put a voice to this very important work,” Price said. 

Her experiences — being falsely considered a spy, having difficulty explaining to family members the work she does, among others — were reflected in the survey responses and in the book, Price said. It’s a welcome volume for those now working in the field, she said. “Everything I was reading, I thought to myself, I can relate to this,” she said. 

Along with finding an audience among current aid workers and those looking to enter the field, Arcaro believes the insights found in the book will have a broad appeal as well. 

“It was just fun and frankly an honor to read all of what they had to write,” Arcaro said. “It was an honor that they took the time to respond so thoughtfully.”

According to the United Nations, the Syrian crisis continues to be the “biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.” After five years of war and as many as 500,000 dead, nearly five million refugees have fled to other parts of the Middle East or Europe with no end to the conflict in Syria in sight.

Ghadbian is a Syrian pro-democracy activist and academic. He served on the board of the Day After Project, a cooperative movement by members of the Syrian opposition to outline a plan to rebuild the country and end the Syrian conflict once Bashar al-Assad is out of power.

Helping arrange Ghadbian’s visit to 黑料不打烊 has been Associate Professor of Management Systems Haya Ajjan, who was born in Damascus, Syria, and has worked to bring several representatives of the coalition to 黑料不打烊 since the war began in 2011. She has several family members remaining in Syria with whom she is in regular contact. “The situation in the besieged areas of Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe,” Ajjan said. “People are watching their loved ones die of starvation and of diseases and injuries that are treatable. The suffering of civilians is being used as a tactic of war by different fighting groups.”

“黑料不打烊 is fortunate to host a figure so central to the multinational negotiations over the shape of a post-conflict Syria as Dr. Ghadbian,” said CSRCS Director, Brian Pennington. “Dr. Ghadbian is a long-established champion of democracy in the Middle East and a democratic Syria.”

The event on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the McBride Gathering Space of the Numen Lumen Pavilion is free and open to the public.

Moving forward, Lellis will serve as a contributing writer for the publication, providing content on strategic communications topics including advocacy and writing. 

“PR News is a leading industry publication, and I am honored to share my ideas with a larger audience,” Lellis said. “It is a great way to stay on top of industry trends and contribute to the conversation. Public relations is a dynamic field.” 

​PR News has a weekly publication read by more than 25,000 communications professionals and more than 150,000 PR and marketing professionals worldwide receive an online digest. The organization hosts national events and webinars to help professionals connect and stay on top of industry trends. 

David Wasserman, house editor for The Cook Political Report, will be speaking at the Politics Forum on Tuesday, April 16, from 4:30-5:30 p.m.  The title of his talk is “What Really Happened in 2012…and What Might in 2014.”  

Wasserman analyzes U.S. House races for The Cook Political Report and has served as an analyst on the NBC New Election Night Decision Desk. The event will take place in Lindner 210.  For questions, please email Greg Honan (ghonan@elon.edu).

A large screen in McKinnon Hall inside the Moseley Center will project the swearing-in activities. Free pizza and soft drinks will be available, and no RSVP is necessary.

MONDAY, JANUARY 21

The order of the ceremony is as follows:

Musical Selections: The United States Marine Band
Musical Selections: PS 22, Staten Island, NY and Lee University Festival Choir, Cleveland, Tenn.
Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks: The Honorable Charles E. Schumer
Invocation: Myrlie Evers-Williams
Musical Selection: Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Oath of Office Administered to Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., by Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor
Musical Selection: James Taylor
Oath of Office Administered to President Barack H. Obama by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the Hon. John G. Roberts, Jr.
Inaugural Address: President of the United States Barack H. Obama
Musical Selection: Kelly Clarkson
Poem: Richard Blanco
Benediction: To Be Announced
The National Anthem: Beyoncé

The following column appeared recently in the , the and the via the 黑料不打烊 Writers Syndicate.

We’re all to blame for cliff diving
By Jason Husser – jhusser@elon.edu

Recent gridlock notwithstanding, the United States Congress remains the most powerful institution in human history. The men and women we send to Washington are a force beyond tangible comprehension.

Our flirtation with the “fiscal cliff,” however, brought an otherwise mighty government to its knees. When Congress finally passed the fiscal cliff deal, they passed the buck. In the months ahead, debt ceiling negotiations will meet all-too-familiar sequestration rules, and we will see political conflict of similar or greater scope.

The true, underlying danger isn’t politicians raising tax rates for fewer services. It’s a society that treats moderates as pariahs and “compromise” as a four-letter word.

The fiscal cliff and the upcoming debt ceiling showdown are just symptoms. Polarization is the disease, a virus in the body politic that poisons legislation. Unless something changes, leaders will continue their brinkmanship on critical issues like the fiscal cliff.

I don’t like it, and you probably don’t, either. Sadly, there aren’t any silver-bullet fixes. Congress didn’t become so divisive overnight. The political woes we face today won’t be corrected easily.

Making committee chair appointments less ideological could help. So could campaign finance, gerrymandering and lobbying reform. It wouldn’t hurt if elected leaders built stronger friendships with counterparts in the other party.

But the changes necessary for healthy levels of political debate in America can’t happen only on Capitol Hill. After all, voters elected our dysfunctional assembly. We are not just victims of divided elites in a complicated world. We are amnesic Americans who forget our Constitution and our nation wouldn’t exist without compromise.

Ordinary people have an opportunity to steady America’s wavering political ship. Here are four ways to start:

First, resist the “us against them” mentality common in domestic politics. Political coalitions rely on many social groups for support. Demonizing those with whom you disagree fuels polarizing rhetoric, hampers politicians from working across the aisle, and conceals valuable lessons we could otherwise learn from those who bring different perspectives to the table.

Second, be skeptical of simple solutions to complex problems. The world is a messy place. Like $100 bills lying on the sidewalk, if simple solutions were easy to find, someone else would have already grabbed them. Solutions to most problems require more information than politicians offer when they seek your vote.

Third, accept our two-party system. As hard as it might be to believe, our party system works admirably well, and it’s unlikely to go away. Institutional structures prevent viable third parties in the United States. We are left to improve what we have.

Fourth, think beyond campaigns. Even if a candidate aligns with your immediate views, ask if that candidate is really the person who would best represent your long-term interests. Ask if the candidate would actually contribute to a legislative process that is healthy for the country.

The cumulative effect of these proposals is to give life, once again, to bipartisanship in American political life.

Congress gets most of the blame for modern political ills, and such blame may be deserved. However, pointing the finger solely toward politicians is a dangerous path of least resistance.

A fix to the real problem, polarization, requires innovative thinking and growth on the part of leaders and everyday citizen alike. The American people must also be accountable to themselves.

Jason Husser is an assistant professor of political science and assistant director of the 黑料不打烊 Poll.

黑料不打烊 faculty with an interest in sharing their expertise with wider audiences are encouraged to contact Eric Townsend (etownsend4@elon.edu) in the Office of University Communications should they like assistance with prospective newspaper op/ed submissions.

Viewpoints shared by this syndicate are those of the author and not of 黑料不打烊.

The following column appeared recently in the (Greensboro, N.C.) News & Record (not currently posted online), the , the , the and the via the .

Laughing at ‘secession’ misses the bigger problem
By Jason Husser – jhusser@elon.edu

If the mantra after the 2008 presidential election was one of a “post-racial” America, the theme after the 2012 election would be better described as that of a “post-American” America. While the former was naïve, the latter remains ominous.

Few events illustrate this better than recent secession petitions in all 50 states, with a Texas petition alone garnering more than 100,000 “signatures.”

Most reactions to the petitions range from support to dismissal to snark. People rarely treat them for what they are: illegitimate, uniformed, harmful – yet also meaningful.

Though petitions carry no legal weight, they are more than simple political “incorrectness.” Hundreds of thousands of Americans have shed blood to protect the integrity of our nation. That same nation has provided millions more with great abundance, security and happiness.

Threats to abandon it because of political discontent are not a legitimate way to express dissatisfaction. They are a message of disrespect and thanklessness.

I’m a Southerner descended from slave holders and Confederate soldiers. I’ve often heard arguments that Confederate flags and sentiments expressed by petitions like these honor our heritage. What they actually do is glorify the worst parts of our history and neglect the best.

Southern heritage is American heritage and all Americans should honor their ancestors by valuing their achievements while recognizing their mistakes. Such recognition avoids celebrating or trivializing one of their darkest transgressions.

Outgoing Texas Rep. Ron Paul has said these petitions raise “worthwhile questions.” The congressman is correct. Why would the American people ask to abandon a country that they claim to love?

These anti-American petitions merit scorn for their callousness and sympathy for their context. Petitions are not the source of the problem. They are triggered by momentary events of political dissatisfaction, in this case President Barack Obama’s reelection. But the petitions are symptomatic of deeply seated ills within our political system.

Trust in government is abysmal. Despite once robust levels, political trust has never recovered from the Watergate and Vietnam War plunge. Americans are impatient with short-term sacrifices, ideological or material, that are part and parcel of the long-term workings of a healthy democratic system.

Too many Americans feel their voices don’t make a difference. Like political trust, political efficacy remains stagnant. When government provokes dissatisfaction, something it invariably will do, citizens who feel powerless are less likely to work to
improve it and more likely to give up hope.

Inequality between states remains another unspoken problem with the gap between rich and poor states showing little sign of improvement. Is it any wonder that the largest concentration of secessionist impulse is in the South, America’s poorest region? This geographic inequality fuels a rhetoric arguing that coastal plutocrats are moving the country in a direction away from the center.

These problems are amplified by political polarization. Republican and Democratic elites haven’t been this divided since the Civil War era. On Capitol Hill and on the street corner, many Americans perceive political differences to be irreconcilable. Polarization creates an attitude that compromise isn’t possible and makes sore losers even sorer. This fans flames of discontent that might otherwise smolder away.

So when you see headlines about petitions for states to secede, pay attention to them. Recognize the perniciousness of secession petitions. But also recognize their roots – troubling levels of political trust and efficacy, persistent geographic inequality, and seemingly endless polarization.

These weeds grow far too deeply in our soil. We should focus on remedying the problems that precipitate destructive petitions for secession. Such a focus is a better outlet for discontent than threats to abandon a nation that has given so much to so many.

Jason Husser is an assistant professor of political science and assistant director of the .

黑料不打烊 faculty with an interest in sharing their expertise with wider audiences are encouraged to contact Eric Townsend (etownsend4@elon.edu) in the Office of University Communications should they like assistance with prospective newspaper op/ed submissions.

Viewpoints shared by this syndicate are those of the author and not of 黑料不打烊.