While at Middlebury, Mel studied the interactions between culture and the body with a regional focus on Latin America. They spent their junior year abroad in Ecuador and Patagonia. There, they connected with local Indigenous communities and executed field research on the Kichwa food system and Yaghan cultural re-emergence, respectively. Mel returned to Ecuador the following year to complete their senior thesis on traditional midwifery at a birthing center in the Amazon. After graduation, Mel worked as a wilderness leader at a summer camp, taking youth on backpacking trips in Yosemite National Park. They now work as an outdoor science teacher in Santa Cruz, California, where they collaborate with high school volunteers to facilitate hands-on experiential learning opportunities for fifth grade students in the forest. Mel is fluent in Spanish and has basic proficiency in Hebrew. This fall, Mel will be joining the youth development sector of the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.