Mel N. '24

Hi hi!! I’m Mel, and I’m a Midwesterner. It’s a little complicated—I was born in Canada, moved to Iowa at age five, spent my formative teen years in Minnesota, then returned to my childhood house in Iowa after I graduated high school. In any case, I’m great at dealing with cold weather.

Here's a little list of things I love:

- My cat Coffee! She has an unfortunate habit of throwing up in my room in the wee hours of the morning, but she is otherwise a fluffy angel and I love her to bits.

- Actual coffee. But like, with obscene amounts of whipped cream and sugar. My fave: caramel coolers from Caribou Coffee.

- Collecting pretty notebooks that I never actually write in. It’s kind of a problem at this point...

- Studio Ghibli movies! When I was a kid, I watched The Cat Returns on a sketchy streaming site over and over again until I started having dreams about it. My favorite Ghibli movie of all time has to be Kiki’s Delivery Service, though My Neighbor Totoro comes in as a close second.

- Chinese webnovels, especially Mo Dao Zu Shi!

- All Sanrio characters, ever, but Keroppi's my favorite.

- Using an excessive number of exclamation points!!!!

I’m super excited about MIT and what this year has in store for me—it’s definitely going to look a little different, current circumstances and all, but I'm ready to take it on.