Public relations coordinator pursues dream
For Melanie Thomas, outgoing public relations coordinator at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, everything has seemed to fall into place. Thomas, 29, has decided to move closer to her dreams through a recent acceptance to Georgetown University. She will begin her studies in the fall to pursue a joint degree program leading to master of arts in German and European studies and a doctorate degree in government or history at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Thomas landed a beautiful apartment on a tree-lined street in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood, the opportunity to live closer to her significant other, Jimmy Kolosky, and a warm welcome from university staff.
Despite the positives, it is difficult for a small-town girl who grew up in Springhill Township to leave behind the local campus she loves and the people she has grown to know, including professors who taught her and have become her friends.
Thomas graduated from Penn State Fayette in 2000 with a degree in letters, arts and sciences and became the campus’ public relations coordinator, a post she helped to establish, shortly after.
In her job, Thomas has photographed campus events and met numerous noteworthy people. She said she has benefited from learning about different cultures through the various guest speakers who visited the campus to tell their stories.
She met Judy Shepard, who fought for gay rights after losing her son Matthew Shepard to a hate crime. She worked on her first security detail when best-selling novelist Patricia Cornwell visited the campus.
She spoke to Holocaust survivor Sam Weinreb; Emily DeRocco, 2007 commencement speaker at the campus and former Georgetown and Penn State graduate; and the daughter of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, Alexandra, who stopped in Uniontown during her father’s 2004 campaign for president.
DeRocco, the assistant secretary of employment in the training administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, may be the first woman to lead the workforce-training agency if nominated by President George Bush, said Thomas.
She said she pulled many gifts from her professors at The Eberly Campus, which she said has given her the foundation to succeed in life and at Georgetown.
Thomas credits the letters of recommendation written by Penn State Fayette professors, including Evelyn Pluhar, professor of philosophy, and Beverly Peterson, associate professor of English, as the keys to unlocking the gates of Georgetown.
The letters also were an unintendend gift for her, she said. “To know people I respect that much thought that highly of me is a gift,” she said. “Not only did I get an education and wonderful career (at the Eberly Campus), but also wonderful friends.”
Her professors weren’t her only positive role models.
Growing up as a middle-class girl in a brick home built by her father, Thomas learned from her parents the value of hard work and the importance of religion in her life.
She said she grew up unaware of differences in pay scale or job positions between men and women. When she learned disparity was an issue, Thomas said she was shocked. “I was taught everyone was equal,” she said.
“I take for granted how I was raised. It was a down-to-earth family. Normal and hard working,” she said. “I was able to believe I could do anything I wanted to do. It was just a matter of want and enthusiasm.”
Thomas is the daughter of Jim and Peggy Thomas and has two younger brothers, Chad and Dusty.
Along with her spirituality and spirit of hard work, Thomas takes to Georgetown with her a couple of lessons learned in life.
“If you work at something and finish it, you’ll find the work you finish is valuable,” said Thomas.
Always humble, Thomas said, “Humility is a great way of building bridges and making friends that last a lifetime.”
Though hesitant to compare herself with superstar, goodwill ambassador and mother of two adopted children Angelina Jolie, the 1996 graduate of Albert Gallatin Area High School has always wanted to adopt children and has a passion to help improve the lives of others.
She has high ambitions to use her communication skills to help improve the world. She strongly believes in peaceful negotiations, noting talking will bring results, not war.
“We can’t keep doing what we are doing now, continuing war. With nuclear weapons, it’s harder to talk than to just jump up and fight. It takes a lot of hard work to talk things through,” said Thomas.
After her studies, Thomas could go onto to teach at the college level, become an interpreter or an ambassador for the United Nations, The World Bank or the U.S. government. Her fluency in German and desire to become fluent in Russian will help in her pursuit to improve world affairs.
World peace, said Thomas, is an effort she wants to be a part of.
“I needed something to improve myself, but through more than earning dollars,” she said, noting she could have chose to move onto public relations with a large corporation. “Foreign conflicts, peaceful alliances, it’s obvious these things affect today. I feel very strongly about these things and am confident in my ability to work that field.
“Georgetown was my first choice. I felt so passionately about the school,” she added.
Gifts afforded her during her time at Penn State was the opportunities to never stop learning or meeting people, and she’s ready to continue those abilities at Georgetown.
And, she knows her strong Christian faith, love of learning and support of her close friends and family will lead her to her ultimate goal, whatever it may be.
Thomas has served in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society “Light the Night” annual walk in support of cancer patients and the United Way’s strategic task force. She was a member of New Geneva Baptist Church, a white, clapboard church bringing locals together and has prompted an area shelter to rescue stray animals.
She was able to see the capital city’s fireworks celebration over the skies of the Potomac River this Fourth of July.