But his journey from the gridiron to the stars was riddled with adversity and wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for “grit, grace and second chances.”

“As you think about your careers and about the things that you’re doing with your life, it’s about those people that you choose to help you get through those second chances,” Melvin told the audience gathered for the 2022 Baird Lecture in Alumni Gym on Thursday, March 31.

Melvin’s 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 “follow the instructions and have fun.” Soon enough, he flung the instructions over his shoulder and concocted “the most incredible explosion” in the living room, burning a hole in the carpet in the process.

“My mom was 5’2’’ and I learned about physics when she wound up and launched me off to space,” Melvin said. “But my brain was activated to science. All I need is a lab coat and goggles and I’m a scientist. What is that thing that you need to launch you into your future? Experiential learning did it for me.”

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, “if this guy can overcome such a horrific failure and not give up, I’m going to give him a scholarship.”

“One catch resulted in a $180,000 scholarship to the University of Richmond because I did not give up,” Melvin said. “But I had given up. I didn’t want to go back into the game, but I had a ‘man in the yellow hat’ in Jimmy Green, my head coach, who believed in me, put me back in and gave me a second chance.”

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’s 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.

“So, I thank Danny White for helping me get to space,” 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’t 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.

“You always have to be preserving, you always have to stay resilient and you always have to do the right thing,” 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 Elon Parents Council and their involvement with the university has spanned more than 35 years.

The 51������ Speaker Series welcomes distinguished thought leaders and change-makers who are actively taking on society’s most pressing issues. This year’s Speaker Series, presented by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio, thematically explores the “Power of Relationships.”

The concert describes places and periods of time that thematically explore the means of connection or transition. 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. Other faculty choreographers are Shaleigh Comerford, Jen Guy Metcalf, Jasmine Powell and Keshia Wall.

Admission for the concert is $15 or Elon ID. Tickets are available .

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).

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd of The New York Times will visit North Carolina the day after the November elections to deliver the 2012 Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture on the 51������ campus.

Her lecture, “Fit to Print: Writing on Washington,” takes place Wednesday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. in McCrary Theatre in the Center for the Arts.

Tickets are $12 or free with an Elon ID and can be obtained by calling the 51������ Box Office at (336) 278-5610 from 12:30-5 p.m. during the business week.

Dowd began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. When the Star closed in 1981, she went to Time magazine. She began her career at The New York Times as a metropolitan reporter in October 1983. In 1992, she was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for national reporting.

Dowd started writing opinion columns in 1995 after serving as a correspondent in the paper’s Washington bureau, and the following year she was named one of Glamour‘s “Women of the Year.” Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, Dowd has also written a column, “On Washington,” for The New York Times Magazine.

Born in Washington, D.C., Dowd received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Catholic University in 1973.

The Pulitzer Prizes, awarded annually since 1917, are the nation’s most prestigious awards in journalism and the liberal arts. The Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture Series brings recipients to campus each year with guests who have included David McCullough, Dave Barry, George Will, Anna Quindlen, Thomas Friedman and David Halberstam.

The series was made possible in 2001 with an endowed gift from James H. and Jane M. Baird of Burlington, N.C., who were the first presidents of the Elon Parents Council. Their son, Macon, is a 1987 Elon graduate and their son-in-law, Michael Hill, earned his Elon degree in 1989.
 

51������ students, faculty and staff will debate issues related the upcoming presidential election in a public event this Thursday moderated by WUNC’s Dick Gordon of “The Story.”

Four teams representing Democrats, Republicans, Independents and International constituencies will discuss the economy, health care and same-sex marriage with questions from the audience. Issues were selected by a campus vote during a September College Coffee, where the community was invited to place chips into empty fishbowls labeled with a variety of public policy topics.

WHAT: 51������ “Debating the Issues” Program
WHO: University students, faculty and staff on stage; event open to the public at no cost.
WHERE: Whitley Auditorium
WHEN: Thursday, October 25, from 6:30-8 p.m.

A reception will follow the formal program. For information on the students, faculty and staff taking part in the debate, visit .

The program will be broadcast via Elon Local News and WSOE. For more information, contact Professor Tom Arcaro at arcaro@elon.edu or 51������ junior Ben Kashdan at bkashdan@elon.edu.

“The debate on Thursday night will be a great moment for us all to hear a wide variety of opinions on three very important issues facing the United States and impacting the rest of the world,” Arcaro said. ” I am very excited that we have four strong teams ready to share their views, and I think that the inclusion of the international perspective adds a significant and even critical dimension to our understanding. Having Dick Gordon as our guest moderator also is wonderful and I know he will add a dignified touch to the proceedings.”
 

Join the Elon Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society September 19, 7:30-9:00, in LaRose Digital Theater (Koury 101) for an interesting panel discussion.  Four engaging scholars, including Elon’s own Tom Mould (Sociology/ Anthropology) and Jeffrey Pugh (Religious Studies), will be offering their perspectives on how believers employ revealed knowledge, especially in the political sphere. Kelly J. Baker, Lecturer in American Religion at University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Jason Bivins, Professor of Religion at NC State, will be joining us as well. This should be an enlightening conversation as we move toward November and hear more and more religious rhetoric employed in conversations about political candidates and ideas.

What Is The Price Of Democracy?
Forum Discussion On Democratic Engagement in Higher Education

Wednesday, October 3, 7-9 p.m. in Yeager Recital Hall

Moderator:

Laura Roselle, Professor of Political Science

Panelists:

Bud Warner, Professor of Human Services
Steven Mencarini, Director of the Center for Leadership
Mary Morrison, Director of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement
Will Brummett, Leadership Fellow, Newman Civic Fellow

For more info contact: Greg Honan (ghonan@elon.edu)
 

Known as one of the best non-partisan trackers of presidential, congressional and statewide elections, Charlie Cook founded the Cook Political Report in 1984. He writes two columns for the National Journal, is a political analyst for the Journal and, since 1994, has provided analysis for NBC. The New York Times has called Cook “one of the best political handicappers in the nation.”

Cook is the father of an Elon student and an Elon alumnus and recently provided analysis of 51������ Poll results at a news conference in Charlotte, held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention.

Wednesday, October 10
Religion and Politics, 2012: National and State Perspectives on the Role of Religion in the Presidential Election
Whitley Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Robert Jones, CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, D.C., and Jason Husser, assistant director of the 51������ Poll, discuss the role of religion in voter decision-making.

Admission is free.