We are Mortar Board: Maggie Margiotta Melson

We are Mortar Board is a new post you will see on our blog. Here we will share the story of our Society through features of our chapters and alumni.

Meet Maggie Margiotta Melson. She is a Mortar Board from the Virginia Gamma chapter at the College of William and Mary, initiated in 1987. Here she is pictured with her husband Vollie Melson in Dublin, Ireland.

Home: Annapolis, Maryland

Education: M.Ed., University of Virginia; B.A., College of William and Mary

Mortar Board chapter: Virginia Gamma chapter

Favorite Mortar Board moment: This is corny. A robed Mortar Board member with a hood over his head found me studying in the library and tapped me on the shoulder. I was terrified. Then I realized that I knew him. He was a major leader on campus. He said, “Come with me, trust me, this is a good thing.” He took me to a welcome ceremony where other new members were gathered, and the vice president for student affairs was there. I knew I was safe.

I didn’t know I was being considered for Mortar Board, and I didn’t know I had been selected, so it was a terrific moment for me.

Major student activities: Founder of Student Alumni Liaison Council, president of Chi Omega and resident assistant

Profession: Educational administrator

Occupational title: Director of Special Projects, St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland

Most recent achievement: I recently was selected to participate in Leadership Anne Arundel, a countywide, year-long leadership development program that combines personal community involvement with professional leadership. Meeting once a month, we learn about our county and build a human infrastructure for it.

What you have done, would like to do, or already do that no one but you knows about: To express my creativity in a more concrete way—by painting

Hobby: Boating on the Chesapeake Bay and volunteering in the community

Last book(s) read: The Help and Women’s Paths to Happiness 

Most-used web site(s): Google.com and InsideHigherEd.com

Five adjectives that describe you: Optimistic, responsible, balanced, curious and motivated

How your college experience changed your life: It tapped into my leadership, scholarship and service orientation in life. All of those represented who I was. The academic rigors were significant, but there was an expectation at William and Mary that you would be an engaged citizen. It wasn’t just about the life of the mind but the learning of the whole person. Mortar Board is symbolic of that. It’s not just an honor society for intellectuals.

Your favorite organization: Mortar Board because it values leadership, scholarship and service, which recognizes our lives as engaged citizens and whole people.