By Melodie Kao, MIT 2010
This summer, I am interning full-time with Emerge, sponsored by MIT’s Program for Human Rights and Justice. A rising junior at MIT, I am a rower majoring in Physics and concentrating in Architecture. My passion for all types of design led me to Alia this past February, who asked me to join Emerge’s Bead Committee after noticing that I had made my own earrings. I distinctly remember the night that she talked to me and the rest of the students whom she had recruited. The ten of us were huddled around a table in a small, darkening corner of MIT. And there was Alia, eyes wide and filling the small space with the stories of the girls at Emerge, with the barely restrained energy of her own ideas, with the incredible potential that we could all add to Emerge. As I listened to Alia speak, I knew that we were more than just a group of college girls hoping to help part of the world. I could feel myself becoming a part of something much greater and filled with so much beauty that I could barely breathe: I was becoming part of all of the hope, all of the lives, and all of the strength of Emerge. In that instant, I knew that I would do much more than develop new jewelry designs. So here I am for the summer, working day and night with one of the most inspirational people I know, doing all that I can to help Emerge grow and making a great friend in the process.