The 2009 recipient of the Harbison Scholarship is Mellay Gardner of Salem, Ohio. She grew from a struggling nonreader to become a class valedictorian. Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was three years old, she received high-dose chemotherapy from that time until age six. This treatment resulted in traumatic brain injury, which manifests itself in deficits in attention, processing speed, visualmotor skills, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and fine-motor coordination.

Mellay’s experiences in early elementary grades were unpleasant and negative. Reading intervention, private tutoring, and intense work at a professional learning center resulted in her not only learning but excelling. She created many of her own strategies and interventions to help assure her academic success, which far surpasses what her doctors and specialists ever expected.

Further tests during her junior year confirmed the learning disabilities her parents had suspected all along. However, her school district denied the recommendation for IEP consideration because she had become so successful in school with her own interventions. She said, "Part of me was not disappointed to be denied an IEP…I was not only perceived by my peers and teachers as 'bright,' but also I had gained a positive self esteem that I did not want to lose. But I was relieved to finally have answers for why I had to work so much harder than my classmates to get similar results and why new concepts took me so long to process."

Her extra-curricular, community, work, and church involvements are wide spread. She began exploring undiscovered talents at an early age, such as learning to play the flute, tap dance, horseback ride, and play tennis. She has served as an officer for numerous school clubs and has chaired many activities. She was Salem High School’s delegate to Girls’ State, where she was elected a senator.

Mellay stated, “I have always felt service above self is an important part of life.” She has turned her difficult challenges into a motivation to help others succeed as well. Since fifth grade, she has been a reading tutor for several different reading programs. She created and implemented a summer reading camp, earning her Girl Scout Bronze Award as a result. She and her mother Diane created and implemented a family reading program. Following a family style dinner, the children go with Mellay and some of her classmates for activities while the parents receive instruction with notebooks containing games and activities that she had assembled to be used later at home with their children. Finally, the children and parents work together on the area of the evening’s focus. Mellay and Diane have conducted this Family APARTT (All Parents Are Reading Teachers Too) Program for three years in two area districts.

She also assists other organizations including the Make a Wish Foundation (currently she’s training to be a “wish granter” for children), Relay for Life, co-chair of school blood drives, and the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. Mellay also possesses a deep desire to help others in Third World countries. She sponsors a 12-year-old girl in Rwanda with her babysitting wages. She’s been doing a fundraiser to help support a mission project in Uganda. This June and July she will travel to Jamaica to volunteer at a mission.

This fall Mellay will attend Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. She will major in political science with plans to pursue a career in the international field with a focus on humanitarian issues and human rights. She would love to work overseas in a Third World country to help improve conditions for women and children.

Mellay was nominated for this scholarship by Denise Starcher, a long-time Society member from Salem, Ohio.