Melyssa Morey: An Education and a Career

When I was in high school, my least favorite class was always history.  I hated history, it was so boring, and didn’t seem to pertain to anything in my day to day life.  It was not until I got into college that I realized that history could be interesting, exciting, and most certainly useful.

When I started out on my college career at the University of Montana, I was a Pre-Med student with interests in many fields.  Needless to say, I changed my major from Pre-Med to Chemistry to Psychology to Religious Studies back to Psychology then to Liberal Studies and finally decided to settle when I could earn a B.A. in Political Science, Psychology and Liberal Studies, so that’s what I did.

My interest in the Arab world was piqued by a class I had to take for general education credit, Islamic Civilization in the Modern Era, with Dr. Merhdad Kia.  Dr. Kia brought the class to life, and suddenly I couldn’t learn enough about this culture I knew nothing about previously.  When he approached our class about the Model Arab League and told us that he would give extra credit to anyone who participated, I of course jumped at the opportunity.  The MAL gave me a chance to learn in-depth about a country, and then act from their perspective for two days.  I began to recommend the MAL to everyone I knew, telling them about how much fun it was and how much I learned.

I went on to take several more courses from Dr. Kia and participate in the MAL for a second year and enjoyed it even more the second time around.  From all of this I developed a keen interest in the Middle East, and decided to focus my goals on pursuing an education and career in the field of Arab studies.  I now have a M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University and work as a program associate for the Arab American Institute.

My time at the University of Montana and my experience with the Model Arab League is one that I will never forget.  The opportunity to learn and develop my interest in the Arab world has been a wonderful experience and I would recommend the program to any high school or university student.  I speak from experience when I say that it is something that will change your life.

Melyssa Morey went on to work as a Program Assistant at the Arab-American Institute in Washington. To learn more about the Model Arab League program, click here.

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