Greetings

Greetings my fellow editors,

My name is Melissa Reese and I am a senior at Weber State I will graduate this spring with a degree in Communication, with an emphasis in PR and Advertising.  I have been married 11 years this December.  I have two great children.  My daughter Emma who is 9-years-old, and my son Liam who is 4-years-old.  Besides being a full time student, mom, and wife I am involved in student government at Weber.  I am 1 of 23 senators here at WSU.  My responsibility as a senator is to be the voice to my constituency.  If you have a problem at school you can come to me or any of the other senator.  We will do our best to help resolve the issue that is presented to us.  I have been told I am crazy to be involved in student government with how busy I am but I really enjoy what I am doing.

My hobbies include reading, biking, and playing with my kids and dogs.  I feel like I have a zoo in my home.  I have two dogs and a cat.  I was never allowed to have animals when I was a kid, so I have gone a little crazy with animals in my home.  An interesting fact about me is that I spent 10 years over in Japan.  I don't speak the language anymore, butt Japan will always have a special place in my heart.

With graduation drawing near it has forced me to decide what I want to do when I grow up.  For a good part of my life I  have done event planning and have loved it.  I would love to continue event planning after I graduate.  I am not sure if this will happen but I am cautiously optimistic about what I want to do after I graduate.

All though I would love to do event planning I am not sure if that is the direction I will take after graduation.  My son Liam has autism.  He was diagnosed a year ago.  He attends a special private school for children with autism.  When he started a year ago he was almost completely non-verbal.  Now he speaks in sentences and everyday is exciting in our home when Liam succeeds in one of his goals.  Since I have a child with autism I am heavily involved in the autism community.  I would like to be involved with autism groups here in Utah.   Utah has the highest per capita diagnosis of autism then any other state.  I would like to create better awareness to autism as well plan events to fundraise for these groups.

Confucius says "choose a job you love and you will never work another day in your life."  I would like to have this attitude when I enter the work force.  I am excited to be part of this class and cannot wait to learn from all of you.