Melissa Melendez Rios, DSHA '03

Knowing how to communicate — Melissa can do it in three languages — comes in handy where she works. As director of graduate support at Notre Dame School of Milwaukee, Melissa navigates the “language” of middle and high school students as she supports young women on their paths to college and beyond.

 

Melissa was born and raised on Milwaukee’s south side and was later part of the first all-female class at Notre Dame. Her passion for Catholic education eventually brought her back to the school, where she’s since worn many hats — including as director of enrichment, where she coordinated more than 35 after-school opportunities for more than 125 students each year.

 

She currently oversees the admissions process for Notre Dame’s eighth-grade class, and offers financial aid and college transition help for the school’s graduates. She scaled Notre Dame’s mentorship program to support an increasing number of graduates, and launched an ACT prep program that raised average college entrance exam scores by more than three points in three years. She proudly notes that 100 percent of the 2017 graduating class — or Notre Dame’s class of 2013 — entered college.

 

Melissa has a bachelor’s degree in sciences and letters from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In her spare time, she directs musicals at Notre Dame and is a busy mom to three energetic kids.