A young lady who wants to get out of Virginia and do something great with her life, she has high aspirations for her life.

Melissa Belk of Dumfries, Virginia. Dumfries is a suburban area where a young woman by the name of Melissa Belk resides. She has a loving, supporting family. They can be strict, but they let her do things within limits. She has a younger brother and an older sister.

She sees herself as intellectual, reserved and open-minded. Being around her friends and family is something that makes her happy. Her craving to leave Virginia and try new things is what drives her to work hard.

She attends Forest Park High School. In her free time she enjoys writing and wants to work for a newspaper. When she is not at school and at home she is hanging out with her friends or going to the mall. She also likes movies, such as “Babel.” She enjoys drama genre movies.

She says her three best qualities are listening, understanding, and that she is nice. Her three worst qualities however are procrastinating, being bad at science and others say she is standoffish.

Her influences are her parents and she has her own faith. Her parents have been there for her and having her own faith gives her something to believe in and keep her spirits up. She also has a mentor who works for The Washington Post. Her mentor gave her the application for this specific program and is helping her move along in her path to journalism. She aspires to go to NYU and her mentor will help her get there.

Her biggest struggle in life is “Just having people in my life not understand,” Belk said. Even though there are people who don’t understand her she has persevered and will make something out of herself.

Profile written by Buck Campbell