NEW HAVEN, Conn. –Yale University Athletics celebrates Black History month in February and will feature some of pioneers, both past and present, that have helped shaped the Bulldog experience. Next up, is Patricia Melton, class of 1983.
Melton started from humble Midwest beginnings but used her intellect and athletic prowess to overcome multiple family tragedies and now uses her example of making a Yale education possible without immense financial backing to bring collegiate opportunity to those in need.
Melton overcome hardship as one of seven children growing up in Cleveland, Ohio when her mother passed after a serious car accident at just 12 years old. Undeterred, she went on to great success at a private boarding school in Concord Mass., and stood out as both a lacrosse and field hockey player.
Just two years later however, Melton realized she must support herself. She was accepted to Yale to become the first in her family to attend college but had to start nearly a week late in New Haven as she did not have money to arrange transportation to campus.
Melton continued to juggle an Ivy League education, her athletic career and financial responsibilities over her first years at Yale when she faced another devastating family loss when her bother was lost due to gun violence in 1980.
To save money, Melton moved out of Pierson College to live and work off campus as well as no longer buying books after her freshman year. She even switched sports to save on equipment costs. She continued to excel in the athletic world however as she went on to place second nationally in the hurdles and her times qualified her as a finalist at the 1988 Olympic Trials in the 800-meter run.
After graduation, Melton went on to pursue a career in educational consulting and worked as an assistant dean at Vincennes University in Indiana. Though she found success in the Midwest, she felt a calling to come back to Yale to "reimagine" a trying time in her life a place she had come to love.
The NCAA recognized Melton as a Silver Anniversary Award winner in 2007, which recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers.
In 2012, she took over as an executive director at New Haven Promise which aims to make the promise of college a reality for local high school students.
Melton's award-winning education background has helped her have an impact on over 25,000 students and she has stated often that sees herself in the faces of the first-generation college students that New Haven Promise supports.
Since New Haven Promise began, the city's public-school enrollment has increased by 17%, a 50-year enrollment high, and it now has the highest graduation rates (80%) from Black and Hispanic students among Connecticut cities.
Since the program's inception, 1,591 Promise Scholars have shared more than $12.7 million in college funding. In addition, over 170 students have been placed with paid internships at 60 agencies in the past year, 95 of them at Yale.
Additionally, Melton has come full circle as she is now a fellow at Pierson and sits on the Yale Alumni Board of Governors.
