After 39 years of working in the offices of Southern Lehigh High School, administrative assistant Mrs. Melody Davis will retire at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. In her time at the high school, she has helped keep things running in both the main office and the counseling office. As a 1976 Southern Lehigh graduate herself, she has always had a strong connection with the school district and the area.
Mrs. Davis first felt drawn to work in education when she was very young. She often played librarian and imagined herself in a school. More than that, she has always known she wanted a career rooted in connecting with others and mentoring students.
“I think I was led to be helpful to people,” said Mrs. Davis. “I've always worked hard to help people, so that's always been my passion.”
Although working in education has not come without its challenges, Mrs. Davis believes her career has helped shape her as a person. She has seen the strength of the people that work around her and does not believe the job could get done without their unique compassion and drive.
“Working in education has helped me become more empathetic. I need to have a lot of empathy in this job,” Mrs. Davis said, “I've always said, since I started here, it takes a special person to work in a school, whether it's a teacher or custodian, it doesn't matter what job you hold.”
Above all else, Mrs. Davis will miss getting to see her students develop their personalities and build confidence over the years.
“You know there [are] some students that hold a special place in your heart,” she said, “but [I’ll miss] just watching the students grow from year to year.”
Mrs. Davis is also astounded at how the Southern Lehigh School District has developed since she initially moved to the area in fourth grade. She remembers a time when the school was surrounded by farmland, and her classmates would leave after school to go hunting. She finds it remarkable to see how the area has changed in the time she has lived here.  Still, Mrs. Davis is grateful that Southern Lehigh has remained a close-knit community after all these years. Its small nature has made her job in education easier, as she can focus on a smaller group of students.
During retirement, Mrs. Davis is excited to have more time to spend with her husband and her adorable pug Onyx. Both she and her husband are retiring at the same time, so they plan to start new hobbies together. Her husband plans on starting his own greenhouse, and Mrs. Davis looks forward to using fresh vegetables from the garden at dinner.
Although she will miss her fellow coworkers and students, she is excited for the new opportunities retirement will bring, namely spending time with her family and traveling the country. Mrs. Davis and her husband look forward to visiting family in her hometown in Vermont, in addition to other family members in Florida.
As Mrs. Davis leaves the SLHS community behind, she hopes that her fellow staff members and students remember her for her kindness. She leaves them with a simple yet impactful piece of advice:
“Do your best, and be kind.”

Interview

Gianna Cusumano 0:00
That. Okay, so for my first question, how many years have you worked at the high school? And which schools have you worked at?

Unknown 0:12
I've only worked at the high school, and it's 39 years. Wow, that's really

Gianna Cusumano 0:17
exciting. Yeah. And then what do you think is your favorite memory from your time at Southern Lehigh?

Unknown 0:28
It's kind of hard it's been. I've had a lot of good experiences. I've had a lot of crazy experiences. And you said My favorite memory i

Unknown 0:46
i think my my best memory is going to is just remembering all of the students that I've met, whose lives I've touched. Because that's why I'm here, is to help the kids. That's my most important

Gianna Cusumano 1:05
part of my job. That's a great answer. And then, how do you think that your job here has helped you grow or change as a person?

Unknown 1:18
It's helped me become more empathetic. I need to have a lot of empathy in this job. I always, I've always said, since I started here, it takes a special person to work in a school, yeah, whether it's a teacher or custodian, it doesn't matter what job you hold. You have to be a special kind of person, because if you're not, you're not going to be able to do the job. Yeah, that's what I think. Like it helped me, empathy, patience, that kind of thing.

Gianna Cusumano 1:52
And then I would say, when did you feel that you had kind of like what it took to like work in education, or when did you really feel drawn to that career.

Unknown 2:05
I think ever since, even when I was little, I used to play that I was a librarian. I love that, you know, I would have bookshelves and books lined up and that kind of thing, you know. So I don't know that I was always driven to be a librarian, but I think I was led to be helpful to people, because before I worked here, I worked in juvenile probation. So again, I was working with young people. They were quite different than the students here, but I've always worked tried to help people, so that's always been my passion. Yeah, and

Gianna Cusumano 2:48
then, what do you think's the best part about interacting with students?

Unknown 2:54
I just love to see you guys grow, you know, from a freshman to a senior. You know, there's just, and there's, of course, there's some students that hold a special place in your heart, but just watching the students grow from year to year.

Gianna Cusumano 3:13
And then, what do you think you're going to miss most about working at Southern Lehigh,

Unknown 3:19
the people? Yeah, I'll miss the socialization, and, you know, the teachers and the students, that's what I will miss the most.

Gianna Cusumano 3:31
And then I don't know if I'm right, but you yourself are a graduate of southern High School, that's so cool. What do you think has changed most about the school community and what has stayed the same?

Unknown 3:44
Well, when I would leave school, I would see farmland. I don't see farmland as much when I leave school,

Unknown 3:55
the boys would drive their pickup truck trucks to school and have their shotguns in the back of the pickup truck so they could go hunting after school. That certainly does not happen these days.

Unknown 4:07
That's so interesting. Yeah,

Unknown 4:11
you know, there's the school itself. The building itself hasn't really changed all that much. The addition of two wings, but really hasn't grown or changed all that much. I don't know. Yeah, I think that's pretty much, you know, it's just the development in the district.

Gianna Cusumano 4:38
Yeah, more development in the community. Yeah, and then, what are your plans for retirement and the near future?

Unknown 4:51
So I we, my husband is also retiring. That's that's really cool. So we plan to. Travel some I have relatives in Vermont, and I have relatives in Florida, so we'll go between and we have friends and family in between there, but we want to go out west. So that was one thing we've always wanted to do, was go out west. So hopefully that will work into our plans, yeah, and my husband is going to start growing produce in a greenhouse.

Gianna Cusumano 5:30
So that sounds like such a fun hobby, and delicious too, like, I'm sure it's gonna taste so good. I'm sure it will. Yeah, do you guys like to cook?

Unknown 5:41
I do, yeah, yeah, him, not so much, but yeah, I'd like to cook, yeah,

Gianna Cusumano 5:46
yeah. So it'll, that'll be fun. That's really fun. And then you said, Vermont and Florida, what are you most excited to see there of my family? Yeah, just visit them. Yeah, my

Unknown 5:56
family in Vermont is getting older. We're actually going in over Memorial Day. My I have an aunt who is Down syndrome, and she is turning 70, and most Down Syndrome people do not live that long. Wow, yeah. So we are, you know, I made an appointment. We are going to be able to go to celebrate her birthday.

Gianna Cusumano 6:21
That's awesome. They're having a special party for her. Yeah, that's gonna be really great. Yeah.

Unknown 6:27
And I have a brother in law in Florida, so

Gianna Cusumano 6:29
nice. Okay, that's good. That's so nice that you'll have that extra time to, like, make time to see them, and then, um, I would also say, What's your favorite part about living in this area, and what do you think is like special about the school district

Unknown 6:51
I grew up, let me see we moved to this district when I was in fourth grade, and my mother always said that it reminded her of Vermont, which it does. I was born in Vermont, so, you know, just that reminder of, you know, the trees and the fall and that kind of thing that that's kind of why I like this area, and

Gianna Cusumano 7:18
what was the other part, and then what's like, what's one part that you think is like, maybe special or like different about Southern Lehigh, just

Unknown 7:28
that it's a smaller community I read there, like, right now, when I'm doing keystone exams, like, I just can't imagine being like, at William Allen and having to worry about 1000s of tests as opposed to hundreds of tests. So I just like the smaller community, the smaller, smaller group of students that we have to deal with,

Gianna Cusumano 7:53
yeah, I know it is nice that it's close knit, and you know so many people, yeah, yeah. And then what impact do you hope you left on the school?

Unknown 8:09
And I said, Hey guys, I hope that they saw my kindness and that they followed through with that. You know, that was that it influenced other people to also be kind. I

Gianna Cusumano 8:19
love that. And do you have a piece of advice for like the teachers here, or like the students that you'd like to like? I guess, just like, leave them with,

Unknown 8:33
do your best and be kind.

Gianna Cusumano 8:38
I love that those were all of my questions. Is there anything else that you'd like me to include? No, I don't think so. Yeah, okay, perfect. And then I do just need a picture too. Do you have a picture? I could take one now. But also, if you have a picture that you really like you and you want to send me,

Unknown 8:59
let me look through my pictures. Perfect. Okay, I didn't mention my puppy, because,

Unknown 9:05
wait, you do

Unknown 9:06
we? Do we have a pub named Onyx? Oh, my God, that's so cute. We'll have time, more time to spend with Onyx. That's awesome.

Gianna Cusumano 9:15
Did you get him recently? Or Have you always had him?

Unknown 9:18
We he'll be too. So we and we got him when he was eight weeks old. We went now that's a funny story. It's we didn't want a dog, yeah, but my sister in law has pugs, and she always told my husband that if she bred her dogs, that he was getting a puppy,

Unknown 9:43
whether he likes to not

Unknown 9:44
exactly. So we got that phone call, you know that there's puppies. So we went down over Christmas two years ago and brought home two pugs. One was ours. And then one was for a friend of ours. So we have Onyx for two years. He came from Kentucky, yeah, so, you know, and he he gets very sad when we're not home, yeah, he'll sit. He has a chair. We have a chair for him by the front window, and he sits in his chair and he pouts when we're not

Gianna Cusumano 10:23
home. That is adorable. That is so cute. He's like, why are you not here? Exactly. He's gonna be so happy. Yeah,

Unknown 10:29
if my husband, he's very close to my husband, too. And if my husband leaves, like, right now, if my husband's driving, he drives truck. So if he goes in the evening, if he leaves for, you know, a drop a run, the dog will sit there and he'll look at the door and look for my husband, wondering where he is.

Gianna Cusumano 10:53
That's so cute. I love a pug, too. They're adorable. I always, I feel like they're always so friendly, too. Most of them are, yeah, yeah,

Unknown 11:01
this one is they're lucky to death, yeah, yeah. So let me see. I might have a picture of me with my pug. That

Unknown 11:08
would be adorable. I would love that. I'll get my granddaughter. Okay, perfect, yeah, okay, perfect. Thanks so much. You're welcome.









Feature Mrs. Mel Davis

Questions

How many years have you worked at the high school? And which schools have you worked at?
What is your favorite memory from your time at Southern Lehigh high school?
Why did you decide to go into the field of education?
What is the best part about interacting with students?
What will you miss most about working at Southern Lehigh?
As a graduate of Southern Lehigh high school, what do you believe has changed most about the school community and what has stayed the same?
Why did you decide to stay in this area and what is your favorite part about living here?
What are your plans for retirement and the near future?
What impact do you hope you left on the school?