Why Not?

Melissa Hall has never shied away from adventure. In high school, she spent a year as an exchange student in Brazil. Later, when a friend traveled to the Netherlands as an au pair, Hall thought, I could do that.

“I wasn’t in a rush to make a decision at 18 about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she says. “So I took a gap year.”

Using an online site, Hall connected with a friendly couple in Australia.

“I clicked with them, and I didn’t want the opportunity to pass me by,” she says. “I’m a very spontaneous person and I thought: Why not?”

Hall spent the year looking after the family’s three children, driving the older two back and forth from school and other activities and caring for the youngest, a toddler, during the day. In her time off, she explored the country with friends.

“A lot of families who hire au pairs know each other, so I was already set up to have a bunch of friends,” she says. “We’d take weekend trips together.”

Meanwhile, Hall’s dad landed a job at Y-12 National Laboratory in Oak Ridge and moved the family from Ohio to Tennessee. When she returned from her year in Australia, Hall was ready to plunge into college life.

“I chose UT mainly because it’s nearby, but I’ve loved the Haslam College of Business,” she says.

An outgoing sophomore, Hall is a peer career advisor, an active member of Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity and a member of the inaugural cohort of students chosen for the Integrated Business and Engineering Program.

Hall participated in a Haslam study abroad trip to Costa Rica last year, motivating her to pursue a major in supply chain management.

“Eventually, I see myself in purchasing,” she says. “I’d love to be a chief procurement officer for a company.”

When she’s not studying or participating in campus events, Hall is on the go.

“Whether it’s hiking, boating, shopping or coffee shop hopping, I love to get out and explore,” she says.