ATLANTA, GA – Little did MELT University (www.meltatl.com) and KSU student Julia Miller know that when she signed on for a summer internship program with MELT and MELT University she would wind up in Haiti fulfilling a life-long dream. Miller’s Holy Water Foundation works in providing clean drinking water for people worldwide. It all happened during Miller’s stint at MELT University, the award-winning summer internship program provided by MELT (www.meltatl.com) – the Atlanta-based, award-winning sports, entertainment and culinary marketing agency.
As fate would have it, MELT Founder/CEO Vince Thompson had recently traveled in early June, with his sons Carter and Stefhan to Leogane, Haiti on behalf of Project Goals Soccer to learn more about the project that uses soccer as a motivational and educational tool. The project is designed to encourage Haitian youth to pursue a meaningful educational path. While in Leogane, Thompson met and spent time with Fritz Pierre-Louis, the incoming president of The Leogane Rotary and involved locally with Project Goals as one of the main sponsors. As further fate would have it, Pierre-Louis was going to be in Atlanta the next week for the Rotary International Convention that attracted tens of thousands of Rotarians from around the world. While in Atlanta, Thompson asked Pierre-Louis to address his MELT University interns and so the connection with Miller occurred.
As Pierre-Louis finished his talk, Miller raised her hand and asked a simple question, “Would it be ok if I came down with my father to pursue my goal of providing clean water for Haitians and other citizens from around the world?” And, of course, Pierre-Louis said, “anytime.” On the course of the trip, which Miller is on now, she had a chance to interact with some of the team members and players of Project Goals, all adorned in their MELT soccer jerseys Thompson and his sons left as a gift for the teams and players.
Miller is a rising senior at Kennesaw State University where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Media Studies. In 2014 Miller received The East Cobb Lions Club Scholarship and in 2012 started her Holy Water Foundation to create events to raise money to help provide clean water for people worldwide.
“I’m so proud of Julia for her initiative and leadership and very thankful that Fritz and his family and folks at Project Goals have opened their doors and hearts to her,” said Thompson. “Julia is an outstanding example of the leaders of tomorrow that MELT seeks in its future executives as well as she is a great representative of a great university such as KSU. We are all proud of her!”
Julia commented on the project as well: “The reason why I came to Haiti is to build water filtration systems for my non-profit corporation, Holy Water Foundation. I started the non-profit when I was 13 years old, and after overcoming numerous obstacles was able to achieve our first water project while here in Haiti. We provided 20 water filtration systems to families in Comyer, Haiti, impacting thousands of lives.”