The Michigan State University Department of Anthropology is proud to announce Melissa Teja as its Outstanding Senior. This award recognizes a graduating senior in each department with an exceptional academic record, major contributions to the department and their ability to balance rigorous scholarship with extracurriculars.
Melissa is a native of Johns Creek, Georgia and is the president of the MSU Anthropology Club. She is also currently serving as Co-Chair of the MSU President’s Student Advisory Council. In addition to this, Teja is member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority and last year served on the Panhellenic Council: the governing body of the 14 National Panhellenic Conference sororities on campus. Melissa is also a recipient of the College of Social Science Dean’s Student Advisory Council’s Leadership Award.
Teja credits her part of her success in the department to faculty mentors Gabe Wrobel, Stacey Camp and Joe Hefner. Their influence has led her to pursue a PhD in anthropology with a focus in bioarcheology from the University of Pittsburgh after graduation.
“The classes and the opportunities that I’ve had to learn here have been incredible. I’ve had the opportunity to take graduate level courses here in the department, and the ability to conduct and present research at several conferences. The level of support that I’ve gotten from the professors in the department has been incredible,” Teja stated.
Melissa’s student research has included presenting at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) through the MSU Undergraduate Research Office where she also works as a research ambassador. “I worked on a project that stemmed off the field work that I conducted in Belize with Dr. Wrobel as part of his lab. I followed it up by doing a larger scale project that I presented last year. This year, I’ve been working on a remote sensing project,” Teja said. Melissa is also set to present her research as part of the College of Social Science Dean’s Assistantship and Andrew Undergraduate Fellowship at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in San Francisco the week of graduation.

As Melissa’s time at MSU concludes, she remembers fondly the friends she made along the way and her time spent getting involved on campus.
“Get involved. Go out of your way to meet people and talk to people. I think it is incredibly beneficial to make friends and meet the people that you’re working with. I really couldn’t have gotten to where I am if I didn’t have the friends that I made”.
In addition to her friends, Melissa credits her grandparents as a strong reason why she chose to be a Spartan.
“I really want to acknowledge my grandparents. They’re the whole reason that I chose MSU in the first place. My grandparents met here on campus in their senior year. I was raised to love MSU sports. We watch the football games together; we talk about basketball. I was really influenced to apply here because I grew up hearing amazing stories about the community at MSU and the incredible alumni network. Their influence really inspired me to get where I’m going and I just can’t thank them enough,” she ended.
The department congratulates Melissa on this well-deserved honor and thanks her for her dedication to the Spartan anthropology community. We wish her the best in Pittsburgh and beyond.