Making People Feel Welcome and Accepted

Originally hailing from Guelph, Ontario, Melodie Flook (BA 1984)was part of the Grebel community from 1979 to 1983 while she attended the University of Waterloo and studied Honours Arts. Her friend, Susan Lee (BASC 1982) who had previously lived at Grebel, recommended the College to Melodie because “the food was great!” (At least that’s what Melodie remembers.) Currently, Melodie lives in Vancouver, BC and completed a Master in Education degree at Simon Fraser University this summer. She now teaches adult ESL, spending her extra time playing soccer for fun and working with refugee women on a peace quilt project. She is contributing and making a difference in the lives of many. 

Thinking back to her favourite memories of Grebel, Melodie mentioned her roommates first. “My first roommate was Judy Tiessen (BA 1982). We never understood how we got put together because she was so sweet and innocent and quiet and I was … well, let’s say, the exact opposite of that. Our room was always getting trashed by fellow pranksters and Judy didn’t deserve it. Yet, she was a good sport and it was good for a non-Mennonite like me to be with a Mennonite. I learned a lot.” Melodie still keeps in touch with her old roommates: Judy, Rosalee Bender (BA 1984), and Sandra Lovesey (BSC 1986).

Pranks were a big part of Melodie’s experience during the three years she lived at Grebel. “I did many naughty things like pennying people into their rooms, throwing people into the shower on their birthdays, and stealing Louise Wideman’s (BA 1985) pink housecoat to hang in the trees outside the windows,” she recalled. “One of my favorite tricks on the guys was to flip the fuse that cut the power on the TV. This was particularly aggravating for them when they were watching the hockey finals. The screen went dark and they’d coming pouring out of the lounge, yelling … Melodie! I had to run like crazy for safety.” 

Melodie loved it when students from on and off campus gathered at Community Suppers, and she enjoyed watching the faculty and staff’s children run around. During that hour-long meal, the sense of community soaked into her. “This was the more serious side of Grebel, but worthwhile!” The biggest impact on her at the time was “an overwhelming sense that I had finally found community—something I never experienced in quite the same way. It was wonderful and so good for me. I remember thinking … wow … this is amazing. I felt a part of a family where I had brothers and sisters and where I felt accepted.”

The sense of belonging and being cared for at Grebel has stayed with Melodie and has affected how she works with students today. “Living at Grebel taught me how to treat others, how to be hospitable, and about the importance of making people feel welcome, even if they are different from me and others. It acts as a model for me. How can I now create a similar experience for others?”

While at Grebel, Melodie also experienced how other students thought and lived. She remembers being exposed to people from different countries, with various religious and political ideas. “Grebel felt inclusive. At night, people would sit around in rez rooms drinking tea, discussing politics, religion, peace, and the environment,” she recalls. “Unconsciously, I was being formed and influenced by seeing my peers care about world issues. Seeds were planted then that have been sprouting for years since.”

Since Grebel residents are encouraged to enroll in a few Grebel courses, Melodie ended up taking classes with Peace and Conflict Studies Professor Conrad Brunk. “At the time, I didn’t take the class seriously, but now I understand its value. Ideas of peace and justice are on my radar now in ways they might not have been otherwise. Perhaps it is because of this course, in part, that I recently completed a Master in Arts for Social Change. And maybe it is because of the seeds planted at Grebel that I’m deeply invested in a peace-themed quilt project with refugee women learning English in Vancouver—who knows. So keep encouraging students to take Grebel courses—it is important.” 

Looking back, Melodie concluded that it was worth going to university just to live at Grebel! In a parting comment, she suggested that the College continue to “keep things fun! That’s what drew me in—I might not have come otherwise. And keep admitting students who want to come just because Grebel ‘looks’ fun, for in and amongst all of the fun, lives are being changed and influenced in significant ways.”