REACHING OUT TO HELP: STUDENT PREPARES FOR CAREER HELPING OTHERS

Ila Niswonger, David Grant and Melanie Rudolph are the 1996 winners of the Area Wide United Way/Ameritech Volunteer Awards, recoginzed for their service to the community

Melanie Rudolph isn't sure what direction life will lead her, but she knows wherever she goes she will be helping others.

Rudolph, soon to be a senior at Southeast Missouri State University, spends hours every week volunteering to help make others healthier.

She is studying health management and health promotion and is president of the SEMO Student Chapter of the Association for Worksite Health Promotion.

Rudolph, a full-time student, also works two jobs.

"I've always been a busy person. People always ask me if I know how to relax," Rudolph laughed. "I guess I relax in a different way. I like the reward and satisfaction of working hard and seeing a job well done."

"I always seem to be involved in some project," she said. Health management and health promotion, she thinks, will offer the perfect career choices. "Good health affects everyone's life," she said. "And I try to help as many people as I can."

Rudolph has started a new program -- Mission 2000, a tobacco-control team -- with the American Cancer Society. She and others on the committee will be surveying local businesses to determine which have smoke-free environments. Then they will develop a plan to encourage others to join the clean-air team.

Rudolph is also a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. The sorority, along with Americorps and First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau, worked together to clean up the Cape Civic Center.

The "Make a Difference Day" project coordinated by Rudolph was a local winner in a national contest sponsored by USA Weekend and the Southeast Missourian.

"I have two brothers, and I'm not able to do things for them, so I try to do things for other people," she explained. "Maybe if I help someone, someone else will do something to help them.

"I don't know exactly where I'm supposed to be -- working with adolescents, adults, babies -- I just don't know yet," she said. "But I'll be ready when I figure it out."