Melikian honored for outstanding academic work

A year ago, Gillian Melikian delivered a moving and memorable speech inside the Providence Performing Arts Center.

It was one of the highly-accomplished teenager’s best works, the Class President’s Farewell Message, on behalf of her Johnston High School 2016 graduates.

Just last week, Melikian – who did everything from earn membership to the prestigious National Honor Society to volunteer for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Rhode Island during her days on Cherry Hill – may have received her most impressive educational honor to date.

The headline on a June 16, 2017, news release read: “Gillian Melikian, Johnston resident named to Dean List at Providence College.” Just those words spoke volumes about the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Melikian of Johnston, who is a member of PC’s Class of 2020 and was named to the Dean’s List in the second semester of her freshman year at Providence College, the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars.

Madeline Parmeter, PC’s Public Affairs, Community and Government Relations officer, wrote: “To qualify for the Dean’s List students must achieve at least a 3.55 grade point average with a minimum of 12 credits.” Melikian landed on the prestigious list at Providence College just under a year after graduating JHS and she’s now part of one of the top five universities in the North according to U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”

“I love PC,” said Melikian, who lived on the school’s Smith Hill campus during her recently-completed freshmen year. “I’m looking forward to living there again for the upcoming year; I’ve learned more about myself and my goals for my future in one year of college thus far than I ever could have imagined.”

The Panther, who served as president of the JHS Homecoming Float Committee and held down a part-time job working at TJ Maxx during her undergraduate days, said, “I’ve made amazing friendships and connections that I can already tell will be long-lasting and I’m very excited to see where my undergraduate career at Providence College takes me.”

A former member of SADD (Students against Dangerous Decisions) at JHS, Melikian said she has already begun looking into research and is currently assisting in a doctor’s office at the Atwood Medical Center “in order to get a better understanding of the environment that I will work in one day.”

From her days at JHS, Melikian has had her sights focused on becoming a medical doctor.

“I love the major I’ve chosen,” she said with continued enthusiasm ringing in her voice while adding that is biology on premed track and “I look forward to staring medical school at this time three years from now.”

Needless to say, people throughout the Johnston School System must be proud of the 2016 graduate, who has gone from a prolific and popular Panther to a fantastic Friar, per the 2017 Dean’s List at Providence College.