When Johnathon Melamed ’25 crossed the stage and received his diploma at Southwestern University’s Commencement Convocation Ceremony on May 10, it marked the completion of his undergraduate journey – one where he quietly made a profound impact on the University’s military community, all while balancing his roles as a student, husband, father, philanthropist, and small business owner.

After graduating high school and initially beginning his undergraduate studies, Melamed was called to enlist in the United States Army. He became skilled as a sniper, ultimately rising to the rank of Sergeant in the 1st Ranger Battalion, one of the Army’s elite special operations units. Melamed saw three deployments during the Global War on Terrorism, one to Afghanistan and two to Iraq.

Upon completion of his service to our country, Melamed and his wife moved to Georgetown to start a family. Two sons later, he turned his focus toward returning to school to achieve his bachelor’s degree.

(Photo courtesy Johnathon Melamed)Melamed’s service in the Army qualified him to receive funding for higher education through the Post-9/11 GI Bill®, legislation that assists those who served on active duty after September 10, 2001 with earning their college degree. As a resident of Georgetown, Southwestern gave Melamed the opportunity to pursue a liberal arts education while remaining close to home and his family.

“I came to Southwestern because I had a GI Bill® l that I earned and paid for, and because of that, I thought I might as well use it and take the opportunity,” Melamed said. “When I was in high school, my mom went and got her college degree. She was the first college graduate in my family. What kind of example would I set for my kids if I didn’t go to school?”

During his time at Southwestern, Melamed embraced the opportunity to use the GI Bill® to earn his business degree. Despite some courses where he was closer in age to his professors than his classmates, Melamed was able to connect and build bonds with his fellow students.

“I think a lot of veterans, to put it in simple terms, don’t think they can relate to a younger student body, or that they can’t learn things because they’re more mature, but I found the complete opposite,” Melamed said. “I learned from our student body every day. I learned in every class. For me, it’s really just being willing to understand that you do have an opportunity to learn and that you can really feed off people.”

Melamed excelled in his studies, earning his Bachelor of Arts in Business in just three years. Associate Professor of Business Andy Ross not only taught Melamed in the classroom, but also served as his academic advisor.

“He was really engaged in class, and the questions he asked invariably sparked really good discussions, because he was thinking deeply about what we were talking about,” Ross said. “He was there, in the moment, in the classroom, and in the discussion. As a student, he was fully involved in the space that he was in. That is the number one driver of success for any student. Be where your feet are, be engaged in the room that you’re in, and you’ll have great experiences.”

Associate Registrar and VA School Certifying Official Nadia Mahannah provides crucial support to the approximately two dozen student veterans at SU. In addition to assisting students navigate their undergraduate journeys, Mahannah also plans social events and helps to build community among Southwestern’s student veteran population.

(Photo courtesy Johnathon Melamed)“The way I would describe it, when you get out of the military, you have groups like the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) where you can hang out,” Mahannah said. “We needed something along those lines where veterans could meet one another, so we started having fellowship events.”

Although Southwestern University partners with the Veterans Administration (VA) to support veterans and their dependents who attend SU as full-time students, the University only receives minimal funding from the VA for administrative fees. Support for student veteran programming is largely driven by philanthropy.

“It’s the funding that makes it possible for veterans to actually choose an experience like Southwestern, instead of just settling for the least expensive institution,” Mahannah said. “Johnathon not only appreciated this liberal arts experience, but he really enjoyed it. He didn’t just check the boxes. He actually embraced his experiences and got the most out of it.”

As a regular at many of her events, Melamed saw first-hand the work that Mahannah put in, inspiring him to make a $5,000 donation to support her efforts to build community among veterans at Southwestern. With the funding, Mahannah is able to plan more fellowship events in future years, and provide cords and stoles for graduating veterans.

Melamed’s donation also allowed Mahannah to open a gift account and participate in Southwestern Giving Day, leading to even more donations. Now with a way to fundraise, Melamed’s initial gift will benefit student veterans at SU for years to come.

“Johnathon is just one of those people that brings community together,” Ross said. “I’ve worked with other veterans before in previous years, and one thing that always comes up is this feeling of being isolated, being different, being a different age, having a different experience, and struggling to find their place here. I don’t hear that at all right now. My other veterans that I work with are all happier here than I’ve ever seen, and feeling better connected than I’ve ever seen. It’s Nadia’s efforts, but I think Johnathon is also a huge part of that.”

(Photo courtesy Johnathon Melamed)On top of being a full-time student, husband, and father of two, Melamed is also a small business owner and a pillar in his community. In 2019, Melamed founded Americans United, Inc., a printing company that provides custom apparel, laser-engraving, dye sublimation, embroidery, and a variety of other in-house fulfillment services. Americans United fulfills orders for businesses, groups, and individuals across the country, averaging over $5 million a year in total sales.

Melamed currently employs 22 staff members at Americans United, many of whom are disabled veterans stationed at Fort Cavazos. After launching his business closer to Austin, Melamed moved his operations to Killeen so that his employees could work close to home.

“We’re a chill place that likes to have a lot of flexibility in the workplace,” he said. “We don’t have set work hours. We have mental health days and great benefits. We have an incredible retention rate because of how we treat each other. It’s really a great time. I love it.”

Living in Georgetown and working in Killeen, Melamed began to notice how under-developed the area around his business was. He started buying real estate in Historic Downtown Killeen and working with the City of Killeen to prepare neighboring sites for lease in an effort to revitalize the area.

“My employees all live in Killeen and the surrounding areas, and there’s sometimes nothing for them to do,” he said. “We have a beautiful downtown area here in Georgetown and I would love to see that mimicked up there. I saw an opportunity to give people in the city of Killeen a place to enjoy.”

(Photo courtesy City of Killeen)Melamed’s efforts led to the Killeen City Council honoring him with their prestigious Star Award, presented to outstanding members of the community for their efforts to better the city.

“Mr. Melamed has become a driving force behind the revitalization for Killeen’s historic downtown area,” City of Killeen Mayor Pro-Tem Jessica Gonzalez said. “Through his strategic investments, renovations, and preparations of spaces for lease, he hopes to create a vibrant and thriving center for our community as a whole. His efforts are not just about economic growth but also inspiring others to believe in Killeen’s potential and join in creating a brighter future for our city.”

Melamed is no stranger to service that benefits others. In 2014, he founded SPIN, the Suicide Prevention and Interdiction Network, a nationwide group of over 8,000 volunteers dedicated to providing immediate assistance to veterans contemplating suicide. With about 22 veterans committing suicide in the United States every day, SPIN utilized a nationwide database where volunteers would be geographically paired with veterans in distress.

“If somebody was in need, we would get local police involved, and pair them with a veteran advocate on the ground. It was a really good way to try and prevent veteran suicide,” Melamed said. “I love supporting veterans and I love helping them. But what I’ve learned by coming to Southwestern is that there is so much more to support. I think we should try to support everybody. We should be willing to help bring people up. We should be willing to be supportive. If you can’t do that, are you really benefiting the world?”

“Johnathon is one of those people who is at the center of the network. He’s the person that connects other people together, and that was very apparent right away. He’s so authentic in his desire to help other people.” — Associate Professor of Business Andy Ross

Melamed’s support of his fellow Southwestern students extended beyond just the student veteran community. During one of his courses with Assistant Professor of Instruction in Kinesiology Vanessa Mikan, Melamed learned about Southwestern’s Pirate Pantry. Under Mikan’s leadership, the Pirate Pantry was created to assist currently-enrolled Southwestern students facing food insecurity on campus.

Motivated by Mikan’s passion for supporting her students, Melamed quietly donated $3,000 to help keep the Pirate Pantry stocked for years to come. The Pirate Pantry welcomes both monetary donations and physical donations of non-perishable food items.

Melamed will be attending Rice University this fall to pursue his Master’s in Accounting through the MAcc Program, a partnership between Southwestern and Rice that provides assistance to SU students interested in graduate school. As the first member of his family to pursue a graduate degree, he plans to use his education to further improve his business and enhance the services that he is able to provide.

(Photo courtesy Johnathon Melamed)“I would encourage everybody to go to school if they have the means to,” Melamed said. “That’s something that I didn’t always believe in, but when I came to Southwestern, it changed my perspective a lot. It made me realize that there was a ton of value in coming back to school. I learned so much, and got different perspectives that I would have never experienced otherwise.”

Although his undergraduate experience at Southwestern has come to an end, Melamed has left a lasting impact on the University’s student veteran population and has emerged as an inspiration to other veterans considering Southwestern for their undergraduate journey.

“Especially for people who might be looking at Southwestern and unsure of what their place here looks like, to see someone who’s fully embraced this, and still maintained his business, his life, and his family, I think it shows other veterans that this is a good choice for them,” Ross said. “They can look at him and see how Southwestern is going to shape the future that they want to create for themselves.”

GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at benefits.va.gov/gibill.