Melody Li
Melody Li
Melody Li is a graduate from Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. She intends to study biomedical engineering at Columbia University with the goal of developing human-centered healthcare innovations that promote equity in healthcare.
Throughout high school, Melody demonstrated a deep commitment to service, leadership, and innovation. As a board member of Mu Alpha Theta, she actively co-organized community events that not only strengthened the school community but also raised an average of $5,000 for charitable causes. Motivated by her growing passion for community service, she joined the initiative to jump-start and later become Co-Director of PSD Future Ready Peer Tutoring, a free district-wide tutoring program working to decrease the gap in educational access. The program serves 54 K-12 schools, empowering students not only in their ability as learners, but also developing their skills to lead and mentor. This experience solidified Melody’s belief in giving young people meaningful platforms to lead and contribute. Extending this commitment, she joined TEDxMountain Ave, a student- and educator-led initiative amplifying youth voice As the Lead of Sponsorship and Fundraising, Melody designed a new sponsorship package and secured the program’s first-ever corporate sponsorship, paving the way for the event to expand its reach and impact.
Melody’s interest in engineering began in her Capstone course, where she co-designed a haptic-controlled 3D-printed hand from scratch. Serving as the CAD lead, she was captivated by the creative potentials of 3D printing, so she secured an internship in the Biomaterials Research and Engineering Laboratory at Colorado State University (CSU) under Dr. David Prawel. Her work focused on 3D-printed bioresorbable bone scaffolds for regenerative medicine. She took the lead in evaluating static versus dynamic perfusion seeding methods to support in vitro cell viability studies, comparing osteoinductive biomimetic material (OBM) vs β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), in addition to optimizing key seeding parameters, including flow rate, seeding density, oscillation, and distribution. This experience deepened her awareness of barriers in healthcare access and the importance of developing innovative, alternative treatments.
Seeking to broaden her understanding of youth health, Melody has been working as a Research Coordinator in the Lab for the Assessment and Promotion of Physical Activity and Health (APPAH) at CSU, where she is involved in studies examining crash severity among youth drivers under different impairments, including alcohol, drugs, and fatigue. Using data from the University of California, Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS), her work provides critical insights into the complex factors influencing youth driving safety. This experience aligns with and further fuels her passion for designing human-centered biomedical engineering solutions to tackle real-world health challenges.
Beyond academics and research, Melody is a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, earning multiple district and state titles. She is also a dedicated artist; her piece Twisted Envy received a Silver Key in the Scholastic Art Awards and was exhibited at the Denver Art Museum. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new creative outlets and looks forward to discovering the opportunities and inspirations that New York City will offer beside her classmates.