University of Georgia Athletics
Foster Embraces Learning, Living Well
February 18, 2025 | Equestrian, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Melissa Deryn Foster is usually happy and eager to try something different. She gobbles up life experiences like M&Ms.
"If this makes no sense, I'm gonna do it," the Georgia equestrian senior said. "I absolutely love having experiences that people have not had. I think it's something that everyone should really do because I think it makes everyone unique."
To say that the well-traveled Foster is from Toronto is a little like saying that the new Nikes you ordered are from the delivery truck or the nearest distribution center. Toronto is technically "home" right now, but it's only part of Foster's long and winding journey.
Foster, whom everyone calls "Millie," speaks a bunch of languages, even teaching herself Romanian during the pandemic, just for the fun of it; she can sort of fly a plane, though she doesn't have a license; she was born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a Thai mother and British father, and her family is in the coffee business in Costa Rica, where Foster and her family moved soon after she was born.
"I've lived in a lot of places," she with a laugh while seated on one of the big, comfy sofas in the team lounge area at the Georgia Equestrian Complex in Bishop.
It was during the eight years that Foster spent in Costa Rica that she was first introduced to horses.
"One day my dad — we lived on a coffee farm — just randomly bought me a wild pony," she said. "At first it was like, all right, I'll just go walk it around the farm and do whatever."
Around the time she was nine years old, the family moved to Vancouver, Canada. It's one of the world's best cities — on the water, close to mountains and some of the best skiing in North America, and it's loaded with great food, art and culture — but it's also a long way from the hot, rural area where Foster lived in Costa Rica. And she took to it right away.
"Vancouver is one of my all-time favorite cities," she said.
Foster started taking riding lessons in Vancouver, eventually competing in local shows before moving up to bigger, more competitive shows in California and the Pacific Northwest. After about four years in Vancouver, Foster moved back to Florida: "Because I started riding on the East Coast all the time, it was really hard to be able to do that travel while living in Vancouver," she said.
Eventually, about six years ago, they moved to Toronto. It's "home base," Foster said, even if she doesn't have deep roots there.
"I finished my last couple of years of high school there, and it's where my mom is now, so I consider it home," she said. "Usually I say that Canada is just my home. I feel at home whenever I'm there."
Three languages were everyday parts of Foster's life from the beginning: English and Thai from her parents and Spanish. In Costa Rica, Foster went to a Spanish-speaking preschool and kindergarten before starting elementary school. Once she got to Vancouver, she started learning French, which is one of the official languages in Canada (along with English).
As if those four languages weren't enough, Foster has also learned Mandarin Chinese; Vancouver has a significant Asian population and the largest Chinatown in Canada. During the pandemic, when Foster was home with little to do, she decided to teach herself Romanian.
"I taught myself a decent amount of Romanian during COVID, just because I was bored, really," she said. "It's actually very close to the other Romance languages of Spanish and French, which makes it quite easy to learn. ... I think I know enough that if you were to just throw me into Romania, I could live and sort myself out with the knowledge that I have."
Growing up in Costa Rica, the family coffee farm wasn't near the beach or any tourist hotspots. It was in the foothills of what was for a time during her early years an active volcano. "The soil is very rich there," she said,
Foster knows good coffee, but she said she's not an expert: "I am definitely a little picky with my coffee," Foster said her mom, Wanida, usually deals with the details of the coffee business, while she just enjoys drinking it.
While you don't need a license to learn a language, you do need one to fly a plane. Foster doesn't have a license, but she said she's spent plenty of time with her half-brother, a pilot in Texas, with her hands on the controls.
"He runs his own flight school out of his hanger, so when I was young and I went to stay with him or go visit him, he taught me how to fly a plane. People always think it's like a big commercial jet, but it's just a little Cessna. I was maybe 10 or 11 when I first learned how to start doing everything.
"I always joke that I learned how to fly a plane before I could drive a car."
Foster said she might like to one day actually get her license, until then, she's ready if she's ever on a flight that needs an emergency pilot.
"I have thought about that a lot," she said with a laugh. "Would I be prepared to do that? The answer is usually yes."
That's her answer for a lot of things, including if she knows what she wants to do after she graduates. She wants to get her master's degree in Kinesiology. She's a Health and Physical Education major now, which means over the past two years she's gone out to local schools and student-taught some P.E. classes.
"Going into my major, I had no idea that I would enjoy teaching my P.E. classes as much as I do," she said. "The kids are so happy to come into the gym every day and just be able to run around and play different games. ... There are a lot of life lessons that I've taken away from it, like if I want something to happen, I need to do it now. Also, organizational skills are a huge thing."
To do all that Foster has done, you have to be smart, clever, organized and adaptable. She's all of those things and more.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
