“At each phase of my education and employment, I had people who were willing to devote their time, effort, and resources to further my development. I would like to offer others the same benefits of strong mentoring and through my talent and experience, in the hope that they will offer their abilities to the next generation and the cycle continues. It is my commitment to ‘Pay It Forward’.”
Lolita, at right, with colleagues.
Lolita Tillery-Grant sees volunteering in STEM education as a way to “pay it forward” to the next generation. Grant knows how essential mentors are to a student’s success since she herself can point to key individuals whose time and effort contributed to her career as a scientist. As a Senior Environmental Specialist for the Dow Chemical Company, Grant gets to merge her love for science and passion for STEM education. While she problem-solves with her team during a workday, Grant also serves as a volunteer and mentor in Dow’s STEM Ambassador Program.
“Some of my happiest volunteer hours were from performing STEM type activities with younger kids,” Grant recounts. “It is phenomenal to see the eagerness and inquisitiveness in kids’ eyes, and to witness that moment when they are able to put the pieces together and have an “Aha” moment when the lights just turn on in their mind.”
Grant’s dedication to mentorship has earned her recognition as a You Be The Chemist Community Champion. In addition to her work with Dow’s STEM Ambassador Program, she also volunteers with the St. Charles Parish Public School system, mentors several Dow employees, and has a long history of involvement with the Louisiana Engineering Appreciation Program (LEAP).
A LEAP event jump-started Grant’s own career after she attended because of her interest in science. Seeing the “fun” side of chemistry changed her career trajectory from pursuing a nursing degree to searching for a job in which she could “figure out ways to use science to make the world better.” Having spent her career in the sciences, she has learned that having a basic understanding of chemistry helps us understand why things are the way they are and what can be changed. She asserts that “we cannot make the world better until we understand why things occur in the first place.”
Seeing her own students succeed has been the most rewarding part of volunteering for Grant. In a university-level class Grant saw a LEAP student participating as the class aid, an experience she said “reinforced her commitment to expose the world of science and chemistry as a venue to change the lives of younger people and open potential career goals to them.” In moments like these, Grant can see that she really has “paid it forward.”
