NEW ORLEANS – About 10 years ago, a middle school student, Aaron Marshall, walked into a basketball gym about 45 minutes from his hometown of Hammond, La., and saw rows of booths with hands-on activities, from 3-D printing to robotics.
Aaron’s parents, Mia Marshall, a high school art teacher, and Lemar Marshall, who managed a medical practice at the time, wanted to introduce their son to the wonders of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, and Mia brought him to the event, with the encouragement of Lemar.
Local nonprofit STEM NOLA was hosting the day to introduce science experiments directly to children. Aaron wasn’t interested in engineering but his father was his role model and he trusted his suggestion to go to the event.
Inside, Aaron met the group’s founder briefly but then slipped away. He was more interested in playing basketball. He was also nervous and afraid of trying a new activity.
He picked up a basketball and started shooting hoops in one corner of the gym, hoping nobody would notice him.
But Dr. Calvin Mackie, founder of STEM NOLA had noticed him. He walked over and chatted with Aaron.
“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Dr. Mackie, do you play ball?”
Aaron answered, “Yes, sir.”
Dr. Mackie told him about he had been a star basketball player but got injured his senior year of high school, ending his career. He didn’t have a Plan B, he told Aaron, so he crafted a new path for himself, taking remedial courses to catch up on his academics and graduating magna cum laude in earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Morehouse College. He also earned a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.
As they talked, Dr. Mackie slowly walked Aaron through the booths set up in the gym with the wonders of science. Aaron’s father appreciated Dr. Mackie taking the time to draw his son out.
“Calvin was relatable,” Lemar recalls. “At that point, I don’t think Aaron was destined to do engineering. Calvin planted a seed and gave Aaron confidence that engineering could be an option.”
Indeed, it wasn’t an overnight recruitment.
Aaron was growing up in a small town of about 25,000 people, with an older brother, Ellis, and a limited vision of what he might accomplish in life. The town had an even racial split with about 48% Black residents, 48% white residents, 2% Asian residents and the rest two or more races. Everyone knew each other, with friends at every turn.
“There were things that were happening that were bad, and there were also things that were happening that were good,” Aaron recalls.
Meanwhile, Aaron’s father kept taking him to Dr. Mackie’s STEM programs. One time, Dr. Mackie told him his strategy, and it made sense: “We need to get STEM activities in the hands of kids in their environment – in their community. It’s not enough to bring events on university campuses. With STEM NOLA, connecting kids to STEM has become the focus in our local community. We need a STEM NOLA in every community for all Black and Brown kids.”
For high school, Aaron headed to Hammond High Magnet School, a part of the Tangipahoa Parish School System, which has the only K-12 International Baccalaureate program in the state of Louisiana. (There are other Louisiana IB high school programs, but this is the only parish that offers a system wide IB program at each level in the grades K-12).
There, Aaron recalls, “Lo and behold, I returned to STEM.”
“A lot of my intuition as a kid was around sports,” he says, feeling that he had skipped out on developing a sixth sense about STEM and academics. “Then I realized that doesn’t mean I can’t do things other than sports. I thought about Dr. Mackie and realized that I knew someone who’s been through the same types of choices, and I realize that I can do both things.”
Having Dr. Mackie as a guide, he says, “It helped me bridge the gap I felt with students who had been doing STEM since day one.
As a junior, Aaron decided to join the IB program, pushing himself academically. He only had one elective and didn’t have room for PE – the class period when the basketball team practiced. He had to decide between IB and basketball.
That’s when he had an epiphany, he recalls. “I realized that my desire to be an engineer was growing larger than my desire to play basketball,” he says.
He got motivation in a quote from basketball star LeBron James: “Just keeping the main thing the main thing. And that’s how I take care of my body, how I take care of my game, how I can take care of my mind.”
“Regardless of what I was gonna do,” Aaron recalls, “that’s how I was gonna approach it. Just making sure you keep your main thing your main thing and not letting anything distract you from what you wanna do.”
He was finally ready to channel his energy and talents toward STEM.
He recalled his first conversation with Dr. Mackie. “I saw parallels between Dr. Mackie’s high school injury and my urgent decision. At first, it was hard; so much of my identity encompassed playing basketball at a higher level. However, over time, I channeled more energy on my academics and our school’s robotics team.”
Senior year, he had a conversation with a math teacher, Ms. Herrera, who told him, “Well, if you like math, and you also like engineering and designing things, then you should do mechanical engineering.”
“Lo and behold,” he says, laughing, “Dr. Mackie was a mechanical engineer.”
Dr. Mackie’s mentorship inspired him to start a non-profit STEM awareness program called S.P.A.R.K., for Student Preparation for Application Research and Knowledge, where he mentored and tutored younger students.
In high school, Aaron wrote an essay that won an award, chronicling his journey into STEM. “Inspiration is defined as the power of impacting one’s intellect or emotions,” he wrote. “Dr. Calvin Mackie has been more than a mere inspiration in my life; he has influenced my academic development and career goals. Dr. Calvin Mackie is an award-winning scientist, inventor, speaker, educator, author and entrepreneur from Louisiana. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he has also worked at a Fortune 500 company, taught at the university level, patented inventions, written several books, and started a non-profit STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) organization called STEM NOLA.”
Graduating in the Class of 2020, Aaron got an invitation to study at Louisiana State University in its prestigious Louisiana Service and Leadership Scholars program, offering select Ogden Honors College students a way to solve chronic social and environmental challenges facing Louisiana. During his freshman and sophomore years, he learned about the state’s poverty and deteriorating coastal wetlands and their historical and cultural foundations.
His sophomore year in college, Aaron homed in on heat transfer and fluid flow as his specialties, working on micro heat pipes.
“Lo and behold,” he says again, echoing the mantra on his life, “Dr. Mackie had a master’s degree in heat transfer.”
“I’ve had somebody who understands what needs to be done to realize my goals,” he says, adding, “somebody who is the same color as me and understands what needs to be done. He’s someone I can relate to.”
His freshman year, he earned Dean’s List honors both semesters with a 3.94 GPA. He also worked as a research assistant for a professor, Harris Wong, studying mathematical modeling and optimization. Over the summer, he interned with NASA at the Stenis Facility in Mississippi.
The hard work paid off. In early August 2021, Aaron was named one of 10 recipients of the 2021 Jesse Jackson Fellows – Toyota Scholarship, awarding him $25,000 annually for his three remaining undergraduate years. As part of the scholarship, he would be assigned two internships at a Toyota facility.
Sean Suggs, Group Vice President of Social Innovation at Toyota America, announced the fellows at a Rainbow Push event, saying, “Our goal is to provide limitless possibilities for all. Through this process, we have selected a group of dynamite students. Education is the engine for opportunity to level the playing field and we are excited for all the students we selected for this process.”
Aaron’s perseverance lifted the financial burden his parents faced paying tuition. Aaron was also a member of the National Society of Black Engineers. He was going to make it.
“All he has to do is follow the path that’s been laid out for him,” his father said, in an article in the local Hammond Journal about the Toyota Scholarship award. “It’s a divine plan. Aaron has a huge opportunity to have a successful college and professional career.”
Lo and behold, his father said, “It’s about trajectory…students will rise to high expectations.”
His mother told the paper, “He’s a product of our village. So many people have sown into his future and we’re already seeing the harvest.”
Aaron’s father says, “I’m extremely proud of Aaron. He’s been very focused. He enjoys college life while keeping the main thing the main thing. Building an intellectual circle that includes people like Dr. Mackie continues to serve him well.”
To help encourage Aaron in pursuing excellence in his “main thing,” his parents had an intentional strategy to be engaged in his life. “As parents, we’ve been role models,” his father says, “and that has been great for Aaron. We support and challenge Aaron. We help to guide his decisions and we’ve built a trusting relationship with him. We continue to remind him that ultimately, he’s responsible for his decisions. So far, he has made some pretty good decisions.”
Aaron recalls with gratitude his parents’ support and the impact of his first meeting with Dr. Mackie. “He explained how he had no alternate path to success and how it took him years to understand how impactful STEM would be in his life,” he says. “The story of his rise from taking remedial courses to graduating Magna Cum Laude and earning his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology resonates with me. Previously, I underestimated how much of an impact that conversation would have on my future.”
In early November, as part of his Toyota scholarship, Aaron heads to Las Vegas for the SEMA Show 2022, a car show featuring new designs.
It’ll be a long way metaphorically from the New Orleans gym he walked into as a middle schooler, but he has found his “main thing,” through a special alchemy of mentorship, personal motivation and family support – lo and behold.