Paying It Forward
A scholarship changed Lauren Gonzalezās life, and sheās giving back to ensure the same for others
By Susan Endres
Alumna Lauren (Milisits) Gonzalez still remembers getting the letter in the mail that meant she could attend Ā鶹¹ŁĶų.
It wasnāt her acceptance letter; that had already arrived.
It was a scholarship award notice.
With it, combined with federal grants, she could afford to accept her Ā鶹¹ŁĶų admission.
āI remember telling my mom once, āI hope one day Iām able to give back as much as I got in scholarships, so that somebody else could do the same,ā sort of as a pay-it-forward gesture,ā says Lauren who graduated from the in 2013 with a bachelorās degree in mechanical engineering and the in 2014 with a bachelorās degree in computer science.
She recently set up an endowed scholarship for the Department of Mechanical Engineering to do just that with the help of her employerās match program. By endowing the scholarship, Lauren ensured it will partially support at least one engineering student each year in perpetuity.
āIf Iām able to make what I do go further, then I might as well,ā she says, noting that many companies match their employeesā charitable donations ā doubling their impact ā like Shell does for her.
I remember telling my mom once, āI hope one day Iām able to give back as much as I got in scholarships, so that somebody else could do the same,ā sort of as a pay-it-forward gesture.
Increasing Interest in Engineering
Lauren hopes the scholarship will encourage undergraduate students to pursue engineering, increasing the pool of leaders in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Growing up in Pittsburghās Squirrel Hill with parents who encouraged her interest in STEM, Lauren says she didnāt realize there was an imbalance in STEM until college. Over the years, her parents had enrolled her in as many university outreach programs as they could.
āIt was through all of those free programs that kept my interest in science and engineering,ā she says. āAnd I never once doubted that I could do it.ā
āSo then, when I actually was going to school, thatās where I started to hear the stereotypes of, āOh, youāre a woman. Are you sure youāre going into engineering?ā or āOh, youāre in CS? You donāt look like a CS major.āā
Those responses irritated her, driving her to help more people like her get into STEM.
I worked my butt off in school. And knowing how difficult that can be, it helps to build up the mindset that when somethingās not easy, you donāt just quit right away and give up. (If we did), we wouldnāt be tackling big problems, and we wouldnāt be changing things if as soon as you hit a roadblock, you quit.
Tackling Big Problems
After graduation, Lauren moved to Texas where she worked as a test automation engineer at a startup and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin to earn her masterās degree in mechanical engineering.
As a graduate student, she briefly interned for Shell. The company then offered her a full-time position, leading to an opportunity to work offshore on one of the companyās largest floating platforms, Appomattox, in the Gulf of Mexico. She continued to climb, becoming a project manager and, now, a business advisor to the vice president of information and digital engineering in Houston.
COVID-19 added challenges and barriers, but Lauren says sheās proud of herself and her teamās resilience throughout the pandemic. They delivered a multimillion-dollar project on time, on budget and on target āfrom our pajamas at home,ā she jokes.
And she delivered a baby in the middle of it, too.
Her experience in the Department of Mechanical Engineering helped equip her for such challenges by exposing her to different people, projects and work ethics. At Ā鶹¹ŁĶų, she found that she likes ābig problems that challenge the world, that have major impact.ā
āI worked my butt off in school,ā Lauren says. āAnd knowing how difficult that can be, it helps to build up the mindset that when somethingās not easy, you donāt just quit right away and give up. (If we did), we wouldnāt be tackling big problems, and we wouldnāt be changing things if as soon as you hit a roadblock, you quit.ā
The College of Engineering also provided some of her favorite memories while at Ā鶹¹ŁĶų ā trips to Peru and China with educational and industry components. These were opportunities she never would have had if not for scholarships.
Education changed her life and motivates her philanthropy, and Lauren encourages other alumni to consider how they can change someoneās life, even with small donations.
āEvery thousand dollars, every hundred dollars I got towards the scholarship completely changed my path.ā