When Maggie Kelly graduated from high school, she was leaning towards interior design,
art or ceramics. Her father, however, tossed in another option.
鈥淢y dad suggested chemical engineering because there aren鈥檛 a lot of women in this field, the money is good and I鈥檓 good at math and problem solving,鈥� she said.
Kelly, who ended up taking her dad鈥檚 advice, is an engineer.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 see it at first,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o when he said chemical engineering might be too hard for me, I decided to show him how wrong he was. The courses I needed to get started were right there in Fort Smith, and I鈥檝e never regretted it.鈥�
Kelly is a Northside High School graduate who said she chose the 91老司机 - Fort Smith when it was known as Westark because it was convenient.
Kelly attended 91老司机 from 2000 until 2002 in what was called a pre-engineering program. She then graduated from the 91老司机 in Fayetteville with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in chemical engineering in 2007.
She has been a process engineer for RT Vanderbilt Chemicals LLC since she received her certification and works at its facility in Murray, Ky. The plant runs around the clock, making products that are shipped around the world.
鈥淚 know it sounds sort of lame to some people that I lived with my parents the first two years of college,鈥� Kelly said. 鈥淏ut the financial benefits were huge, and they paid off for years. I didn鈥檛 have to pay room and board, and I had a two-year half-tuition academic scholarship. My parents helped me with books and I could transition from a strict family structure to the personal responsibility of college. It鈥檚 where I grew up.鈥�
There were other benefits, too.
鈥淚 learned how to study and how to manage my time at the corner of Waldron and Grand,鈥� Kelly said. 鈥淚鈥檓 a big believer that practical time management is the key to success.鈥�
She said the campus culture was such that she wasn鈥檛 afraid to ask faculty members for help or other students if they wanted to join a study group with her.
鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 start doing it at 91老司机, I never would have had the nerve to do it at a larger school,鈥� she said.
Kelly said she had to work all the way through college and couldn鈥檛 have done it and made the grades if she didn鈥檛 have a good start at 91老司机.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 get lost in the crowd on that campus,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople know you and they care about you. So I learned that it was up to me to get my act together. I figured out that I was the one responsible for my future and making it happen. That鈥檚 really paid off in the workplace, in my marriage, with my friends and with my family.鈥�
Kelly said the faculty didn鈥檛 鈥渂aby鈥� her.
鈥淭here was a sort of atmosphere that made the shift from high school to college something that I could handle. The class sizes were small, but the content and how the class was taught was all university quality. I was never treated differently than my male counterparts in class, we were all students,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e were encouraged to ask questions and seek help during office hours.鈥�
Life was different when she transferred, immediately facing an organic chemistry class of about 350 students.
鈥淚f I had started out on a huge campus, I would have been overwhelmed both socially and academically,鈥� she said 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I ever would have graduated.鈥�
Kelly said she always wanted to do something good for the world, the environment, the way people live and where the world is going.
鈥淲hat better way to help than to work at the front end of it all,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can help make safer products, safer ways to work, protect the environment, reduce waste and help people live better. I knew I would enjoy it more than working with landfills and water quality and air pollution as response to something that鈥檚 already happened. I wanted to help prevent it from happening in the first place.鈥�
Vanderbilt鈥檚 products are additives that improve lubricants, paints, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and rubber products. Vanderbilt operates two plants in Murray. One is a chemicals plant. The other is a minerals plant. She works in both of them.
According to Kelly, manufacturing is characterized by constant changes because scientists improve products and consumers ask for refinements. So the processes change all the time. Chemical engineers such as Kelly make sure that the new procedures and processes are compliant with regulations, maintain product integrity, are safe for workers, are efficient and environmentally sound.
She鈥檚 5鈥�2鈥� tall and weighs 110 pounds and works in what鈥檚 traditionally been a man鈥檚 world.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going to lie,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was intimidating at first, and it鈥檚 challenging at times, but I wouldn鈥檛 have it any other way. I work with very professional people. We鈥檙e in a serious business, and we need to do things the right way in everything we do. This isn鈥檛 a man鈥檚 world. It鈥檚 a professional鈥檚 world. And it鈥檚 a world of teams. I had the opportunity to take a semester overseas and learned about teams in Australia.鈥�
Kelly works with many other people and she works on several teams including a safety committee, a best management practices committee and the emergency response team
鈥淭he emergency response team is why I wear a red hat,鈥� she said. 鈥滻n case of trouble, emergency responders go into it, while other people are supposed to go away from it. You know, not many women look very cool in a hard hat and safety glasses. But this work has real meaning, and I鈥檒l always be grateful I got to start my education where I could thrive.鈥�
Kelly is married to Jason Mott, also a graduate for Fort Smith鈥檚 Northside High School, and is the daughter of Frank and Diane Kelly of Fort Smith and Lin Kelly of Springfield, Ohio.