Class of 1998 alumnus credits many after receiving doctorate degree

Former public housing resident receives doctorate

By David Anderson
ENC Today

Although public housing complexes in Kinston — and the rest of America — are often perceived as places of crime, poverty and hopelessness, Jerrod Henderson had a great experience growing up there, and credited the “village and family” atmosphere as one of the many keys to his educational and professional success.

Henderson, who received his doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this month, acknowledges that same atmosphere is not present in low-income communities today, though.

“I often say, ‘Maybe I got the last village raising the child,’ so to speak,” said the 30-year-old Kinston native, who lived in the Simon Bright Apartments from age 5 to age 16.

Henderson is the son of Laura Henderson-Dove and Thomas Dove, and the brother of Andre Hill, age 25. His grandmother is the late Eunice Henderson Parker, whom he grew up with in Simon Bright.

He said he was raised by not only his immediate family, but also his extended family and neighbors, some of whom he still keeps in touch with, women like Georgia Kornegay, known to neighborhood children as “Miss Georgia.”

“She kind of raised a lot of the kids in the community,” Henderson said of her.

Henderson left Simon Bright in the late 1990s, though, when he moved to the residential facilities of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham; he graduated in 1998.

“That was probably one of my best experiences as a teenager,” he said of the school, where teachers would stay well past working hours to help students, and he was exposed to a variety of students from other cultures.

“A lot of the people that were at (the school), they’re doing a lot of great things, and I still keep in touch with them,” Henderson said.

From the School of Science and Math, Henderson went on to spend the next five years studying engineering and chemistry at Morehouse College in Atlanta and later North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

In May of 2003, he received his bachelor’s in chemical engineering from A&T and his bachelor’s in chemistry from Morehouse.

Henderson obtained a master’s in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Illinois in 2007 and his doctorate in the same subject this year.

He currently works for the University of Illinois as the education coordinator with the university’s Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS). The Center is housed on the university campus, and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

“Eventually I want to be a faculty member, the dean of the College of Engineering, possible president of a university,” he said, laughing. “So, a lot of work to do.”

The foundation for Henderson’s accomplishments was laid as a child in Kinston, though. He attended Teacher’s Memorial and J.H. Sampson Elementary Schools, plus Rochelle Middle School and Kinston High School for his first two years of high school.

He said his love for science and mathematics stretches all the way back to his elementary school days, but it took off in the sixth grade when he joined his fellow participants in Kinston’s Granville Academy at the annual Black Engineers’ Conference in Baltimore.

“It’s specifically designed to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of minorities in science and technology,” said Nathaniel Vause, president and CEO of Granville Academy.

Kinston’s Granville Academy is the North Carolina affiliate of the national Granville Academy, a mentoring program established in Trenton, N.J., in 1983 by entrepreneur and former corporate executive William “Bill” Granville, which now has affiliates throughout the country.

“The main thing is to get them at an early age and expose them to an environment where they see the best and brightest this country has to offer,” Vause continued.

Henderson is working to pass on what he has learned to local children living in low-income communities in the Urbana-Champaign area. He and his colleagues have run the Benjamin Banneker Science Program though the local Boys and Girls Club, exposing children in fourth through sixth grades to science, engineering and mathematics.

“I’ve always been bitten by the bug to give back,” he said. “I think that helps put every accomplishment in perspective.”

He also acknowledged the spiritual aspect of his success.

“I don’t take much credit for my success,” Henderson explained. “I give glory to God’s help.”

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