Creating connections opens doors to collaboration and community.
Both Lance Collins and Scott & Karen Love believe philanthropy creates opportunity — and their support of the Minority Affairs Community (MAC) established two complementary awards: the Collins Scholar, recognizing the top MAC Scholar each year, and the MAC Early Career Scholar Award, honoring the highest-ranked graduating senior in chemical engineering.
It’s important to have more chemical engineers — and a wider perspective — participating in the profession. The profession needs to be diverse and inclusive to get the best solutions.- Scott Love
Recently, the AIChE Foundation had the opportunity to bring these connections to life, sitting down with Lance and Victoria Sagne and with Scott and Tamari Stockdale.
The Collins Scholar
Victoria Sagne is a third-year chemical engineering student at North Carolina State University and already has more than one accolade to her name. Her interests converge at the intersection of food, pharma, and biomanufacturing, and she sought advice from Lance about research, leadership, and how to chart her path forward. From presenting research at an AIChE Student Conference to planting a community garden through NCSU’s AIChE Student Chapter, to interning at AstraZeneca, Victoria is already a researcher, already a leader, and showing she is a burgeoning philanthropist.
Victoria’s recognition comes through the Collins Scholar designation, awarded annually to the most exceptional student among the MAC Scholars. Established through the Lance R. Collins Scholars Fund within the Henry T. & Melinda C. Brown Endowment, the award provides leadership development, conference participation, and mentoring connections that help students grow academically and professionally while building a sense of belonging within AIChE.
MAC Early Career Scholar
Supporting students at the next stage of their journey, Scott and Karen Love created the MAC Early Career Scholar award to complement the MAC Scholars program by providing additional support to a graduating scholar transitioning into professional life — offering not only recognition, but mentorship and lasting professional connections. This year’s inaugural honoree is Tamari Stockdale, a chemical engineering senior at Prairie View A&M University. The Foundation recently hosted a virtual meet-and-greet bringing Tamari together with the Loves to begin building those relationships.
During the conversation, Tamari shared that her interest in the food industry is closely tied to service. “I used to volunteer with food pantries in my community,” she said. “Being able to help from a professional standpoint is really meaningful to me — helping people not go hungry at night has been my main driver for wanting to work in the food industry.”
For Scott Love, Tamari’s perspective reflects exactly why he and Karen created the award. “It’s important to have more chemical engineers — and a wider perspective — participating in the profession,” he explained. “The profession needs to be diverse and inclusive to get the best solutions.” Together, the Collins and Love initiatives create a continuum of support — from student leadership and development to the transition into a professional career within AIChE and the broader chemical engineering community.
Support for the Henry T. & Melinda C. Brown Endowment helps expand opportunities for underrepresented students and young professionals, strengthens mentoring connections, and ensures that talented individuals can find a pathway into the profession. Through giving, donors are not only recognizing achievement — they are helping launch the next generation of chemical engineers who will go on to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
