Up close with Kavelle Hylton

KAVELLE Hylton agrees with the Leo Tolstoy quote from War and Peace that says, “Chance created the situation; genius made use of it”, especially because she can see how it relates to her own journey. It was purely by chance that she became a science teacher, but she has used her genius to translate that chance into an avenue for her to become an entrepreneur in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“Sometimes you think that you are not on the path that you’re supposed to take, and then you end up finding your true purpose,” she mused as she spoke with All Woman. “I thought I wanted to become a pathologist.”

Hylton shared that she had always been interested in the sciences, and she could remember being curious about nature since she was a child.

“Being the youngest of all my siblings, I was in charge of cleaning up the garden and I was always curious about how the plants would just bloom, and things like that. I was very curious about nature, and I was always trying to discover things,” she recalled fondly. “But of course as you get older and you tell people that you like science, they will say that you’re going to become a doctor, so my plan was to get into medical school.”

Hylton sat common entrance at 10 years old and graduated from Jones Town Primary to attend Trench Town Comprehensive High School, where she not only became the head girl, but she aced all eight of her subjects and secured a spot in sixth form at Wolmer’s Girls’ School.

But because her previous school was understaffed, Hylton did not have the foundation chemistry subject that was required to do all sciences in her A’ level exams, so she did biology, along with general studies, and applied for the faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at The University of the West Indies (UWI).

“That would have been the next route to get into medicine,” she explained. “But along the way, I ended up on a different career path.”

By the time she graduated from the university in 2010, not only was Hylton a mother, but she was also a fully trained teacher.

“I didn’t do so well in calculus in my first semester, but instead of sitting out for the next semester and waiting to resit, I researched and found that I could do some education courses in the interim. That actually worked well, because there was the programme called biology with education.”

Hylton landed a job at the Convent of Mercy Academy “Alpha”, where she discovered that she loved teaching the sciences.

“There is just something about being in front of a classroom and being able to impart knowledge, and to see their growth. There is nothing like it, really. It’s definitely my passion,” she said.

For seven years she would impact the lives of hundreds of girls each year by helping them to navigate and understand the sciences, and watch them fall in love with nature like she had as a little girl. Then in 2017 Hylton saw an ad for a vacancy at the Scientific Research Council (SRC), and decided to apply.

“What attracted me to the position was that I could impact even more students and more schools by the different programmes that I create,” she shared. “I got a job there as a technical information officer, and I am now the coordinator for science and technology education.”

Along with leading the development and implementation of STEM educational programmes, such as the National Science Fair, Conversations in Science Series, and essay, debate and performing arts competitions for the SRC, Hylton has also explored entrepreneurship within her field of expertise.

“I’ve also been an entrepreneur,” she said. “Even while I was teaching at Alpha, I would tutor part time, and I would also offer writing and editing services while I was at UWI to make a little extra money, so I had the idea to create a tutoring platform to allow other teachers to offer their services.”

But when she tried to launch that virtual space in 2013, Hylton was discouraged by the developers, on the premise that she would not be able to retain her clients once they paired with customers on the platform.

“But in late 2019 I got an opportunity to pitch a business idea to the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), and I took that idea, and my experience working with the SRC and as a teacher to create the STEM Builders Learning Hub.”

Hylton emerged as one of the top entrepreneurs from the AWE, and went on to win another pitch competition for social enterprises by the Jamaica Business Development Corporation, and managed to raise enough funds to launch the hub in the summer.

“With the pandemic I got both sides of the coin, because on one hand you definitely see the relevance of a system like this and the need for tutors, but at the same time you also find that a lot of people are having the same idea because of the increased demand, so there is a lot of competition,” she shared.

While she hopes to grow her business exponentially in the coming years, Hylton, who obtained a master’s degree in science education in 2016, would love to see more job opportunities being created for and by Jamaican women in STEM.

“Worldwide, the number of women, especially black women, in STEM is extremely low, but in Jamaica you will find that there are a lot of girls pursuing the sciences, but they don’t necessarily become scientists or researchers when they leave. Many of them, like I was doing, take that route to get into medicine, or they become nurses, or they end up migrating because they can’t get jobs,” she pointed out.

She noted that male graduates, on the other hand, are more likely to launch their businesses with funding, or they get leadership roles in organisations.

“So we do produce female graduates in STEM, but what happens after?” she questioned.

As she steps into her MPhil programme this week, Hylton is already looking at upgrading to a PhD in STEM education within two years.

“Believing in myself enough, regardless of who did not believe in me, was one of the biggest challenges that I had to overcome in order to be where I am now,” she shared. “I still have a lot more that I want to accomplish, but it has been most rewarding to be able to see my dream becoming a reality.”