Denica Grant – A Nurse With A Passion For STEM Education.

Twenty-two-year-old Denica Grant, a country girl, from Belle Vue, Region 5 is aiming to make a difference in her region by empowering youths to dream big and follow their goals.  Grant is a coach at STEM Guyana attached to the Lichfield ICT hub and Mahaicony Secondary STEM clubs. Through the STEM initiative, the young woman teaches robotics, scratch coding, team building and other life skills to children in Region 5. Her passion for helping others started as a child admiring the nurses dressed neatly in their uniforms. She later chose nursing as her career path and joined STEMGuyana in pursuit of empowering the younger generation.

Passion For Nursing

Denica Grant was born on 29th November, 1998 to Debra and Elvis Grant at the Fort Wellington Public Hospital. She grew up at Plantation Ayr/No.40 village West Coast Berbice and later moved to Belle Vue on the West Coast Berbice with her parents and four siblings. According to Grant, her childhood was “fun and exciting.”

“Growing up in the countryside is the best childhood you can ask for. I grew up in Plantation Ayr/ No.40, I remember going to the back dam and bush cook, playing in the rain with my siblings and cousins, going to the waterside to catch crabs, gather firewood, or sticks for the garden. Not forgetting the daily afternoon exercise of playing cricket, hide and seek or Sal Pass, my childhood was the best.”

She attended the Lichfield Nursery School, Lichfield Primary then took a transfer to Latchmansingh Primary and after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (N.G.S.A) Grant was awarded a spot at the Mahaicony Secondary School. At the completion of her secondary level of education, she graduated with six (6) CXC subjects from the Mahaicony Secondary School.

Grant always had a passion for helping others. She admired nurses in their uniform and told herself that she wanted to be like them when she grew older. This motivated her to pursue a diploma in nursing at the New Amsterdam School of Nursing.  She first worked at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital and was transferred. Currently, Grant is a registered nurse employed by the Ministry of Health, attached to Fort Wellington Public Hospital.

Empowering Youths via STEMGuyana

“Be the best you can be,”  is a quote Grant lives by.  Having her dream of being a registered nurse, Grant sought other ways to help others. In her attempt to do so, she joined the STEM initiative on 18th March, 2019. She trained as a coach at the STEMGuyana club in Lichfield and began teaching youths about robotics and STEM. 

 “After learning about the STEMGuyana initiative, I became excited and wanted to join because empowering the youths of my community was another goal I had. Eventually, I was trained in the capacity of a coach/teacher and I taught science principles, scratch coding, and robotics to young developing minds from my village and neighbouring villages. I also worked across Region 5 educating youths about STEM.”

“I also assisted in conducting stem outreach/talks with stem enthusiast, Mr. Bradley Downer. We conducted sessions at Hopetown Primary and my alma mater (Mahaicony Secondary). We spoke about careers in stem, and how it will benefit youths in the 21st century and then we did a practical session allowing the students to build robots, program robots, and practice scratch coding using the equipment provided by STEMGuyana and sharing the knowledge I gained.” 

In November 2019, Denica along with her friend, Mr. Bradley Downer launched a stem club at the Mahaicony Secondary School with the aim of empowering and educating the youths in the area of STEM/robotics and coding.

 “When we launched the club at my alma mater, I felt accomplished because I always wanted to give back to my old school and this was one way in which I could have accomplished that goal. The kit was donated by ExxonMobil Guyana and  STEMGuyana.”

“The road won’t be easy but once you stay strong, and focus you’ll accomplish anything. Dream bright and aim high,”  is Denica’s advice for youths who may want to follow in her footsteps. She aims to continue driving change in Region 5 using STEM as her platform and to further her studies in the areas of robotics, medicine, and coding.