After moving from Venezuela to Miami in 2016, Lia Paolino was excited to pursue a career in health care. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and accepted her first job at Boston Scientific in 2022, which brought her to Maple Grove, Minnesota — and a very different cultural environment.
“Miami was more diverse and had a much larger Hispanic population, so when I moved to Minnesota, it seemed like almost no one shared my accent or background,” she recalls. “I would be in a room full of engineers, and I might be the only Latina. It felt isolating at times.”
Eager to make new connections at the company, Paolino joined the Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Achievement (HOLA) employee resource group at the suggestion of a colleague. In just two years, she’s held multiple leadership roles in the ERG. “Helping to plan HOLA events and meeting people really helped me feel more comfortable and at home,” says Paolino. “It also gave me an opportunity to lead initiatives that are making a difference.”
An opportunity to make change at home and abroad
As HOLA community lead, Paolino organized events and initiatives to support underserved or underrepresented groups both in Minnesota and in Latin America. Locally, she led the coordination of holiday toy drives, fundraising walks and events where students can hear what it’s like to work at a company like Boston Scientific and explore STEM-related careers. In the summer of 2023, the ERG organized a drive that collected thousands of school supplies for a local preschool offering bilingual and multicultural early childhood education in Minneapolis.
HOLA also works with a Common Hope, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the lives of children living in poverty in Guatemala by providing educational opportunities, health care, housing and family development. Children and families are connected with U.S.-based sponsors who provide support and donations that help the kids attend school, get medical care and have safer, cleaner housing.
Sponsors can communicate with the families, but because language barriers can be a challenge, HOLA has organized several volunteering events to help Common Hope translate student letters from Spanish to English. “When you’re doing these translations, you can see what the kids are feeling and you read about their hopes and dreams for the future,” says Paolino. “They’ll tell their sponsors, ‘I want to be a doctor,’ or ‘I’m getting straight A’s because I want to help my family.’” In the past year, Boston Scientific employees have helped translate over 440 letters.
“It’s a beautiful thing when you have colleagues — friends, really — who you can work together with and have an effect on someone else, whether that’s giving kids toys for the holidays or showing aspiring STEM professionals how a stent works,” says Paolino, who has served as HOLA Minnesota chapter co-lead since September 2023 and recently accepted a new role as global lead of the ERG. “It’s so rewarding to be part of a community that has an even greater impact outside of work.”
Boston Scientific is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where all of our employees can bring their authentic selves to work and thrive personally and professionally. See our objectives and progress to date in our recently released 2023 Performance Report.