DAYTON, Ohio — After four years, Jada Cooper-Taylor got the moment she was waiting for. Her dean called her name, she flashed a masked but unmistakable smile on the camera and her family cheered from the back. Cooper-Taylor was a University of Dayton (UD) engineering graduate.
As she walked off the stage, diploma in hand, Cooper-Taylor said it wasn’t just the culmination of her last four years at UD, but a farewell to the community that raised her.
“I don’t think it’ll be real until I figure out I don’t have to do homework tomorrow,” she said.
Cooper-Taylor grew up in Dayton and while she said she didn’t plan to go to school so close to home, UD fit.
“It was something that my biology teacher in high school kind of pushed me toward,” she said. “She wanted me to find a passion and choose a career based off of that and I was always passionate about makeup.”
Cooper-Taylor wanted to make it, which is how she got interested in engineering. She started on the chemical engineering track, joining the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
While she ultimately switched to industrial engineering, her passion for makeup persisted.
“During the pandemic, I lost a couple of my jobs and I kind of had the time to think about what I wanted to do,” she said.
She had been experimenting with hair oils for a while, but in 2020, she decided to launch a full makeup line: Adaj Beauty.
Cooper-Taylor said she had struggled to find safe, natural products that looked good for her skin tone so that’s what she made. She quickly found a market on Etsy by late 2020 and over the next few months, she was selling at pop-up shops.
“I always like to stay busy and on my feet, so it kind of comes naturally,” she said.
Adaj Beauty was the second initiative Cooper-Taylor started since coming to UD. She started her first just a few months into her first year on campus.
“Coming to UD, I was always thinking about how I wanted to give back to my own community,” she said.
Cooper-Taylor was a part of the Multi-Ethnic Engineers Program at UD since her first semester.
“Being able to be in that group has been a huge help for me,” she said. “I also worked for the MEP program so being able to stay active throughout the four years has really helped keep me going and try to be a role model for people like me.”
The group also inspired Cooper-Taylor to pay that support forward. She worked with the MEP Program Director Gerica Brown to develop a recruiting program for students like her in the Dayton area. Eventually it grew into the MEP Outreach Initiative, helping students from first grade to high school discover engineering.
“I started off by myself and started with eight schools and we’ve been able to grow outside of schools into after school programs and I think we’re at about 15 now,” Cooper-Taylor said.
As for her own future, Cooper-Taylor secured a job in Columbus as an operations manager for Target, but she said she’s not leaving makeup or Dayton behind.
“I will start Adaj Beauty in Columbus, and I will continue to do the things that I do in the city for my pop-up shops,” she said.
In the end, she said Dayton is home, and while Cooper-Taylor said she’s excited for a new opportunity, she’s proud of everything she’s made in her hometown.
“So I’ll come back to Dayton and we’ll foster community with over 30 Black-owned businesses, and we’ll get our products going and talking to each other,” she said.
While Sherita Kelley said she’s a proud mom, she’s hoping those visits come sooner rather than later.
“I’m not ready at all but I have to let her go out and spread her wings,” she said. “'Be a Flyer,' as they say.”