Martin Luther King Jr. What did you learn when you were a black student? The Meyerhoff Scholars Program, an effort to promote the advancement of black scientists in the United States

The path that Hrabowski has taken has not been smooth. He recalls, during his childhood in Alabama, sitting in the audience at a church and hearing Martin Luther King Jr ask the congregation: “What will it take to open the eyes and hearts of people to allow our children to go to better schools?” Hrabowski was sent to jail for a week for participating in the anti-segregation protest. During his years as a PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the early 1970s, Hrabowski recalls in the Nature podcast: “I was the only Black kid in the classes, there was never a faculty member of colour and only one woman. I knew that I wanted to change that — I wanted other people to see that people of all backgrounds could excel.”

The nature holds the work of the changemakers in high regard. They should not be seen as extras or diversity work, they should be seen as an essential part of what makes scientific inquiry successful. Science and society will benefit when doors are opened to more creative minds.

Hrabowski was the guiding hand behind the creation of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. It was established in 1988 with a US$500,000 grant from philanthropists Robert and Jane Meyerhoff to help prepare African American students for scientific research careers. From that initial instalment, the scheme has boosted the numbers of Black science students in the United States. Nearly 1,500 people have graduated from it, and around 500 have gone on to pursue PhDs. Its success has been replicated at other universities across the country.

When I was growing up in Alabama, I was sitting in the back of church when I first heard a man named Martin Luther King Jr speak. I was sentenced to a week in jail for taking part in the children’s protest against racial segregation at the age of 12. King posed this question to the group: what will it take to open the eyes and hearts of people to allow our children to go to better schools?

The first thing I did when I was hired as vice-provost at UMBC was look at what the data could tell us. Large numbers of students — not just students of colour — were not succeeding in science and engineering. It turned out that many of them didn’t have a background to do well in maths. It was clear that we needed to be asking the right questions about what level of maths background was necessary to succeed in chemistry or physics. We talked to the students.

Some men in my faculty group would ask why we had a programme like this, if they were nice to all students. I said when you are the only one in the room that looks like you, it feels different. Several of those men were invited to spend the day at the historically Black university. And they all came back with a new appreciation of how isolating it can feel — even when people are nice. They are only there for one day and are 50 years old. Imagine being at school at seventeen. We don’t want to do “warm and fuzzy” at UMBC; we want to understand perspective.

The programme has a number of features. The summer bridge programme is crucial. Students spend a summer before university begins studying maths, English and science, so they build a strong foundation in the basics before taking higher-level courses. Building community is one of the key components. My research had shown that even the highest-achieving students were not succeeding in science, so we also emphasized the importance of peer support and working in groups. It takes scientists to make them. The sooner that students get involved in labs with real-life science, the more excited they can be.

Too many students think that maths and science are just for a few people. School teachers tell children early that they are either a maths and science student or a history and arts student. I want people to understand that it is possible to use both sides of their brains. Creativity is so important to connect disciplines to figure out the best questions to ask. It’s not just about numbers but a lot more. It’s about the whole Universe. It’s about patterns. It is about how we think. Good scientists ask good questions.

Changing the World to Make a Difference: 7 Years of Fighting in Freeman Hrabowski’s First Student Becoming a Changemaker’

I do not think we should use the word “woke” because it immediately divides people and nobody really knows what it means. The word that I use now is inclusion. And that includes white males, especially because the US demographic group that has had the greatest decline in participation in higher education is white, working-class males.

I did not study French until I was 65 years old. Students sometimes ask me if I think I am old, and sometimes look at me weird. I have studied one hour a day for the past seven years and I jump at every chance to speak French with others.

People around the world are standing up against discrimination to make a difference. Our series will tell their stories and highlight their achievements.

Our inaugural Changemaker, Freeman Hrabowski, exemplifies the spirit of the series. The University of Maryland Baltimore County is also known as UMBC. There is an important place in the history of US higher education for UMBC. It was the first public university in Maryland to welcome people of all races from its opening day in 1966.

The Legacy of Poverty: Changing Lives to make it More Convenient for New Scientists and the World Wide Shutdown

There are many accounts of facing injustice and having to fight it in the series. They can be uncomfortable to read. But such experiences are still much too widespread, and need to be highlighted until the day comes when they become history.