Science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—fields notoriously lack racial diversity; Hispanics, African Americans and Native Americans make up 26 percent of the country’s workforce but only 10 percent of STEM positions. To change this disparity, many organizations and individuals have endeavored to engage students in STEM at all stages of their academic lives. College is often the culmination of these efforts, the point at which students decide if they want to pursue careers in the sciences. To succeed, they need both technical skills and “soft skills” like communication and professionalism. Historically Black Colleges and Universities are providing exactly that: With finite resources, they prepare thousands of minority students for careers in STEM every year, trying to minimize the obstacles that these students will almost certainly face because of their background.

“My philosophy has always been that training underrepresented minorities is not for just them alone—anything you do to help them is of value to anyone else,” said Andrew G. Campbell, a medical science professor at Brown University. “We have a workforce [in STEM] that’s not diverse.” By investing in minority students, Campbell said, the school is investing in a stronger overall workforce.

African American students face numerous challenges even in the path leading up to college. Some black students skip out on STEM careers altogether, discouraged by negative stereotypes and self-doubt, according to a 2011 article in BET. Socioeconomic factors can also undermine black students’ exposure to STEM, often because they attend schools lacking computers, which could expose them to new career paths and spark interest in the fields.

In school, students of color (especially boys) are much more likely than whites to receive disciplinary action; according to a six-year study conducted in Texas, African American and Hispanic students were twice as likely to receive out-of-school suspensions for a first offense than their white peers. Efforts by nonprofits like Black Girls Code are working to offset some of these obstacles by engaging students in their own education, giving them the confidence and technical know-how to pursue majors in STEM. Underrepresented minorities now make up 10 percent of STEM workers, up from 7 percent in 1993, according to a report from the National Science Foundation, likely in part due to initiatives like these. That number is still not as high as it should be—African Americans made up 13.2 percent of the U.S. population in 2013—but it’s progress.

The 106 colleges that qualify as Historically Black Colleges and Universities—or HBCUs—were established before 1964 with the primary intention of serving black students. In 2010 more than 260,000 black students were enrolled in these institutions, making up about 9 percent of all black college students in the country. People go to HBCUs for lots of reasons, including small class sizes and generous financial aid. Karl Walker, now a computer science professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, knew he wanted to go to an HBCU because he was immersed in their culture of loud, fun athletic competitions from a young age. “HBCUs were the schools that were always around, that I was always involved with,” Walker said. “I would go to a lot of the football games—I was surrounded by [the culture].” He enrolled in Morehouse College in Atlanta on a full-tuition scholarship.