my message to black college students would be that life begins at the end of your comfort zone i'm
ron griswell i'm the founder and director of hbcus outside and i'm a change maker
the inspiration for hbcus outside came about from a need something that was missing
i went to punta gorda belize to do a service learning project
and during that project every single day we lived amongst the locals no one was worried
about keeping up with the jones it was very simplistic very minimalistic i told myself when i
was like as soon as i get back i'm gonna join an outdoor club i'm gonna do you know i'm gonna keep
see kayaking i'm gonna keep canoeing i'm gonna do all these different things unfortunately when i
got back to my university those resources weren't there those experiences weren't there here i am
at the largest hbcu you know in the country but right down the street at not even the largest
pwi had a robust climbing gym they had uh a huge gear library to rent out to all to their
students who want to do these outdoor outings they had a giant outdoor outing program and they
had a curriculum built around outdoor programs and i remember stopping myself and saying yo
there's an opportunity here i very quickly realized that it wasn't just an ant problem
i started looking into other hbcus and realized it was a cultural problem across
all of our institutions i remember talking to my advisor at the time i say look i need to go
see what this feels like for myself i need to get into the outside into the outdoors i need a
i need to leave school and i remember she told me and uh this is stays with me no matter where
i go she said just promise me one thing so i'm gonna give you a recommendation i'm gonna do
everything i need to do but promise you one thing whatever you go out there and learn make sure you
bring it back those are the words guiding me when i decided to ultimately leave and move
you know across the country and started working in the outdoor industry but i finally returned
with the mission of taking all the resources all the skills the connections everything that i
had built up to that point and bringing it back to my campus and that's how hbcu's outside came about
i truly believe that most people are given the opportunity if you're able to have fun outside
because you came out here and had a great time you're not going to love this place and you're
going to want to see this place protected or you're gonna you know not just throw out a
piece of plastic wrapper from your pocket because this is a place that you've grown to love through
the experiences that you've gathered here i'm michael ellison the ceo and founder of CodePath
CodePath is an educational nonprofit focused on diversifying the nation's most competitive
technical roles changemaker for me is is about that commitment to see the world
in a way that's going to be part of your vision but a different better place
and doing that by transforming the way college computer science education is taught
when you look at a lot of the most powerful decisions most important decisions in this country
they're made by small groups of people in rooms where if you're in that room you're
respected you're trusted you can literally change anything i decided it was my mission to diversify
the education of minorities in tech there were two moments that were critical the first was
my childhood i grew up low income romaine single mother household and homeless at times and i felt
hopeless didn't have any control but then people took chances on me i was given opportunities i
was able to start three non-profits three tech companies including one that was acquired for
over three billion dollars i realized that there's a path and experience that i had getting lucky
that's not available to most black unlimited i think it's about you can unlock your own
freedom and your own control over your life a change maker is a commitment to see the world
to become a different place a better place and that's why it's so important for CodePath to focus
on technical excellence can we create pathways for people to become entrepreneurs
investors the next generation of people who are going to shape the technologies of tomorrow