By Claire Daly

Andre Wallace started fighting racism and inequality in high school, working to address the achievement gap between white and minority students.

Wallace, now an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, participated in various extra curricular activities in his Evanston, Ill., high school, but cut back on other commitments his senior year to really focus on social activism.

Working with a group called Students Organized Against Racism and, through conferences with other high schools, Wallace says the organization gave “people a platform to talk about the issues that are going on in their lives.” The group also focused on how schools can do a better job supporting minority students.

Wallace also volunteered with Team ASAP, or Access and Success in Advanced Placement, which focused on increasing enrollment in advanced-placement classes for traditionally underrepresented minorities, while keeping up the rigor and success rate of those classes. In his time with Team ASAP, he helped increase the number of minority students enrolled.

“We saw the achievement gap in a lot of those AP classes decrease,” says Wallace, and there was a “really good rate of students who had 3s or higher on AP tests and also more diverse classrooms.

“It’s hard because, usually when you are doing social activism stuff, quantifying things just doesn’t happen,” he says.

He found it rewarding to see the tangible difference in numbers.

Wallace’s effort has not gone unnoticed. Last year, he was one of the recipients of the 2015 Princeton Prize in Race Relations, a national award for high school students.

“It was amazing,” he said of being recognized for the award, even though there were times Wallace doubted himself and questioned if he was making a difference.

Now a freshman at Penn, Wallace says, “I’m really excited to see what I can do here to continue the work.”

Having worked on starting constructive dialogues in his high school activism, at Penn Wallace wants to be more focused on action and looking at systematic ways to address issues. Since Penn has so many interdisciplinary fields, he is looking forward to using his engineering education to take a more quantitative approach and apply it to a social cause. Wallace’s long-term goal is to start his own group at Penn that focuses on this.

Initially he didn’t think he wanted to go to college on the East Coast, but as soon as he got to the Penn campus, he says knew this was the school for him. “It was that love-at-first-sight thing,” he says, “you either feel it or you don’t.”

Wallace credits the people, the vibe of campus and a “this is where I want to be” feeling as sealing the deal.

The summer before his freshman year, he participated in the Africana Summer Institute Program and in the pre-orientation program PennQuest. Thanks to these programs, Wallace made friends before starting his classes.

“People are here for each other and I feel like there is a strong sense of community,” he says.

Looking to after graduation, Wallace would ultimately like to do something that combines both engineering and social activism.

“I would love to make a tech startup that has a very strong social driven component,” he says.

Thinking of the big picture, he would like to be doing something in a STEM subject that really focuses on addressing minority groups.