When I was in high school, I spent summers working as a restaurant dishwasher, grocery store stock boy, and gardener in northwest Indiana. The idea of spending those weeks learning about science and medicine would not have been an option for me at that time.

Yet, it is precisely those students who may not have access to specialized learning opportunities that we need to attract to science, technology, and medicine to continue progress in these fields and ensure the diversity of our scientific workforce.

In particular, oncology and hematology are falling behind other areas of medicine in the adequate representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the physician workforce. Only 2.3 percent of practicing oncologists self-identified as black or African-American, and 5.8 percent self-identified as Hispanic in a 2016 survey by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). According to census figures, 13 percent of the U.S. population is black or African-American, and 18 percent is Hispanic.

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