Since 2014, Charles Odonkor and a few colleagues

have offered a free writing and review service to

help minority students craft compelling, error-free

essays as part of their applications for college and

medical school.

  The fourth-year resident in physiatry also collects late-version textbooks and tablets loadedwith links to various open-source medical libraries so that disadvantaged medical students in countries such as his native Ghana can have access to necessary information. As a founder of Project REACH, Representatives for Equal Access to Community Health, Odonkor has helped more than 400 students since 2011. Additionally, Odonkor organizes an orthopaedics shadowing program that lets local students observe African-American physicians and scientists.

  Raised in a communal culture, Odonkor adopts the Ubuntu philosophy “I am because we are.” In other words, he notes, “You are where you are

because others lifted you up, so you have to reach back to lift others.”