William Hwang:
United InnoWorks Academy

He is a star volleyball player and an accomplished classical musician who participated as first violinist in Duke University’s symphony orchestra as a freshman.

He is a 4.0 quadruple-major in biomedical engineering, physics, electrical and computer engineering whose lowest grade ever was an A (all others being A+s).

He is the co-editor-in-chief of Duke’s Undergraduate Journal of the Humanities, and the Associate Editor of Duke's Undergraduate Journal of Science and Technology…

Having worked with various renowned professors in a multitude of disciplines, he is an accomplished researcher in neural networks, microfluidics, and protein analysis with multiple ensuing publications, and even designed a biomimetic arm to help children with TAR syndrome gain independence.

He is a National Science Foundation award winner, a Goldwater Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar soon on his way to Oxford University to study Condensed Matter Physics.

He is also an avid community volunteer.

And somehow, William Hwang (or Xing Zong in Chinese) also found the time to start a thriving nonprofit organization, Innoworks, that he founded to help underprivileged kids get excited about education, particularly science and engineering.

InnoWorks

Hwang has been interested in science for as long as he can remember. Some of his fondest childhood memories are of attending summer science and engineering camps which sparked his curiosity and passion for these fields. He credits both his dedicated teachers as well as those who created the camps and academic Magnet programs he attended, for helping him hone in on his goals and life-long priorities.

Knowing that underprivileged, or as Hwang puts it: "underestimated," middle-school kids might never have the chance to attend summer camps like he did, he created InnoWorks with the goal of getting kids 'enthusiastic about the S.T.E.M. subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.' Using undergraduate college volunteers, the program remains free for students, and provides creative courses 'designed to teach students through group activities and team-based missions.' Working around a central theme - such as robots, the senses, or explorations- InnoWorks 'teaches the kids how to use science, technology, math, and engineering to create rockets, engage in crime scene investigation, and apply those subjects to their every day lives.'

Incredibly impressive for a program less than 5 years old -- Hwang founded it in 2003 as a freshman-- today InnoWorks has over 300 volunteers at nine chapters: 7 at U.S. universities, as well as at the College of the Bahamas, and Effat College, a women’s college in Saudi Arabia.

Currently primarily based around a summer camp, the program is in the process of broadening for greater community impact, to reach a broader audience, and to keep students excited about science all year long. They are developing a series of curricula, published books, and programs including an after-school program, and a Bridge program for high school students to participate in research projects.

His Parents: role models and heroes

He credits his parents, whom he considers his top role models, with helping him reach his full potential as a person and with instilling in him a diverse range of passions and pastimes. His mom, once a high-paid CFO at a technology firm left the coveted position to stay home with him as a child, a decision so selfless that Hwang feels that he may never fully comprehend its breadth. His dad is a scientist, evidently having influenced Hwang’s own academic interests, and his mom is now a teacher.

Diverse individuals, themselves, they are also avid community volunteers, something that Hwang credits as greatly influencing the person he is today by having instilled “a spirit of volunteerism” in him since childhood when they began taking him along at the age of 2.

They also influenced his passion for sports. His parents, who met playing volleyball, encouraged him to be physically active, and taught him to play volleyball as a toddler. In high school he was captain and MVP of his school’s volleyball team, as well as captain and sprinter of the indoor track team, and today he still participates in club volleyball and is a member of a men’s volleyball squad at Duke. He says that what he particularly loves about the sport is that it has taught him that “there is no way to be successful without teamwork,” a trait that he has carried on into college research endeavors, his volunteer work, and of course, InnoWorks.

From music, to literature, to sports, to volunteerism, to academics, to establishing deep friendships, Hwang’s parents allowed him to thrive by providing him with the option to dabble in everything, and by teaching him how to best manage his time and priorities.

Rhodes Scholar

Created in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarships are awarded for “high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor.” It’s as though its founder, Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist, colonist, and politician, knew Hwang personally.

One would think that it was solely his fervent passion for science that propelled him to attend Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Ironically though, it was a course on Shakespeare he took there during an overseas summer semester in 2004 that instilled his passion for the culture, history, and peoples of Europe. He says that although he loves science, he is equally passionate about humanities, loves reading, and has been writing short novels since grammar school.

What the future holds Hwang, ever passionate for helping others, plans to continue his work in science, specifically in the biomedical sciences as a researcher, to help improve the quality of human life. He also wants to follow in his mother’s footsteps in teaching, although at the collegiate level, so that he can continue mentoring future generations.

As for Innoworks, he plans to continue to build it up into a large global self-perpetuating organization “where students today will become InnoWorkers mentoring students of the future.” Given his awe-inspiring list of accomplishments thus far, and his ability to multitask like few others, it is clear that William Hwang will accomplish this goal. Considering he’s only 22, one can only be left to wonder what he’ll do in his 30s and beyond.