Most ISU students have heard of George Washington Carver and his many discoveries concerning the peanut, and some know he attended Iowa State. Much more exists to Carver’s story, however, that is not as well-known.

George Washington Carver was Iowa State’s first black student and faculty member, said Harold McNabb Jr., professor emeritus of natural resource and ecology management and expert on Carver’s life and work.

Carver started his academic career at Simpson College in art, since he was gifted in the visual arts. One of his professors, however, noticed Carver’s interest in plants. She encouraged him to pursue that instead.

“[His professor’s] father was head of the horticulture department at Iowa State,” McNabb said.

The professor thought Carver would make a better life for himself studying plants than as a black artist in that time period.

Perhaps it was Carver’s creativity that enabled him to make what McNabb calls his most important contribution as a scientist – his “holistic approach” to agriculture.

Carver was able to look beyond traditional agricultural problems. While he addressed such basics as crop production cycles, he also did more experimental things such as developing paints from plants.

Carver refined the whole idea of agricultural products, McNabb said. Today, an agricultural product – ethanol – is at the forefront of Iowa’s agricultural – and even political – concerns.

“You might say that the basis of this idea comes from Carver,” he said.

It’s this same creative, holistic approach that enabled him to make what was perhaps his most famous scientific contribution: more than 300 uses for the peanut.

The peanut innovations were made while Carver was a faculty member at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, after he left Iowa State.

McNabb said Carver’s contributions to Iowa State included his work with plant breeding, his extensive plant and fungal collections and teaching and mentoring others.

In addition to all of those achievements, there is the major accomplishment of coming to Iowa State in the first place in the late 1800s.

Although today Carver’s name is found on buildings and street signs around campus and Ames, the community was not always so proud to claim him.

In fact, Carver was never accepted into the dorms because of discrimination. During his time in Ames, he stayed in a room in Main Hall, where Beardshear now stands – the building was normally used for classes. At another time, he stayed with the Martins, a black couple who housed black students who couldn’t get into the dorms.

“When he first came to Iowa State, he had to eat with the field hands in the basement of Main Hall,” McNabb said.

A woman he met at Simpson came to visit him, however, and when she went down to eat with Carver in the basement, it “kind of woke people up at Iowa State,” McNabb said.

Today, Iowa State uses Carver’s legacy to help minority students become successful with the George Washington Carver Scholarship Award and Carver Academy.

According to the Multicultural Student Affairs Web site, the scholarship covers full tuition for 100 incoming students of color each year.

The students have to come directly from high school and meet a handful of academic requirements.

The Carver Academy is a separate part of the award. It is, in some ways, similar to the Honors Program – with classes “structured to enhance, encourage and support its participants’ academic, social and cultural activities throughout their college experience,” according to the Web site.

Aida Vientos, junior in microbiology, is a Carver scholar. She said for the most part, the experience has been a positive one.

Aside from not having to worry about paying tuition, Vientos said she enjoyed the first year in the program.

“We get to take classes together, and that’s really nice, because you get to meet other people,” she said.

While those financial and social supports were helpful, Vientos said there was one aspect of the Carver program that was at least somewhat difficult.

“Sometimes it’s really hard to kind of dive into college when they’re telling you every day, five times a day, ‘You’re a minority, you’re a minority,’ when you don’t necessarily feel like that,” she said.

Benjamin Ferin, sophomore in mechanical engineering, also found the Carver program mostly positive.

He said it helped him to be proud of where he was from – and of course, full tuition is pretty nice.

“I got to meet a lot of people who were in the same situation as myself,” he said.

Nichole Taylor, senior in electrical engineering, said she is “very thankful” for the Carver scholarship.

“It’s definitely meant a lot to me,” she said.

Taylor said she wasn’t sure how she was going to afford coming to Iowa State when she applied.

In addition to opening the door for her to come to college in the first place, Taylor said she is still very close to other students she met in the Carver program.

Taylor’s thankfulness to the program extends beyond the benefits she reaped from it; she is also glad other students are able to be a part of it.

“They deserve all the support they can get,” she said.