When Stephon Alexander was 15, jazz introduced him to a new kind of freedom. It gave him a way to explore and improvise and made him feel like he belonged. When he began his journey in physics, he encountered the same feelings of endless possibility, but not always the same feelings of belonging. “Not only did I look differently,” he says, “I thought differently.”

Since then, he’s spent his career exploring the profound ways that music and science inform each other. Through Sound + Science, a free after-school program for NYC high school students, he creates inclusive spaces where everyone can feel free to be curious.

Sound + Science is a mentor-driven organization that illuminates STEM concepts through music production. The program transforms traditional classroom settings into ones where, as Alexander puts it, “you feel like you’re in a recording studio.” Students are encouraged to improvise and are given the room to make mistakes and achieve breakthroughs.

In this video, see how Sound + Science has created a welcoming, exploratory environment like a jazz club stage. The video shows how these explorations create new on-ramps to lifelong relationships with science, especially for those who have not always seen themselves represented in STEM.

Sound + Science joined the Science, Society & Culture community of awardees in 2024. Earlier iterations of the program were also supported by the Simons Foundation.

The Stories of Impact series highlights the real-world influences of Science, Society & Culture projects through personal narratives. Discover more stories here.