pioneer
/ˌpaɪəˈnɪəɹ/
One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow.
A person or other entity who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress.
Certain politicians can be considered as pioneers of reform.
A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances; a sapper.
A member of any of several European organizations advocating abstinence from alcohol.
A child of 10–16 years in the former Soviet Union, in the second of the three stages in becoming a member of the Communist Party.