Research studies show that Georgia's present and future workforce is unprepared for the scientific and technological challenges facing them. Georgia's middle and high school students lag far behind the national average in science and math scores. Specifically: The Fordham Foundation gave Georgia a grade "F' in science. Over half of Georgia 8th grade students scored at the lowest science achievement level in the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress study. One out of every four Georgia high school students fails the science portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test on his or her first attempt. Georgia ranked dead last nationally in Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores in 2002. As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported GK-12 program, the Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP) Program, Georgia Tech has initiated partnerships with three metro-area high schools with high percentages of under-represented minorities. These three schools have historically performed substantially even worse than Georgia does as a whole. They are primarily African-American schools (87-99% black) that draw from a mixture of middle and lower income neighborhoods where 33-43% of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Both the average cumulative SAT scores (between 852 and 902 for the three schools) and percent of students scoring 3 or higher on the Advanced Placement exams (between 11% and 15%) are substantially below the state averages of 991 (SAT) and 52% (A.P. passing rate), making them low performers in a low performing state. This low academic performance level effectively closes off the opportunity for most of these students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Georgia Tech is the premier engineering institution in the southeast United States, and is a leader in educating minority engineers. However of the over 7,500 applications received for admission to the university in 1997, only 34 came from these three local high schools, with the majority (23) submitted by students from a Mathematics and Science Magnet Program. Though 61% of all applicants to Georgia Tech that year were accepted, only 35% of the applicants (12) from these majority African-American schools were offered admission, and only seven chose to come. Six of these seven enrolled in schools within the College of Engineering. Once at Georgia Tech, underrepresented minority students perform slightly poorer academically than the institute average (1st year cumulative GPA of 2.7 for minorities, vs. 2.8 for the institute as a whole in 2001), and the graduation rate lags behind the institute average. However minority students who participate in the minority academic support programs offered by the university ultimately graduate at a rate that equals their majority peers. Therefore the pipeline of minority engineers is not limited primarily by the success rate of students enrolled at institutions such as Georgia Tech—it is dramatically limited by the low achievement of students in our minority K-12 schools, by the low number of students applying for admission, and by the low acceptance rate. One strategy, discussed in this paper, to help change these current facts is by increasing the presence of black engineers at these schools by implementing junior chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).