FIRST Robotics (Score 1)

I work in a big science and tech company and we sponsor quite a number of FIRST teams. The whole structure of the competition is intended to inspire high schoolers in math and science, and the stats are pretty impressive. Yes, it takes money to get started, but depending on your hometown, there may be an outpost of Nasa, Lockheed or BAE or my company that would offer funding and mentors. It genuinely does inspireâ"and help people get jobs. Virginia Commonwealth University and possibly others offers courses in which students mentor teams and get college credit for doing what is effectively community service, but also hones their engineering skills. I know of one engineer who set up an ISO 9001-based quality control system for their team. But there are countless ways this engages kids and gives them a leg up on the competition when it comes to going to college and getting good jobs.