We have seen firsthand the power STEM education has to change lives. Science education is a vocation that can be carefully cultivated in students through thoughtful guidance, rapport and research activity involvement. We have focused our outreach efforts on explaining our research to the community in plain language, and providing young women opportunities to explore their own interests in science. Explore! Life on Mars, Imagining the Future and The Scientist is In are some recent examples of programs that allowed us to reach out to middle and high school students at local and national scales.