The story of how one chemistry teacher— Michelle Hampton—at Riverside Unified School District’s (RUSD) Martin Luther King High School (MLK) reached out to faculty at UC Riverside with an idea of giving her chemistry students practical experience in a bona fide research lab exemplifies the old idiom: nothing ventured, nothing gained. But in this case it means much more. The synergy created between the two schools has resulted in scores of MLK students over the last decade and a half gaining lab experience and a love of research via summer internships at UCR, with many making the life sciences a career path.