The future of information technol- ogy in the United States will be determined not just in its computer labs but at its kitchen tables. On long car rides. At block parties, and church picnics, or anywhere else that gets grown-ups and teenagers together to talk. It's those powerful snippets of conversation that just might tip a kid toward or away from studying a technology or science field. Conversations like Melody Huang is having with her 19-year-old daughter. Huang's IT education has led her on a 20-year global business career, as developer, consultant, business owner, and now a lead IT architect with Vanguard Group, the mutual-fund company. Encouraged by Huang's example, her daughter, Katherine, a college sophomore with an undeclared major, took advanced-placement computer courses in high school. But these days, she's uncertain when her mother pitches IT as a great career. "She's hearing that the jobs aren't really out there, and you're going to be pressed down the corporate ladder," Huang says. "That perception is definitely out there."
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