In Tampa last July, thirty Florida high school students crossed the threshold between passive observers and potential participants in the long human effort to understand and contain disease. Through five days of immersion in research laboratories, public health agencies, and honest conversation with working scientists, they encountered not just the mechanics of virology but the deeper question that animates it: whether each generation will produce enough people who understand the invisible threats that shape collective life. The program they attended is now growing — statewide, then national,