This article presents IISME, a U.S. program that can give educators a real-world experience and that can deepen their subject-matter knowledge. It also presents the experiences of some teachers who are into this program. IISME's summer-fellowship program started out with 40 teachers and 12 companies. The group's growth picked up in 2001, when it began partnering with the influential Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an association of executives of 200 high-tech and biotechnology companies and universities. The executives helped IISME connect and partner with other area businesses willing to offer externships, helping boost the number of companies involved to its current 57. The organization gets its funding from area companies and foundations, such as the Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Foundation, the Santa Clara-based Intel Foundation, and the Genentech Foundation for Biomedical Sciences, in South San Francisco.