Crystal Bonds is Principal at The High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, New York, NY. During her three years as a new principal at one of New York City's eight specialized high schools, she found herself constantly wrestling with two challenges: (1) Maintaining the school's high academic standards; and (2) protecting the school's extraordinary diversity. She saw her overall mission as not only maintaining but even improving the school's academic excellence. This article outlines strategies that were used in order to accomplish this goal. One initiative described in the article includes a program in which sophomores select one of three major concentration tracks: Advanced Engineering, Mount Sinai Biomedical Research, or an accelerated mathematics strand. Each of those programs are detailed.