Before taking his first tour of Microsoft's corporate headquarters, Jonathan Porter wondered if contemplating a career in IT was a waste of time. He remembers even asking one of his friends if any African-Americans actually work for the software company. He was only half-joking.

From his vantage point, the question was logical. Porter attended Garfield High School in the inner-city of Seattle -- 25 miles west of suburban Redmond. Nobody he knew worked for Microsoft or any of the Puget Sound area's other large technology companies. He didn't even know any African-Americans who had majored in computer science in college.

But now, three years later, the 18-year-old plans to make computer science his college major, and he's got the resume to back him up. He has three summer internships at Microsoft under his belt, and a mentor at Microsoft with first-hand experience at overcoming the challenges of being a racial minority in an industry where minorities have long been underrepresented. Perhaps most telling, Porter can now envision himself some day working full time for Microsoft.