Kids today! Engineers tomorrow?

This paper is a call to action about what you as a practicing engineer can do to help to change this dire situation. First, we will look at engineering career trends worldwide and try to understand what they mean. We will explore what school-aged students are hearing, or, more often, not hearing, about engineering. We will then examine the large disconnect between these messages and what kids value today. We will step back and discuss some new ways of talking, and even thinking, about engineering that can bridge this message gap. We will then see how we can use the worldwide consensus on the problems around climate change, energy, and the environment as a rallying set of "grand challenges" that can help motivate a whole new generation of engineers.