PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Around 25 high school and college students from across the country came to the University of South Florida St. Pete campus in June to take part in SofWolf's STEM program for military families. 

What You Need To Know

  • The STEM program, with a focus on machine learning, automation, robotics and more, is for military youth between the ages of 16-24

  • The program happens once a year but they're looking to expand

  • Many of the attendees lost a family member that was serving on active duty

With a focus on machine learning, automation, robotics and more, program leaders say they try to bring in Gold Star family members like Jada Newman, who lost her father while serving in the military.

The company’s co-founder, Mike Vaughn, said it’s their way of giving back to those who served.

For Newman, she said the program is about much more than learning. It’s a chance for her to remember her father, who served in the army for nearly a decade.  

“He wanted to protect everyone that lived in this country and he especially wanted to protect us,” she said. “He knew there would be people who work with him that would take care of us.” 

Newman is attending nursing school in the fall but sees the course as a way to stay connected to her father.  

This is Newman’s 6th year attending the program, saying Vaughn and the other leaders have been instrumental in helping her grow. 

“I think he’d be glad that people are coming around us and supporting us and teaching us skills that we can use that maybe he would have taught us,” she said. “If I can be even half the person he was, I would be successful and a good human being.”

Vaughn said they hope to expand to other parts of the country and hold the lessons more than once a year.