MAVERICKS CIVILIAN SPACE FOUNDATION is a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation with the mission to create and operate STEM education and professional development programs which provide project-based learning opportunities through space exploration and research activities. The national crisis in STEM education presents a looming threat to not only the nation’s economic competitiveness and national security. It is also a key barrier to the next generation’s ability to participate and drive our vision of personal access to space. The foundation is focused on establishing community-based space education and research programs and on-line education services to enable educators to facilitate hands-on space exploration activities in the classroom, with a priority towards engaging girls and minorities in at-risk communities to pursue advanced education and careers in STEM related fields. Our programs enable students in middle schools, high schools, and universities in partnership with educators and mentors, to design, build, and operate space craft and launch vehicles, in support of their own space exploration missions in their classrooms and local communities. MAVERICKS delivered its first STEM education program in 2010, with the debut of its Explorers Sub-orbital Space Exploration pilot program, conducted at the California Academy of Math & Science in Compton, California. This pilot was featured in nationally broadcast documentaries by The Science Channel and PBS, one of which recently won an Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in a science program or special. Not just high quality educational television, the program raised public visibility of the importance of human space exploration by engaging high school students to design, manufacture and operate sounding rockets that deliver a NASA or mission payload on a rocket, with the support of the foundation staff, community mentors and educators in the classroom. View some of these at www.youtube.com/rocketmavericks.