Our unique focus combines the thrill of competition, with high level skills training, to engage youth in programming, engineering, design, and fabrication. From youth football to elite basketball young people in Milwaukee are gaining skills through enjoyment, competition, and hard work. An under-reported story in Milwaukee has been the adaptation of this model to developing high level STEM training. For over a decade in the basement of a Milwaukee high school a massively successful robotics team has been developing the workforce for Milwaukee’s STEM careers. Since 2015, 72 percent of our college alum work in STEM fields. Our graduating seniors are heading to college and majoring in STEM fields. Additionally, our graduates are starting their own businesses in Milwaukee and creating new jobs. We currently have students enrolled in electrical, mechanical and software engineering in schools in Wisconsin and across the US. The Milwaukee Robotics Academy is committed to supporting high-tech STEM education in under-served populations in the City of Milwaukee. This is accomplished through: * Summer workshops meant to introduce high school students to robotics through exciting hands-on exercises. These workshops are conducted with flexible scheduling and at no cost to students to make the program as accessible as possible. For more details on these summer workshops, click here. * Providing a year-round space in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood for high school students and teams to explore robotics. This eliminates the need for new teams to purchase expensive machine shop equipment and gives students year-round access to advanced equipment. * Providing technical mentoring to area teams including paid lead mentor and paid internship positions for teams directly supported by the Academy.