Southwest Florida · Industry 4.0

He Already Has The Talent.
Fund The Pathway.

STEMCAT trains Southwest Florida’s semiconductor technologists, AI and cybersecurity analysts, robotics and advanced-manufacturing engineers, and aviation and uncrewed-systems specialists at no cost to the student. Every seat is paid for by employers, workforce partners, state grant programs, and donors. Your investment does not buy a program. It builds the workforce infrastructure this region runs on.

Free To The Student · 501(c)(3) · EIN 47-3761436

The Gap Is Not Talent. It Is Access.

Employers across Lee County cannot fill skilled technical roles. Meanwhile students two miles from those job sites finish high school with no pathway into them. STEMCAT closes that distance.

No generation without choice. No industry without talent.

$4,570Funds one student’s full year of skills training — instruction, materials, certification and job placement support. Benchmarked to the average cost of comparable programs in Lee County.
15 yrsWe start in third grade and stay until employment. One continuous system, not a summer camp.
$0Billed to the family. Ever. A pre-apprenticeship seat costs $4,570 to deliver and third parties cover it — employers, CareerSource Southwest Florida, state grants, and donors.
$122,629Average core-tech wage in this region, versus $61,476 across all industries. Yet only 26.3% of the students who complete a technical program here stay in the local workforce — the gap this pipeline is built to close.

It Already Works

This is not a pilot asking for a chance. STEMCAT has been running the pipeline in Southwest Florida, and the students coming out of it are working in the fields they trained for.

2,500+Individuals served since 2015.
628Youth served this program year.
90%Of STEMCAT graduates working in the field they trained for — our own outcome, distinct from the region’s 26.3% technical-completer retention rate noted above.
15Industry and employer partners, with a plan to reach 150+.

Figures are a snapshot in time. Program-year totals as of August 2026, updated at the close of each session.

Advanced ManufacturingCNC · Automation · Robotics
AviationGround School · Jet Engine Systems
SemiconductorsMicroelectronics · Cleanroom Systems

These are the jobs Southwest Florida cannot fill. These are the students who could fill them.

Trade imagery shown for illustration. Student photography is our own.

It Starts Long Before They Choose

By the time most programs reach a student, they have already decided what they are not good at. We get there first.

Grades 3–8

Youth Programs

Hands-on exposure across every STEMCAT discipline, plus community events and Fieldhouse open houses. No commitment, no pressure — just a young person finding out what grabs them.

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Middle & High School

Junior Latimer Fellows

For students ready to go deeper: advanced project work, mentorship from working professionals, a summer boot camp, and a direct line into pre-apprenticeship.

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Selective Track

STEM Vocation

Pre-apprenticeship on the same equipment employers run — semiconductors, robotics, aviation, and cybersecurity — funded seat by seat through certification and completion.

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Youth Programs — Investment Levels

Entry-level ways to equip a student at the exposure stage — grades 3–8.

$250
Supporter

Outfits a student with the safety gear and tools they need on day one.

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$1,000
Advocate

Covers certification testing and a full term of shop materials for one student.

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Ways to Give

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MAIL A CHECK

Payable to I Will Mentorship Foundation. Mail to: 3903 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd #2, Fort Myers, FL 33916.

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Make Your Investment

Every gift goes directly into training Southwest Florida students for the skilled technical jobs employers cannot fill. Training is scholarship-based — most costs are covered by donors and partners, though some families may pay a fee.

Dr. Jesse Bryson, Founder and CEO of STEMCAT

Why I Am Asking

I have watched too many young people in Southwest Florida get told to wait — wait until high school, wait until they are older, wait until someone decides they are ready. Meanwhile the jobs that could change their family’s trajectory go unfilled a few miles away.

We start at eight, not eighteen. We stay until there is a paycheck. And we do not charge a family a dollar, because the moment cost enters the conversation, the students who need this most are the first ones out.

That model only works if someone funds it. That is the ask.

Jesse Bryson

Dr. Jesse Bryson · Founder & CEO, STEMCAT

Foundations & Business Partnerships
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Individual Investors & Community Supporters
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Government & Public Funding
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Our Sponsorship

STEMCAT is built through partnerships with organizations, businesses, and community leaders investing in the future workforce of Southwest Florida.

These are not just supporters—they are builders of opportunity, believers in this work, and partners helping create the experiences, exposure, and workforce pathways shaping what comes next.

  • Lee County
  • Suncoast Credit Union
  • American Red Cross
  • United Way of Lee, Hendry, Glades, and Okeechobee
  • Fort Myers Police Department
  • Goodwill – Pathways to Opportunity
  • Colonial Roofing
  • Boys & Girls Club of Lee County
Lee County, Southwest Florida logo
Suncoast Credit Union logo
American Red Cross logo
United Way of Lee, Hendry, Glades, and Okeechobee logo
City of Fort Myers Police Department badge logo
Pathways to Opportunity logo
Colonial Roofing logo, Service Quality Integrity, established 1978
Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County logo