About Us

Renaissance Jax builds and retains talented, creative young people in Northeast Florida to inspire and retool human ingenuity through opportunities involving FIRST robotics, STEM education, and mentor-driven experiences.
Our goals include:
  • Foster scientific literacy, intellectual curiosity, and practical skills in students grades K-12. 
  • Place robotics teams in every school in Northeast Florida.
  • Serve as a resource pivotal to the long-term expansion and retention of talent in Jacksonville by training America’s next generation of scientists, engineers, and skilled laborers.
  • Be a viable tool in the move to eradicate poverty community by community.
Renaissance Jax manages the FIRST progress of programs.

As the FIRST® LEGO League Program Delivery Partner in Northeast Florida, we help K-8 students explore their love for engineering and technology in a fun, educational environment that promotes academic and career achievement. 

Each year, we support more than 4,000 kids across 28 counties and 400 FIRST LEGO League teams in their quest to design, build, and program robots for Festivals and competition.

We manage the tournament system in our region that advances FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams to events such as the FIRST World Festival in Houston, TX, Florida State Invitational, and more. 
We manage the Northeast Florida FIRST Tech Challenge League, providing 7th-12th grade students with the opportunity to design, build, and program robots to play a competition challenge in an alliance format. 

We also house a FIRST Robotics Competition team, #86 Team Resistance, in our Jacksonville, FL machine shop. Students work alongside mentors with limited time and resources to build and program robots to perform challenging tasks in competition with other teams. 

In addition to learning valuable STEM and life skills, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition participants are eligible to apply for $80M+ in college scholarships with FIRST.

Our Impact

Building Robots Builds Good People...and our future workforce.

Renaissance Jax is building a workforce of highly skilled, instantly employable residents trained in technology fields, ultimately driving systemic change, augmented by economic development.


Renaissance Jax believes every child should have access to the education and experience needed to enter an ever-changing workforce, providing businesses and corporations with employees who are knowledgeable of an industry and come equipped with mentorship and practical experience. Program participants add immense value to their employers by leveraging personal attributes learned through Renaissance Jax’s
FIRST expansion, such as collaboration, project and time management, and the ability to communicate effectively.


In 7 years, we have grown from a few teams in one county to more than 4,000 participants across four programs in 28 counties. More than half of our participants are enrolled in Title I schools and in Northeast Florida alone, we have 40% female participation with
FIRST LEGO League Challenge. 

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

Renaissance Jax believes every child should have access to the education and experience needed to enter an ever-changing workforce. Renaissance Jax models FIRST’s commitment and best practices, offering an inclusive experience, which allows boys and girls of all ages to enroll in the program at any time during primary or secondary education. Our goal is to enable them to grow up to solve the world’s most pressing problems, be strong citizens, and build a brighter future1


FIRST, in collaboration with the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE), has developed a complimentary, three-part Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion training module course for coaches, mentors, volunteers, partners and other key stakeholders who work directly with students. Those who complete the training are equipped with specific strategies to support community outreach, student participation, persistence, engagement, and success2.


Additionally,
FIRST has prioritized the access and involvement of underrepresented, underserved and vulnerable youth in its programs. Renaissance Jax is equally committed to this prioritization of underrepresented, underserved and vulnerable youth. Minorities who participate are two times more likely to pursue careers in engineering and STEM-related fields; girls are four times as likely.


Children participating in
FIRST are proven to have higher class attendance, grades, and have a 99% graduation rate. Once enrolled in a FIRST program, 88% of students are more interested in excelling in school, and 87% are more interested in pursuing college3



https://www.firstinspires.org/about/diversityinclusion

2 Inspiring Success: Access Training Modules, https://www.firstinspires.org/about/diversityinclusion 

3  https://www.firstinspires.org/about/impact 

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