SPPF MASTR Kids Program

08/19/2026

Mark your calendars and come join us for sunset yoga at the St. Pete Pier!

Join us Wednesday, September 2 at 7:00pm for a free yoga class at the St. Pete Pier. We hope to see you there!

08/13/2026

What a fun field day our scholars had to wrap up a full and exciting summer! We hope all our scholars have had a great start back to school.

08/04/2026

An incredible opportunity for our scholars to hear from some of our own community entrepreneurs! Thank you for investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs.

HSMP scholars visited spARK Innovation Center to better understand the highs and lows of "entrepreneurship!" Three entrepreneurs took time to talk about their current business, their experiences in refining the core idea or business proposition, their pivots, etc. A number of our scholars want to "own their own business" in keeping with our community's rich history of entrepreneurship.
Their BIG takeaway: be clear about what problem you are solving, for whom, at what price.
Success is often rooted in the impact/importance of the problem and the simplicity/ease of your solution! Many thanks to Edwin Deek for organizing our visit and, to each of the entrepreneurs who took time away from their day to speak with our scholars!
A special shout out to Dovev Weaver, an SPPF parent, who also invited scholars to attend the Kidpreneur Marketplace on August 8th hosted by he and his daughter, our scholar (Elise)!! We're super proud of them both!

08/03/2026

📚✏️ It's time to get ready for a new school year!

Florida's Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday is here, making it a little easier for families to save on many of the supplies, clothing, and learning essentials scholars need for a successful start to the school year.

Whether you're checking off your school supply list or picking up a few classroom essentials, we encourage our SPPF families to take advantage of this opportunity to save.

Here's to a school year filled with learning, growth, and new possibilities. We can't wait to see all our scholars back in the classroom! 💙🍎

07/30/2026

Check out the incredible accomplishments of our scholars this summer! 💙

07/24/2026

"This is it. I want to work here!" ~ 13 year old aspiring mechanical engineer.
That was the response following the trip the HSMP scholars made last Friday to two Jabil facilities. It was an incredibly thoughtful presentation of both the work the company does, and the variety of available career paths within the organization. The scholars asked great questions including one about the impact of AI on future careers. A huge THANK YOU to the team at JABIL, especially Andrew Platt, Gessele Bricker, John Kraus, John Thomas, Rachel Ani, Catherine Chandler for the planning and organization that went into the experience!

07/22/2026

On Friday, Lauren Bell, of the St. Petersburg Innovation District invited a zillion friends to create a magical day of learning about climate and careers. 210 of our M.A.S.T.R. Kids scholars created cityscapes that tested the water movement in different conditions, built boats from foil, made SLIME, and many other cool activities.

They also met with a team from the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast to learn about what they do. They were able to try out various tools on one of the Coast Guard boats and they watched a water rescue exercise!! It was truly AMAZING!!

Here's a tip, if you are in a "branch" of the military and you spend time with young ones, tell them why it's called a branch AND why yours is different from the others! THANK YOU Lauren!!

07/20/2026

We're giving a SHOUT OUT to the Cybersecurity Team at Raymond James!! Ten days ago, they provided a wonderful learning experience for our HSMP scholars. Scholars toured the command center and learned a lot from the sharing of career pathways. Thanks so much to Elder Walters, Christian Passaro, Eric Spaulding, and Sophia Hower for making it all possible!

07/20/2026

07/15/2026

On Monday, our scholars had an opportunity to visit the renovated St. Petersburg Agile Resilience (SPAR) center - Northeast Water Reclamation facility.
They learned about water filtration and the need for resiliency in our water system by touring a facility which is responsible for the water needs of over 100,000 people in our community.
They also explored a variety of Public Works careers requiring varying levels of education/certifications and then completed a couple of their own experiments.
Many thanks to the City of St. Petersburg, Florida staff who hosted us and to Deneen Wyman and Shelly Loos for making the visit possible!!