01 · Grass-roots
We meet students where they already are.
EFTO brings engineering directly into the schools, churches, sororities, and youth programs students already trust — rather than asking families to come find us.
We deliver free, hands-on engineering workshops to students ages 8–13 across St. Thomas and St. Croix — robotics, circuits, solar cars, bridges, and AI. Because engineering is creative, collaborative, and open to everyone.
Engineers For Tomorrow Outreach (EFTO) is a U.S. Virgin Islands 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2018 to spark an early love of engineering in local students.
We deliver free, hands-on workshops in robotics, circuits, solar cars, bridges, and AI directly to schools, after-school programs, sororities, and youth organizations across St. Thomas and St. Croix — because when a student wires their first circuit or programs their first robot, the question stops being can I be an engineer? and becomes what kind?
Every workshop is free, funded by community grants, and led by working engineers who look like the students they're inspiring.
Three principles guide every workshop we run across the U.S. Virgin Islands.
EFTO brings engineering directly into the schools, churches, sororities, and youth programs students already trust — rather than asking families to come find us.
Circuits, robotics, bridges, and AI — delivered consistently, year after year — create the kind of curiosity that survives middle school and beyond.
Students design, build, test, and iterate something real every session. Every workshop ends with something they made, took home, or competed with.
These activities strive to show our students that engineering is creative, collaborative — and most importantly, open to everyone.Lena Steele Williams · Director, EFTO
Each program is built around a single principle: students learn engineering best when they design, build, test, and iterate something real with their own hands.
Wire functional light bulbs, motors and simple machines — discover how energy flows through a system students built themselves.
Assemble, code, and command first robots — building both hardware confidence and computational thinking.
Design and race solar-powered vehicles — a perfect fit for the Caribbean sun and the engineering trade-offs behind renewable energy.
Bridges, beams, and earthquake-resistant structures — why triangles hold when squares collapse, and what that means for hurricane-prone islands.
Program micro:bit microcontrollers to detect motion and respond intelligently — an accessible first encounter with the AI shaping their future.
Aviation-focused engineering kits introduce students to flight principles, aerodynamics, and the design process.
She just doesn't know it yet. Maybe she's never met an engineer who looks like her. Maybe she's never wired a circuit, programmed a robot, or watched her own solar car outpace the kid next to her.
EFTO exists to close that gap — to put the tools, the mentors, and the spark in front of every Virgin Islands student, free of charge. We honor pioneers like Elijah McCoy, the Black mechanical engineer whose automatic lubrication systems gave us the phrase the real McCoy — and pair their stories with builds that let every student feel that legacy.
Every workshop, every kit, every solar car race depends on people like you.
Principals, teachers, after-school coordinators — invite EFTO to deliver a hands-on engineering session at your school or program, at no cost.
Request a workshopWorking engineers, college STEM students, and skilled volunteers — we pair you with the right age group and project.
Volunteer with usKits, materials, and travel between islands cost real money. Sponsor a workshop, fund Engineers Week, or underwrite our annual aviation program.
Become a sponsorEvery EFTO workshop is free because of the funders below — and we deliver in partnership with the institutions students already know and trust.
Whether you're booking a workshop, exploring a partnership, or following up on a grant conversation — we'd love to hear from you.