Who we are

Future Minds Academy: NextGen Innovators is a hands-on STEM summer camp for rising 4th–6th graders, led by veteran educators Joe and Mike Ward with over 30 years of combined teaching experience. As a registered nonprofit organization, our mission is to make high-quality, hands-on STEM education accessible to young learners in our community.

Inspired by a shared passion for science and learning, the Ward brothers created this camp to provide local students with meaningful, hands-on STEM experiences that are often hard to find in Marin and Sonoma counties.

Campers explore science through engaging, project-based learning—building rockets, engineering catapults, designing egg drop apparatuses, and more. Through topics like biology, engineering, Newton’s Laws, and hydrodynamics, students develop curiosity, critical thinking, teamwork, and confidence while discovering what it means to think like a scientist.