Children are the future leaders.
We are passionate about helping your child become the next preeminent innovator! Over the past decade, virtually all of our student’s have gone on to college with many earning academic scholarships. The vast majority are pursuing or have pursued careers in STEM related fields.
The best news? Our students return to JSAC as adult volunteers to help students in our existing program — a truly heartfelt testament to the profound impact our program has had in their lives.
Our History
In 2005, Dr. Johnson met with Dean Kamen (Founder, FIRST Robotics) and Bart Sudderth (Founder, Millennium Training Systems) to collaborate on a robotics program for underserved youth in the city of Atlanta. Dr. Johnson donated part of his downtown Atlanta building to the program.
The inaugural class of the robotics program started with just 1 team of 6 students. Thanks to Dr. Johnson’s generosity, the team had ample space and a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from Dr. Johnson. Over the next decade, dozens of robotics teams were clamoring to call Dr. Johnson’s facility their “home”.
By 2014, over 200 students from several robotics teams were donated space to design and build their robots. The popularity of the program increased exponentially as the demand exceeded the space donated by Dr. Johnson. In 2016, approximately 2,000 students from the metropolitan Atlanta area participated in robotics at the 20,000 square foot facility.
The following year, the facility was aptly given the name Johnson STEM Activity Center and officially became a legal non-profit entity. By 2018, over 8,000 students were utilizing the Johnson STEM Center. With the addition of an ultra modern computer lab in 2019, the number of participating students surpassed 10,000.
Our Founder
Nothing is impossible when curiosity and innovation meet hard work and perseverance. – Dr Lonnie Johnson
On May 5, 2022, Dr. Lonnie Johnson, founder and Chairman of JSAC, was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in Washington, DC. He was recognized for his vast contributions to science and engineering in addition to his most popular invention, the Super Soaker water gun.
With over 150 patents and dozens more patents pending, Dr. Johnson is a prolific inventor with innovations in the energy sector, technology arena and consumer products industry. He is passionate about solving the world’s most complex technological challenges and encourages students at JSAC to embrace difficult work and to learn from mistakes with the same enthusiasm. His life is the epitome of his favorite word, “perseverance”.
