On the surface, it looks like play: teenagers piloting drones through obstacle courses, tracking flight data on laptops, radioing coordinates back and forth like a mission control team. But for the students of WOLF (Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future) every flight is training for something much bigger: a career.
Founded in 2012 by husband-and-wife team Sara Moola and Robert “Mike” Vaughn, WOLF began as a way to support Gold Star families—those who have lost a loved one in military service—by giving their children mentorship, outdoor leadership training, and a sense of purpose. Vaughn, a Special Operations veteran, and Moola moved WOLF from Utah to St. Petersburg in 2019, growing the hands-on STEM program that prepares middle school, high school, and early-career learners for jobs in machine learning, automation, robotics, and space technology; skills the organization calls “MARS.”
Today, WOLF partners with Pinellas County Schools, the U.S. Coast Guard, local first responders, and the St. Petersburg Maritime and Defense Technology Innovation Hub, where WOLF now serves as the anchor nonprofit. Its flagship initiative, DroneWolf, brings a mobile classroom directly to schools and after-school sites across the county, giving students who might never otherwise touch a drone the chance to earn real technical certifications.
A grant that got WOLF moving
Pinellas Community Foundation’s relationship with WOLF began in 2022, when PCF awarded* the organization $55,654 to purchase and outfit a mobile command post: a trailer equipped with drones, robotics kits, laptops, and networking equipment that could travel to schools throughout the county. It was, in many ways, the piece of equipment that made WOLF’s countywide ambitions possible.
The trailer allowed WOLF to bring hands-on aviation and robotics training directly into St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation after-school sites, reaching roughly 500 students, 55 of whom completed specialized uncrewed aviation systems training on site. It also supported a partnership with Lakewood High School, where WOLF trained and helped 40 student pilots earn FAA certification; students who now return the favor by mentoring middle schoolers in the same program. In the years since, WOLF estimates the mobile command post has helped the organization reach well over 2,000 Pinellas County students through STEM, drone, and robotics education.
Scaling up, countywide
That momentum is exactly what Pinellas Community Foundation is backing again with a new two-year general operating grant of $15,000 per year—$30,000 total for 2026 and 2027—approved to help WOLF expand DroneWolf outreach across Pinellas County and build a formal advisory board to guide fundraising and growth.
The funding arrives as WOLF is scaling in several directions at once. At Azalea Middle School, WOLF has partnered with the Civil Air Patrol to fold drone and aviation curriculum into STEM classes, reaching roughly 1,500 students. At the Enoch Davis Resource Center, WOLF is working with the Cohort of Champions program to build a new pipeline for South St. Petersburg youth. And with a National Science Foundation (NSF) Phase II grant, WOLF is developing DroneWolf.AI, an online platform where students design and troubleshoot machine-learning-driven drone missions alongside an AI tutor, extending the reach of the in-person program between visits from the mobile trailer.
In the most recent program year, WOLF worked directly with roughly 215 people in Pinellas County: approximately 180 students, 15 educators, and 20 mentors and partners. Counting every lab, competition, and outreach event those students took part in, that adds up to more than 1,200 total touchpoints over the year. Organization-wide, including its summer programs and online platform, WOLF reports serving around 250 people directly and logging 1,500 program touchpoints in a single year—building on the more than 2,000 students the mobile command post alone has reached since 2022, a figure that likely overlaps with these annual counts since many students return year after year.
What’s next for WOLF
WOLF’s leadership is candid that the organization has reached an inflection point. For years, WOLF’s team focused heavily on program development, outreach, and student scholarships. Now, WOLF is building a new Board of Advisors, drawing on industry, academic, and first-responder partners who already help shape DroneWolf’s curriculum, to strengthen fundraising and long-term sustainability.
The organization’s goals are ambitious: with full funding, WOLF projects it could serve more than 3,000 students and 100 educators annually across every high school in Pinellas County, and is in active conversations with other local Pinellas County organizations about establishing a permanent training and technology demonstration site.
For students like the ones WOLF serves, many from military families or Title I schools with little access to robotics, aviation, or AI instruction, this growth means more chances to see a subject like AP Physics translate from an abstract theory into a drone they’ve built, flown, and understood. It’s the kind of experience Pinellas Community Foundation has chosen to back twice now: first by helping WOLF get its mobile classroom on the road, and now by helping the organization plan for what comes next.
Inspired by what is possible in Pinellas County? Learn how to establish a fund at Pinellas Community Foundation and put your giving to work: pinellascf.org
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*ARPA Nonprofit Capital Project Fund
