Building the Blue Economy workforce
NEXT WAVE introduces high school students and teachers to traditional and emerging military and civilian STEM careers across the northern Gulf Coast through these research-backed methods:
Free field trips
Paid internships
Educator events
Opening doors by design
NEXT WAVE attracts participants from across the northern Gulf region—over 5,100 in three years—because the program makes it easy. Field trips are always free. We arrange everything, including access to highly secure locations such as sites at Stennis Space Center. We even offer transportation and substitute stipends to help schools offset costs.
By doing this, NEXT WAVE keeps homegrown talent on the Gulf Coast for high-wage technical careers, strengthening local economies and the defense industrial base in the process.
Our proven system of free field trips, educator events, and paid internships works as designed and is ready to scale to any location.
Summer 2025 internship sites
Partnering for a new tomorrow
NEXT WAVE’s more than 50 workforce partners open their doors to host field trips, educator events and high school student internships. Here are just a few members of the “crew”:
Manufacturing ·Ingalls Shipbuilding, Bollinger Shipbuilding, Ocean Aero, L3Harris, Chemours,
Logistics · Ports of Gulfport, Mobile, and Pascagoula
Federal & state agencies · National Park Service, Naval Oceanographic Command, NOAA National Data Buoy Center, NOAA SE Marine Fisheries, MS Dept. of Marine Resources
Nonprofit · Delta Audubon Society, Land Trust for the CoastalPlain, Pascagoula River Audubon Center
Training & education · University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State University, Keesler Air Force Base 81st Training Wing
Five hours can change a life
Just one five-hour field trip can make a young person rethink their future. We give all attendees at any NEXT WAVE event—field trip, internship, and educator experience—pre- and post-tests to see if the program influenced their views on what STEM careers are available on the Gulf Coast and whether they might be interested in a STEM job themselves one day. Experience after experience, all signs point to yes.
NEXT WAVE: Join the Crew! expands the STEM in Action mission through blue economy and Gulf Coast-connected learning experiences. This initiative emphasizes maritime, environmental, coastal, and resilience-related STEM pathways that are especially important to Gulf Coast communities and the industries that support them.
Through NEXT WAVE, students explore how STEM applies to waterways, ecosystems, infrastructure, maritime technology, and community resilience. The goal is to show students that the future of STEM is not abstract; it is visible in the industries, landscapes, and civic challenges around them.