SLAM NextBuild — Miami, FL

They don't just learn about computers. They build them.

A two-week engineering intensive where Miami high school students from underserved communities build professional-grade PCs with their own hands — and keep them.

Sponsor a build See how it works
28Students served to date
60HRSHands-on per cohort
$0Cost to families
$60K+Raised to date
The gap

Students use technology every day. Almost none are ever shown what's inside.

Students with resources get gaming rigs, robotics kits, and relatives in tech. Students without them often rule out entire careers as "not for people like me" — before anyone ever puts real hardware in their hands. NextBuild ends that, one build at a time.

The program

A real engineering lab — not a lecture.

Two weeks, full days, hosted with SLAM! Miami. Every student assembles a complete professional-grade PC from loose components.

Build

One student, one machine

CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, power, cooling — students handle every component and wire a working system from scratch. No watching from the back row.

Break & fix

Diagnose like an engineer

Students troubleshoot real failures — no-boot systems, bad RAM, thermal issues. Diagnostic thinking is the most transferable skill in tech, and it can't be taught from a slide.

Keep & launch

The machine goes home

Graduates leave with the computer they built — removing the access barrier at home — and a first real look at careers in IT and engineering.

Instructor walking students through a motherboard diagram on a large screen
Architecture, taught for real
Student driving screws into his PC build in a lab full of students assembling machines
Every build is hands-on
Student grinning mid-build, surrounded by classmates working inside a PC case
The moment it clicks
A full classroom of students assembling PCs at lab benches
Real hardware. Real students. A room full of machines coming to life.
By the numbers

Program spec sheet.

Students served to dateAcross all NextBuild cohorts since founding.
28
Students / cohortSmall by design — one student, one build, full ownership.
9
Hands-on instructionTwo full-time weeks: architecture, assembly, systems, troubleshooting.
60HRS
Raised to dateSponsor and SLAM Foundation funding, put directly into hardware and instruction.
$60K+
Cost per studentComplete build, tools, and materials — fully funded by sponsors.
$1,947
Cost to familiesAccess is the point.
$0
The student journey

From sealed box to working machine in ten days.

STEP 01

Open the box

Architecture first: what every component does, and how to identify each one on sight.

STEP 02

Assemble

Seating CPUs, installing RAM and GPUs, wiring power — a complete system, built step by step.

STEP 03

Power on

The machine comes to life for the first time. Students configure it and install the operating system — a moment they don't forget.

STEP 04

Break it, then fix it

Simulated real-world failures teach students to diagnose methodically, the way working engineers do.

STEP 05

Boot into what's next

Graduates leave with a machine they built and understand completely — and a concrete new picture of where they could go in tech.

A NextBuild cohort with their finished builds, in front of SLAM Foundation and SLAM Miami screens
The origin
"Technology should not be a black box. Students should be able to open it, understand it, fix it, and build it themselves." Robert Garcia — Founder, SLAM NextBuild

NextBuild was founded by Robert Garcia, a Miami student who taught himself to build and repair computers and turned it into a working technology practice — real builds, real repairs, real clients — while still in high school.

With backing from the SLAM Foundation, the first cohort ran as a two-week intensive at SLAM! Miami: students went from never having opened a computer to assembling and troubleshooting complete systems. Now the program is being documented and scaled to run every year, across more SLAM schools — and sponsors are what make each cohort possible.

Get involved

The next cohort is waiting. Be the reason it runs.

Start a conversation

Robert Garcia, Founder — robert@nextbuildmiami.org