About Us

Our Vision

Gator Science Olympiad at the University of Florida is a non-profit student organization dedicated to inspiring creative problem solving, STEM literacy, and love for learning for all ages (K-12) through its annual tournaments. Our tournaments are led and run by an experienced group of Science Olympiad Alumni who have supervised events for invitational tournaments across the country and have medaled at the state and national level. We strive to provide a quality tournament experience for our competitors and to offer STEM outreach opportunities for the UF student body.

Our Organization

History: Gator Science Olympiad was founded in August 2017 with the purpose of replacing the Northern Florida regional tournament that was previously held at Florida Gateway College. Since our initial beginnings, Gator Science Olympiad has successfully run 6 regional tournaments and 1 state tournament for over 3,500 middle and high school students.

Organization Status: Gator Science Olympiad is defined as a Student Group under the University of Florida and we are a chapter member of Florida Science Olympiad, INC. The Directors sit on the Florida Science Olympiad Board and serve as active voting members of the organization. As a member of Florida Science Olympiad, we are designated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Leadership: Unlike the structure of the majority of regional and state tournament venues, Gator Science Olympiad is led by an Executive Board composed of students at the University of Florida that are distinguished alumni competitors of Science Olympiad. The President(s) are the leaders of the organization, while the Regional Directors are the leaders of the regional tournament. The President(s) also hold the title of State Tournament Director in accordance with conventional terminology used by Florida Science Olympiad.

Volunteers and Supervisors: Gator Science Olympiad does not maintain a general body of members to run tournaments. Instead, we primarily recruit event supervisors and volunteers from the student body at the University of Florida and occasionally from outside of Florida. Our supervisors and volunteers are hand selected to ensure they are qualified and have the necessary experience to effectively run events.