Director of UNF STEP Lab supports STEM education for educators and students

Solve, Tinker, Explore and Play (STEP). 

These four words define the daily educational practices Xavier Rozas shares with University of North Florida faculty and students, education professionals and children to help propel young minds to reach their full potential. 

Promoted last year as both director of the UNF STEP Lab and associate director of the Northeast Florida Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (NEFSTEM), Rozas champions experiential learning and its ability to help students find their purpose. He began working in the STEP Lab in 2020 following an 18-year career working in Boston Public Schools as a high school teacher and administrator. 

When Rozas looks around the STEP Lab, located in Tom and Betty Petway Hall, he not only sees 3D printers, laser cutters, Lego kits and coding robots — he sees endless learning possibilities. 

“The STEP Lab is a modular space where everyone can work on projects and crafts,” said Rozas. “Critical, creative and computational thinking within the STEM realm is what we embody here — that involves hands-on project-based inquiry and sensemaking activities worked through in real-time, to address real challenges.” 

Under Rozas’ leadership, the STEP Lab has experienced continuous growth and become one of the premier labs on campus. 

Working with a team of 15 federal work study students pursuing degrees in various fields, Rozas coordinates on- and off-campus field trips for K-12 students. In the past year, he has helped coordinate more than 50 field trips, including the fourth annual Ozzie's Playful Computing Summer Camp. Last summer, as a member of the UNF inSTEP research team, he helped coordinate an innovative renewable energy field trip on campus for elementary children. Students explored various topics including thermal energy and hydrogen power. This insightful field trip experience was made possible through a collaboration with the UNF Sustainable Solutions Lab. 

Career Background  

A native of Boston, Rozas’s early professional career began far away from the classroom. After earning a bachelor’s degree in film studies from Wesleyan University in 1999, he embarked on a career as a documentary filmmaker. Those early years took him from New Orleans to New York, where he worked in marketing and eventually became a producer at IBM. But everything changed after the September 11 attacks. 

“I was working on Madison Avenue, watching people stream into the city to help,” Rozas recalled. “I felt helpless. I realized I needed to rethink my professional goals.” 

That reflection led him to quit his job at IBM and become a volunteer firefighter in Westchester County, New York. He also started a nonprofit organization named Called to Fire, which repurposed decommissioned firefighter gear for underserved communities in South America. To raise awareness for his nonprofit, Rozas rode his motorcycle from New York to the tip of South America. The journey reignited a sense of service that would eventually lead him to a career in education. 

After completing the trip, Rozas began substitute teaching and was eventually offered a permanent teaching position. He taught various subjects including communication and visual technology, U.S. history and more. 

“One year led to another and another — after 18 years, I was a director of career and technical education in Boston Public Schools,” Rozas said. 

Move to Florida, STEP Lab and Finding His Calling 

Rozas and his family moved to Florida after his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hale, associate professor of literacy, accepted a teaching position in the UNF Silverfield College of Education and Human Services (SCOEHS). 

Before joining his wife at UNF, he briefly worked at the University of Florida as an instructional coach and professional development facilitator starting in 2019. In this role, he supported elementary and middle school educators with integrating various instructional approaches into their curriculum. 

He accepted a position to work at UNF as a SCOEHS clinical faculty member and shortly after began working in the STEP Lab in 2020 as the NEFSTEM’s coordinator for professional learning. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the STEP Lab was empty as campus activities were on hold and there were no students. That’s when he began to explore the lab’s equipment and inviting others into the lab to “Solve, Tinker, Explore and Play (STEP).” 

“I took it upon myself to develop opportunities to attract people to come into the lab,” said Rozas. “I began inviting professors in and teaching people how to work the 3D printers and develop ways to work with students offline. The lab became an attraction unto itself.” 

Reflecting upon his many years as an education professional, Rozas says his efforts are rooted in his desire to see others happy. 

“I think my calling and passion is to work with people and have them realize their full potential,” he said. 

Just as he hopes to help others reach their full potential, Rozas looks to do the same for himself by strengthening his academic profile. He’s currently a SCOEHS doctoral candidate working toward a degree in curriculum and instruction, and he is expected to graduate in spring 2026.