From Youth Golf Camp to Aerospace Welding
Juan-Diego Jordan first attended EFSC’s youth golf camp at age eight. Ten years later, the camp awarded him a scholarship as he prepares for aerospace-welding studies.
By Amy Ling
Juan-Diego Jordan was eight years old when he first attended a youth golf camp at Eastern Florida State College. Ten years later, the same program helped send him toward college and a career in aerospace welding.
EFSC announced that Jordan and fellow senior Saniya Hunlen received scholarships at the closing ceremony for the 32nd annual PJ Wilson and Henry Scott Youth Golf Camp.
A decade of showing up
The two-week camp at EFSC's Fred Gay Golf Academy in Cocoa served about 120 young golfers in 2026. Jordan, a Merritt Island High School senior, had been attending since he was eight.
He told the college that the camp made him fall in love with golf. The scholarship now connects that long-running summer experience to a very different kind of precision: welding components for the aerospace industry.
Photo courtesy of Eastern Florida State College.
First in his family, focused on a Space Coast trade
Jordan said he expects to be the first person in his family to attend college and plans to pursue aerospace welding. On the Space Coast, that is not an abstract trade. Welders and fabrication technicians help build and maintain aircraft, launch systems and other hardware where a small defect can become a major problem.
EFSC offers welding technology and aerospace-related education close to home. Jordan's route shows how a community program can create more than one kind of opportunity: a place to belong as a child, a scholarship as a senior and a bridge into skilled work.
Most children at a youth golf camp will not become professional golfers. That does not make the camp's impact smaller. Sometimes the lasting result is simply a young person learning to keep returning, keep practicing and recognize the next opening when it appears.
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Amy Ling
Amy writes about Brevard's schools, students, families, and community programs. Her work focuses on the practical side of local education: what changed, who it helps, and what parents and students need to know next.
