Striving for Excellence Academy After-School & Summer Program

Motto: Better than the best because the best never rest!

The Striving for Excellence Academy (SFEA) was founded in 1995 by Liesta Sykes, a volunteer and resident of the Madison Park Neighborhood where the program was located. She later became a member and eventually President of the Improvement League of Plant City.

This after school program provided tutorial and mentoring services to initially 125 children per day during its first three years of operation. Operating at the former Simmons Alternative School campus on Gibbs Street, this program offered services in a neighborhood plagued with blight and low income families.

This site was leased to the Improvement League by the Hillsborough County School District for $1.00 per year for seven years and funding for the program was provided by the City of Plant City, Annual MLK Cultural Arts Festival and Hillsborough County Children's Board.

In 2000, the school district revisited plans to again place an alternative school however community outcry caused the site to become a technical career center.

SFEA closed the tutorial program on Gibbs Street in 2004 to make way for a new career center and relocated it's computer lab, and mentoring programs temporarily to Historic Glover School.