WELCOME TO THE STEM FOR KIDS WORLD!
We are all about making Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fun and real for children.
Now an international brand, STEM For Kids, is winning accolades in education and entrepreneurial circles. This is our story.
Our story started one hot Raleigh summer in 2011. To escape from the S
un, my kids and I decided to play indoors. You see, my busy corporate life laced with frequent travel had inspired my rising 1st grade daughter to draw pictures of the family with mom always working ☹.
I was determined to change that! That day, we were using a piece of paper to make a bridge across two paper cups. The first design couldn’t even hold one pencil. We kept working on it until they came to a design where that same single piece of paper could now hold 20 pencils and it was still holding strong! Their eyes lit up and they were totally amazed.
The sparkle in their eyes has stayed with me since. That ‘Aha’ moment … they made a meaningful connection with learning. Little did I know that these were the seeds of something big!
Inspired, we stayed very creative that summer… we were “engineering fun with math and science”. Those playful experiences became our first Civil Engineering program. STEM For Kids was born. Along with the name, came our EngineerSTEM, the embodiment of what we felt that summer – an integrated STEM with real life skills. Kids, mine and others’, just loved EngineerSTEM.
As for me – I had discovered the new me, Ms. STEM for the children so energized by the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
The initial feedback from parents, children, teachers and schools were positive and we
continued. We worked hard and played even harder to add new programs– Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering… Our team grew and our programming line-up grew.
A year later, my son, who was then a 3rd grader, came to me with a business proposition that I could not decline: “buy me a robotics kit and I will help you develop a curriculum for robotics”. We are STEM For Kids and Kids rule in our world! I couldn’t say no.
His playful explorations generated new ideas. He teamed up with one of our best STEM Coaches and our robotics curriculum took shape.
I went back to my own bases as a computer science engineer to add Taste of Computer Science to our line-up. Our work was now getting noticed beyond the triangle region. We began serving schools and students in other parts of North Carolina and also out of the state.
My third baby, STEM For Kids, was growing alongside my awesome two children. Little did we know that we had started a movement… a STEM movement!
We were receiving interest from all around the world.
Back then, we were the only ones implementing an educational enrichment methodology for elementary age children that brought the soft skills (like communications and collaboration) front-and-center along with the hard skills of engineering and computer sciences.
Parents, teachers, principals, school administrators, businesses and organizations started reaching out to us to find ways to bring our integrated STEM to their communities and to their children. Some wanted their children to get their first experiences in computer programming, some were looking for hands-on engineering and almost everyone wanted all these wrapped up with the soft skills.
It was time to begin a formal approach towards growth and expansion. That’s when I decided to franchise the STEM For Kids business model to enable other business aspirants and entrepreneurs to take STEM For Kids to their markets.
That decision started the long and arduous process to get our business ready for franchising. My goals were clear:
We set out to create a solid foundation and worked diligently to perfect our methods, processes and curriculum. If something didn’t work right or if it was inefficient, we discarded it or changed it until we got it right. After iterating through our processes, methods and lesson plans numerous times and removing kinks, STEM For Kids was ready to be presented to aspiring business owners and passionate entrepreneurs ready to make a difference in children’s education in their communities.
Our next challenge was to make sure that we selected the best from a deluge of franchise candidates.
In the fall of 2015, we awarded our first franchise and that December, our second.
Another rewarding journey had started as now we could enable other people to bring the excitement of STEM to their children.
With over 7 years as STEM For Kids, today we are in 12 states in the US and in 4 countries. And we have just begun! A long exciting journey is ahead of us.
Simplicity, I found, is the key when engaging with children and to keep our team focused. Our mission “ Making STEM fun and real ” does just that. While we have grown from that one curriculum to 40+ and multiple locations, our core remains focusing on simplicity… taking complex real life applications and challenges and making them a child’s play is what we do best.
Continuous improvement and curriculum innovation are at the heart of how we operate. Fresh kids friendly content are regularly added to keep our franchisees’ businesses relevant in this fast changing world of science, technology, engineering and business. It never gets boring here!
I feel so blessed to have an awesome team, a team that continuously strives to live The STEM WayTM and to create the best possible experiences for children, parents and all stakeholders.
Moreover, our franchisees are awesome! It is such an amazing group of technologists, educators, stay-at-home parents and business people.
As I think about the future of STEM For Kids, I am marveled by the endless possibilities of joining forces with collaborators in business and academia, of helping many future entrepreneurs find their dreams in replicating STEM For Kids in their markets and of children worldwide experiencing the wonders of STEM.
To all the parents, children, teachers, schools, communities, franchisees, collaborators and vendors who encourage us, make us better and stronger every day,
STEM For Kids
