Engineering For Kids on Shaw TV

Engineering For Kids featured on Arizona's Local NBC

EFK Franchisee Featured in AZCentral Article

Engineering For Kids' Ron Hoagland was featured in an azcentral article. Ron talks about how he got involved with Engineering For Kids and how he helps to improve the local community.


Aaron Rop, The Republic | azcentral.com

A summer camp in Arizona might sound like a long day under the sun with the reward of exhaustion and sweat-stained clothes.

With Ron Hoagland's summer camp, though, Southeast Valley kids can have fun designing video games, building robots or simply learning how the world works.

Hoagland is the owner and director of Engineering for Kids' East Valley division. Engineering for Kids was started by CEO Dori Roberts, a former high-school teacher, who developed an after-school program into a successful STEM program for all demographics.

Roberts started franchising her business in 2009, Hoagland says, and Hoagland bought the first franchise in Arizona in July last year. The program is in 26 states and four countries.

Hoagland says he always wanted to own his own business and have it be positive, bringing something new to the community. Coming from a sales and marketing background, he says he didn't know much about STEM or engineering, but he did research on education in the U.S. compared with other countries and found there was a need to spark kids' interest in engineering because U.S. public schools are lagging.

"Technology is moving so fast now," Hoagland said. "So, if we don't get these kids going now, it's scary to think where this country might be in 20 to 30 years. … We've been on top as the world's leader of innovation for decades and decades, but that's not guaranteed, especially if we are not addressing the education situation in the U.S. Schools are cutting back on programs all the time, so there is a need for people to come in and provide that opportunity."

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Engineering For Kids on Daily Worth

Engineering For Kids on Daily Worth in an article titled, "How We Turned Our Passions Into Profits." The article is a compilation of stories from women who turned their passion into a business. Dori is the third woman featured and talks about how Dori founded Engineering For Kids, details about the business, and how Dori continues to stay passionate about providing STEM education to the next generation of engineers.  Click here for the entire article or begin below.

How We Turned Our Passions Into Profits

By: Nancy Mann Jackson

Dori Roberts, 39, Stafford, Va.

Her passion: A mother and a teacher, Dori Roberts is passionate about education — specifically, science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM subjects. Frustrated about the lack of STEM education available for her students and her ownchildren, Roberts started an after-school club to give them more exposure to math, science and engineering.

Turning it into a business: The after-school STEM club was so popular and grew so much that Roberts turned it into a business in 2009. Engineering for Kids provides enrichment programs to children ages 4 to 14 through preschool programs, after-school classes, workshops, in school field trips and birthday parties. Children learn engineering concepts and problem solving through hands-on activities such as LEGO robotics, designing and building rockets and developing their own electronic games.

Finding success: After starting with one location in Stafford, Va., Roberts has built the business into 84 franchised locations across the country.

Maintaining the passion: “The children inspire me,” Roberts says. “I am always looking for new ways to inspire the next generation ofengineers. This is where my passion comes from.”

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Franchisee Spotlight: Patty Potts

Before starting her own Engineering for Kids franchise, Patty Potts worked in environmental and occupational health. Working primarily as the environmental and occupational health engineering specialist, Potts trained more than 1000 employees over the course of 10 years in this field.

How did you learn about the brand?

I really love science and I originally saw Engineering for Kids on a mommy blog on Facebook about a year ago. I have a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter and I’m always looking for things to do with them. As soon as I found out they were franchising I began looking into them.

Why did you choose an opportunity with Engineering for Kids?

This was something my kids could enjoy and that side of the business was very important to me. Also, I’m extremely passionate about science. I had looked at other concepts including a soup restaurant franchise and a toy store franchise, but Engineering for Kids was a much lower startup-cost option and I liked the fact that it could be home based.

What makes your business unique in the community?

The concept of Engineering for Kids and how we use problem solving to make kids engaged makes us not only unique in this community but across the country. With Engineering for Kids they want to learn about science and that’s important for future generations.

Are you involved with any charities or do any community outreach with your business?

We give gift cards to the different PTA auctions and I am involved with the local food pantry as well.

What are your expansion or development plans? What is your end goal with Engineering for Kids?

We are looking right now to partner with the Smithsonian Institute. As part of our process to secure this opportunity we have to pick out one or two monuments or famous sites around DC and we have to reinforce the engineering ideas behind them. Also, this year I hope to have a storefront before summer in Alexandria, Virginia.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or passions?

I love spending time with my kids and traveling, especially when we get to go places with snow! Being from Michigan, it’s always nice to share the snow and other things I did as a child with my own children. 

Engineering for Kids Featured in Franchise Times

Engineering for Kids was featured in the Franchise Times in an article titled, "Ratcheting Up". 

The article gives the history of founder Dori Roberts and her epiphany to start an engineering program for young kids when she was unable to find one for her own children to join. Highlighting EFK's fast rise in success, the feature touches upon the emphasis to include young girls in engineering from an early age, and nurturing child's natural engineering interest. The article also discusses franchising opportunities and costs for those interested in being a part of the increasing importance of STEM education for youth. 

Click HERE for the full article or begin reading below:

Ratcheting Up

With tech jobs rising, Engineering for Kids sees opportunity

By: Jeffrey McKinney

One entrepreneur is banking on the nationwide focus on science and technology education to grow her franchise system, Engineering for Kids. Will its head start last long enough to gain traction?

After witnessing a “great spark” in her young children as they watched students clash in an engineering competition a few years ago, Dori Roberts had a business epiphany. She started Engineering for Kids, and now her franchise is poised to take off along with rising interest in STEM education, otherwise known as science, technology, engineering and math.

A former high school engineering  and technology teacher for 11 years, Roberts knew her then 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son were amazed with what the students were doing and wanted join in the competition. But she couldn’t find any programs for their age group. That void prompted Roberts to create Engineering for Kids. But she also had another inspiration to launch EFK in 2009. After she left teaching, she built an after-school engineering club that grew from eight to 180 students. Fast-forward five years: Roberts’ daughter now wants to be an architect and her son an engineer.  

Franchisee Spotlight: Juanita Leung

A native of Hong Kong, Leung moved to San Francisco in 1983 and received a degree in marketing and sales management from San Francisco State University. Leung did advertising sales for several years before making a career change into commercial real estate marketing. In 2000 she decided to become a real estate agent and was later recruited into an account management position for Fidelity National Title for 7 years. In 2010 she went back into real estate sales for Prudential. In 2012 she was named one of Prudential’s top 7 producers.

How did you learn about the brand?

I was searching for education franchises on Google and looked into a number of concepts. After I saw Engineering for Kids I was immediately intrigued. I liked that they were a younger company and I saw a lot of opportunity for growth.

Why did you choose an opportunity with Engineering for Kids?

I have two children the ages of 3 and 5 and my in-laws are retired teachers so that was a big part of why I wanted an education business. We felt that with children falling behind in math and science in the U.S. this would be a good opportunity to try and change that! We also saw this as viable and lucrative business.

Are you involved with any charities or do any community outreach with your business?

I have been part of a few non-profit real estate organizations for the past nine years holding a number of different positions promoting minority ownership. I am also looking at the public libraries to offer free engineering programs in the community.

What are your expansion or development plans? What is your end goal with Engineering for Kids?

We have a site for a center and we’re looking to get that up and running.  We’d like to open a number of centers in the next couple years and our vision is to be able to bring Engineering for Kids overseas if the opportunity arises.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or passions?

I like to sing and I've been taking voice lessons for the past five years.  I like to sing opera and I love to play the piano.

Engineering for Kids Featured in 1851 Magazine

Engineering for Kids was recently featured in 1851 Magazine online in an article titled, "Why is 2013 the Right Year to Franchise?"

The article features various franchisees who decided to sign on with their new business venture at the beginning of the year. One of the featured franchisees is Engineering for Kids San Francisco County franchisee Juanita Leung. Leung discusses how her family and children helped to influence her decision to enter an educational franchise field, and that the country's current standings in science and math helped her to choose Engineering for Kids.

Click HERE for the full article or begin reading below:

Why is 2013 the Right Year to Franchise?

By: Greg Avdoian

Toward the closing of every year, people spend significant time with their families, causing them rethink their current career situation. In these cases, people think about new opportunities and enjoy a sense of optimism and intrigue, as they ponder career transitions by asking themselves ‘what if’ or ‘what’s next’ for the future.

In most cases, they are considering becoming a business owner to eliminate having a boss and be in control of their financial destiny. While opening a new business in any year is a challenge, 2013 has seen the growth of many new franchise locations, despite following some tough economic years. As the economy looks to improve, many budding entrepreneurs refuse to stay put and are taking the initiative to open their own business.