July 29, 2019

Meet Nicole and John “Jay” Graham of Young Engineers Littleton in Southwest Metro

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole and John “Jay” Graham.

Nicole, John “Jay,” let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We are a husband and wife team. Nicole’s background is in teaching and Jay’s background is in Telecom. Both of us have wanted to own our own businesses in the past and decided to take the plunge shortly after we both found ourselves without jobs and our son was merely four months old. We went all in and began operations in May of 2018. We started with half-day summer camp sessions, and had to cancel one session because not a single camper signed up. This summer, we have met our minimums on all camps and we are running full day, week-long programs at a Bricks & Minifigs location in Littleton, CO. In the fall of our first year, we ran two semester-long programs at the same Bricks & Minifigs location. In October, we began a session at the Ken Caryl Ranch House, also in Littleton. We did winter break camps at both locations, and spring semester programs at both locations as well. Class sizes have been small, due to parents difficulties getting kids to our locations. This is why which our main goal is to have classes in elementary schools, as part of an after school enrichment program in which parents pay per session, per month, or for a semester-long pass to our program. We would offer scholarship seats to deserving students in the community as well. Our main focus is in the Bricks Challenge program. This program is designed for first through fifth graders. We teach classical mechanics along with math and physics in each lesson. Students build an often motorized, exclusive, LEGO model that will increase their problem solving, critical thinking and accountability skills, all while having fun! We have a nine-zip code territory in which we have permission to operate, but are able to hold single session events outside of our designated territory, such as birthday parties or team-building events. Our territory consists mostly of the Littleton, Centennial, Roxborough and Highlands Ranch areas.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not always.Our biggest struggle has been breaking through into the public school systems. Parents often ask to see us in their child’s school and principals are willing to meet with us and look at our program. The principals seem interested, however, upon follow up, we are denied every time.They usually cite budget constraints or that they have too many options for who to “let in” to do enrichment. Parent Teacher Organizations are reluctant to hear about our program, as well. Another approach we are exploring is looking more into home school, private school, and religious organizations as these communities are usually more conducive to youth enrichment programs.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Young Engineers is a franchise headquartered in Jerusalem. The developer and CEO was diagnosed with learning disabilities as a child and struggled in school. He designed this program to help children like himself, who may have trouble learning about abstract concepts with pen and paper. It is currently running in over 40 countries, with a handful of operations in the United States. We currently have their flagship program, Bricks Challenge, although there are a handful of other programs available to us we are only running this program currently. We hope to offer more programs for both younger and older children in the future. We are proud to offer a stem-based, classical approach to mechanics suitable for children as young as six years old with the intention of preparing students for stem-based middle school programs.

Bricks Challenge offers a screen-free engineering program that focuses on learning the basics about machines, such as: Belt and Gear Transmissions, Gear Ratios, and Speed and Power-Increasing Transmissions. We explore different gear and pulley systems, and each 75 minute class is accompanied by a full lesson, which singles out a math or science principle, like Newton’s third law of motion or Centrifugal Force. We are the only program in the area offering this type of enrichment.

In addition to Bricks Challenge, we offer many different ways to play. We offer Birthday Parties, Workshops, Boy and Girl Scout Badge-Earning Classes, Corporate Team-builder Activities. We even offer a dexterity and memory program called Golden Age just for ages 65+!

Pricing:

Birthday Party: $229-289 (Deluxe includes a cake and goodie bags!)
Bricks Challenge Program: $229/semester, $89/monthly, $29/drop-in
Scout Meeting/Badge Completion: $199 for up to 12 scouts
“E2 Pro” Corporate Team Builder: $329
Summer camp session: M-F, 9a-2p $279

Contact Info:

Website: https://littletoncolorado.e2youngengineers.com
Phone: (720) 550-8922
Email: youngengineerslittletonco@gmail.com
Instagram: @young_engineers_littleton
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngengineers.littleton/

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