Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Walker.
Hi Emily, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In 2013, I received a forwarded email from my Spanish professor at the University of North Texas. The email included a flyer for summer camp counselors at Club SciKidz Dallas. I was in the process of getting my degree in Elementary Education and thought this would be great practice as an aspiring teacher! I applied and was offered the position. I worked with Club SciKidz Dallas every summer, working my way from Counselor to Site Director and then to Area Director by 2019. Even though COVID gave us a run for our money, we came back strong after 2020 and summers were continuing as usual. In the winter of 2022, the owner asked if I would like to join the team full-time as the Director of Operations. This was an offer I thought about carefully as it would mean leaving teaching. Club SciKidz Dallas had been such a positive experience over the nearly 10 years that I could not turn down the opportunity! So, after 9 years of teaching, I had officially joined Club SciKidz Dallas full-time!
It was a wonderful couple of years and I was starting to get the hang of the D.O. role when a change in the family caused the owners to need to relocate, thus selling Club SciKidz Dallas. I had found out the news just a couple months before getting married to my Husband in the Fall of 2024. Needless to say – it was a hectic time in life and SO many things were changing. After MANY long talks, considerations, and one beautiful wedding later, my husband and I decided to proceed with the purchase of Club SciKidz Dallas in the summer of 2025!
Looking back at 20 year-old Emily, I don’t think I would have ever expected that a simple email for a summer job would turn into the business I would now proudly own today. The process of becoming the owner was by far the biggest and most challenging professional accomplishment I’ve taken on. There are so many times I could have said no and could have taken an easier route, but something told me to follow the risk; take the chance. One of the main voices was, of course, my husband Garrett. Without his support, knowledge, and love we would absolutely not be business owners today.
Little Emily dreamed of being a teacher. She wanted to work with kids and help them grow into beautiful people and I still do! I spent nearly a decade honing the skill of teaching and those years absolutely helped me see what is needed in our community to help enrich and engage our children in the STEM field. It is so challenging for teachers to find the time and resources to provide our children with hands-on science curriculum. They are simply trying to stay afloat. Club SciKidz Dallas is here to help reach those area that our children are so excited to explore.
While I am no longer a classroom teacher, I am so grateful that I still get to make a difference in the lives of children in our city every year. And I hope to continue on the stellar legacy Club SciKidz Dallas has created here over the past 15 years for many years to come!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road is only as smooth as the machine that paves it and the people who steer it.
I was lucky enough to have learned the ropes from some wonderful leaders who came before me.
Together it feels like we worked every year to lay out the asphalt inch by inch so that we knew we were producing the very best for our families. Did things come along and add bumps? Absolutely!! But they reminded me that you can only take each hit as it comes. In the business of children you are dealing with the most important people in someone’s life. That is nothing to take lightly. You have to hire the best staff, provide the safest environment, and ensure they are having a wonderful experience!
People can let you down, science can sometimes not work how you planned, but you get back up every time – smooth out the asphalt – and keep that machine running. One bump at a time.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Club SciKidz Dallas is the area leader in “STEAM” summer day camps for children ages 4-13 with 14 locations in Dallas, Plano, Garland, Lewisville, Prosper, and Wylie. With over40 unique camp themes, such as chemistry, veterinary medicine, robotics, video game design, paleontology, and MANY more…we truly have something for every child in your family! Each camper completes 15-20 hands-on activities during their week at Club SciKidz Dallas. We also incorporate team-building activities and outdoor game time to create a fun, fast-paced day that will fly by for your camper.
Club SciKidz Dallas also offers in-school PTA events, science assemblies, Scouting merit badge workshops, and birthday parties!
Club SciKidz Dallas is unlike the rest because we are not just a day-care service. We are teaching standard-driven lessons that are educational and engaging. Year after year, parents are raving about how surprised they are with the amount of content and new knowledge their children are coming home with each day.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think I am learning more and more about myself as I get older. If you were to ask me on the street if I am a risk taker I would probably jump to a quick, “no – not really!” But honestly, if I lay everything out on the table that I have accomplished and said “yes” to, I think that would actually contradict my :no”. I’m 33 years old and I have done so many things already. I have taken great risks that ended up working beautifully, and other risks that were not so stellar in hindsight. But you know what? Every single yes I said – good or bad – taught me something. It taught me a limit I have, people I can trust, and what is truly possible for me. Those experiences from taking the risk have shaped every single piece and inch of who I am today and who I am today is one bad-ass woman.
So yes, I would tell a younger me to go for it. Live with those roommates – even though it ended badly. Take that teaching job – because you will meet life-long friends. Go on that double date – it’ll be the first time you see your future husband. Take that summer job – you’ll end up owning the business a decade later.
Pricing:
- Summer Camps start at $410 weekly
- Half-Day Summer camps for 4/5 year olds start at $310
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.clubscikidzdallas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clubscikidz.dallas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClubSciKidz.Dallas/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-walker-4b609b378/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/club-scikidz-dallas-richardson-8
