What began as a search for a way to keep Houston students engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a new business venture for C. McCauley and her partner, Tobin Kurtin. The pair are bringing Central Creativity, a hands-on STEM education franchise, to Houston. For McCauley, the decision grew out of work she was already doing in the city's education and nonprofit community.
Before the pandemic, the nonprofit where McCauley works held an annual Energy Day festival in downtown Houston, bringing together about 15,000 K-12 students, educators and families for STEM activities. When COVID-19 made the event impossible, McCauley had sponsor funding in place and needed another way to get educational materials to students.
"Instead of having the community and students and teachers and families come to a STEM festival, I had to figure out how to put STEM in a box and send it out to the students so that they wouldn't have learning loss because of the current health crisis," McCauley said. "I started doing some research about companies in the industry who might do a good job of working with a partner and coming up with a custom-style kit."
That search eventually led her to Central Creativity. Founded in 2017, the company offers STEM enrichment through school partnerships, field trips, after-school classes, camps and Classroom TO GO learning kits. The franchise also develops customized educational programming for schools and organizations.
McCauley was particularly interested in finding STEM programming connected to Houston's energy industry. After working with Central Creativity and seeing how its programs could be adapted, she began thinking about how the model could reach more students.
Before moving into education and nonprofit work, McCauley spent about 15 years in the airline industry. She started by answering customer service calls for Continental Airlines and eventually moved into frequent flyer marketing. That experience later took her to US Airways in Washington, D.C., where she managed partnerships with hotels, rental car companies, credit card companies and other businesses whose customers could earn airline miles.
Her career changed direction after 9/11. McCauley was living in Washington and witnessed the attack on the Pentagon, an experience that prompted her to reconsider what she wanted from her work. She eventually moved into the nonprofit sector, where each organization she joined had an educational component.
"I worked at three nonprofits, and I noticed a theme. They all had an education base in different ways," she said. "That's how I fell in love with education and discovered Central Creativity. Once I started working with them and seeing the impact that all of their programs had, I felt like, in my current job, there's just a little piece, but there's a broader, bigger audience I can serve working through Central Creativity."
Houston gives McCauley and Kurtin a sizable market in which to build that audience. McCauley pointed to the area's numerous school districts, as well as its energy, medical, space, and arts communities, as potential avenues for connecting STEM education with real-world careers.
She is especially enthusiastic about Central Creativity's customizable kits, which can be built around particular subjects or audiences. More broadly, she wants students to see how interests and skills that may not seem obviously connected to STEM can still lead to opportunities in those fields.
"I think that's the magic of Central Creativity, being able to combine all that for students and expose them at a young age to a lot of different possibilities they might want to consider for their future," she said.
The immediate goal is to learn the Houston market and build relationships with schools, PTOs, corporations and other community organizations. Longer term, McCauley already sees room to take the business elsewhere in the state.
"I do have eyes on expanding. Houston is a large market, so what I want to do is get to know the market here, perfect it and expand within Houston because every area will be different," she said. "Then, based on that knowledge, I would love to take it into other areas within the great state of Texas."
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/central-creativity.
Central Creativity
SPONSORED
After discovering the brand while searching for new ways to reach students during COVID-19, C. McCauley now sees opportunities across Houston and beyond.
What began as a search for a way to keep Houston students engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a new business venture for C. McCauley and her partner, Tobin Kurtin. The pair are bringing Central Creativity, a hands-on STEM education franchise, to Houston. For McCauley, the decision grew out of work she was already doing in the city's education and nonprofit community.
Before the pandemic, the nonprofit where McCauley works held an annual Energy Day festival in downtown Houston, bringing together about 15,000 K-12 students, educators and families for STEM activities. When COVID-19 made the event impossible, McCauley had sponsor funding in place and needed another way to get educational materials to students.
"Instead of having the community and students and teachers and families come to a STEM festival, I had to figure out how to put STEM in a box and send it out to the students so that they wouldn't have learning loss because of the current health crisis," McCauley said. "I started doing some research about companies in the industry who might do a good job of working with a partner and coming up with a custom-style kit."
That search eventually led her to Central Creativity. Founded in 2017, the company offers STEM enrichment through school partnerships, field trips, after-school classes, camps and Classroom TO GO learning kits. The franchise also develops customized educational programming for schools and organizations.
McCauley was particularly interested in finding STEM programming connected to Houston's energy industry. After working with Central Creativity and seeing how its programs could be adapted, she began thinking about how the model could reach more students.
Before moving into education and nonprofit work, McCauley spent about 15 years in the airline industry. She started by answering customer service calls for Continental Airlines and eventually moved into frequent flyer marketing. That experience later took her to US Airways in Washington, D.C., where she managed partnerships with hotels, rental car companies, credit card companies and other businesses whose customers could earn airline miles.
Her career changed direction after 9/11. McCauley was living in Washington and witnessed the attack on the Pentagon, an experience that prompted her to reconsider what she wanted from her work. She eventually moved into the nonprofit sector, where each organization she joined had an educational component.
"I worked at three nonprofits, and I noticed a theme. They all had an education base in different ways," she said. "That's how I fell in love with education and discovered Central Creativity. Once I started working with them and seeing the impact that all of their programs had, I felt like, in my current job, there's just a little piece, but there's a broader, bigger audience I can serve working through Central Creativity."
Houston gives McCauley and Kurtin a sizable market in which to build that audience. McCauley pointed to the area's numerous school districts, as well as its energy, medical, space, and arts communities, as potential avenues for connecting STEM education with real-world careers.
She is especially enthusiastic about Central Creativity's customizable kits, which can be built around particular subjects or audiences. More broadly, she wants students to see how interests and skills that may not seem obviously connected to STEM can still lead to opportunities in those fields.
"I think that's the magic of Central Creativity, being able to combine all that for students and expose them at a young age to a lot of different possibilities they might want to consider for their future," she said.
The immediate goal is to learn the Houston market and build relationships with schools, PTOs, corporations and other community organizations. Longer term, McCauley already sees room to take the business elsewhere in the state.
"I do have eyes on expanding. Houston is a large market, so what I want to do is get to know the market here, perfect it and expand within Houston because every area will be different," she said. "Then, based on that knowledge, I would love to take it into other areas within the great state of Texas."
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/central-creativity.
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