Franchisee Spotlight: Ira Giri, Katy, Texas

Ira Giri has her bachelors in science and is a swift and competent software programmer with extensive knowledge in C and C++. The birth of her two children (now 15 and 11) created a shift in Giri’s priorities and she chose to put her career on hold as her family moved from their native India to New Jersey. The Giri family moved to Katy, TX in 2010 following her husband’s promotion and the growing town will be the location of her first Best in Class location.  

While staying at home raising her children, Giri’s mind kept moving and she wanted to be more involved with her children’s school and community. She began volunteering at her son’s kindergarten classroom. She had never previously taught before nor spent any time teaching, but learned to love the hours she spent with the children. Despite her background in computer programming, Giri sidestepped her previous passion and pursued her early childhood certificate and pre-kindergarten certificate and received it in 2005.

Giri’s thirst for education led her to start tutoring at her son’s day care. She discovered her intense love of early childhood education and wanted to pursue something of her own and make a career out of this new chosen path. She began looking extensively into different center options and through internet searches and devout research she discovered Best in Class and the fantastic curriculum they offered.

Giri was looking for something different than the Kumons and Gideons in the area. The Best in Class material provided something unique and exclusive and Giri notes it was the material she was sold on, claiming she would use it on her own kids and wanted to share with the rest of the community. She is very hopeful and positive about the opening, especially with the large influx of Indian Americans and Asian Americans in Katy due to the strong school systems present in the district. Katy is growing community with a median income for households around $51,111, and with large companies like BP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil in the area, many engineers and those in the science and math field come to live in Katy. 

Giri’s center is distinctive because she will be offering software programming as a class, which she herself will teach. Additionally Giri will be hosting Hindi classes. With a surge of Indian Americans in the area, parents previously had to drive their children out of Katy to take language classes. She will provide Hindi classes and hopes that offering languages will spark more foreign language options in the future. It’s these refreshingly unique offerings that will uphold the center’s success despite the seven Kumon center’s already in the market.