We recently connected with Carolina Ramirez and have shared our conversation below.

Carolina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I am an Industrial Designer. I had been working as a designer and marketing professional for about 15 years, as a freelancer as well as an employee at for-profit and non-profit organizations. During those years I got involved with several projects connected with education, and I got a bit closer to that field of work. In 2016 I was working at Net Impact, a non-profit dedicated to promoting Social Responsibility and Sustainability careers with undergrad and grad students. I was very happy there, until there was a re-organization that wasn’t aligned with me anymore, so I quit that job and took some time to think about my next stage. At the same time my son Lucas was in the process of transitioning from preschool to Kindergarten and I was touring SFUSD elementary schools. I am originally from Colombia, moved to San Francisco in 2001, and married a Californian in 2013. Maintaining, celebrating, and honoring my Colombian heritage and culture has always been important to me, and when I became a mom, it was clear to me that I was going to speak to my kids in Spanish and transfer my heritage onto them. They went to Spanish immersion preschools, we traveled to visit family and friends in Colombia every year, and we kept close relationship with other Spanish-speaking families in the Bay Area. As I was touring elementary schools, I was mostly interested in Spanish immersion and dual language programs, and I was also looking at the after school programs available. I was surprised to learn that there were no Spanish Immersion, comprehensive, experiential learning after school programs offered in San Francisco. At the same time, while I was still freelancing and working flexible hours, I was able to spend many afternoons with my kids, playing, exploring, building things, and I was enjoying it a lot. All these experiences created the right conditions for the idea to appear and grow. I decided to open a Spanish Immersion program based on experiential learning in which kids could learn and/or practice the language while having fun, experimenting, and being creative. That’s how the idea of Aventuras was born.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I graduated as an Industrial Designer, my mom was an elementary school teacher, and my dad was a self-made, small business owner in Bogota, Colombia. Even though I didn’t study education, I had always been interested in the field, and I even had a couple informal gigs when I was young, working as a language teacher, teaching English to adults. I went to a bilingual school, which gave me an advantage and to a certain degree allowed me to move to San Francisco to further my personal and career goals. As I worked as a Designer, I often times sought and got involved with educational projects at the organizations I worked with, and realized that education was part of my higher purpose. When I became a mother, the calling was reinforced, and the opportunity to dive deeper into the field appeared when I decided to open a comprehensive, creative, Spanish Immersion afterschool program. After practicing design for about 20 years, I went back to school to study Early Childhood Education, and Small Business Administration, in preparation to opening my business: Aventuras.

At Aventuras, we offer a safe, engaging, student-centered space where kids get to practice and learn Spanish, in a Spanish Immersion environment that provides creative experiential learning activities, and strong socio-emotional support. We are not just a program, we are a community of educators, artists and multi-disciplinary professionals, who value student-centered, progressive Experiential Learning education, and celebrate our Spanish-speaking heritage and culture. We are a Heritage School where:

– We believe that all children should have fun, be inspired and engaged while learning.

– We believe that all children should be treated with respect, be given opportunities to play, explore and experiment, make mistakes and learn from them, and discover who they are and what they’re capable of, without being judged.

– We believe that all children deserve access to spaces where they can develop healthy, creative, confident, and kind minds and bodies, so that they can reach their full potential, succeed and be happy.

– We believe that parents and teachers need to be partners, working together towards the common goal of providing children with unconditional guidance, love and care.

– We believe that learning a second language, and the culture associated with it, gives children a competitive advantage and helps them grow into more tolerant and respectful global citizens.

– ​We believe that all of us have the responsibility to take care of our planet, and teach others to take care of it as well.

– We believe in the power of strong, inclusive and supportive communities.

We offer weekly toddler classes, an afterschool program, and Holiday/Summer Camps for elementary-aged children, and collaborate with local organizations that also celebrate our heritage and culture.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There’s a combination of factors that I believe have helped build our reputation:
– The values that we adhere to, and inform everything we do.
– The love and passion for our educational project, and our commitment to positively impact our society, and the future generations.
– Our team: we have a rigorous hiring process and only employ professional educators, who are passionate about our mission, and aligned with our values.
– The high standards we have in place that allow us to maintain the quality of our programs and services.
– Our curriculum: we carefully design our curriculum to offer fun and engaging experiential learning opportunities that are comprehensive, and embed socio-emotional and individualized care and support for each and all of our students.
– We are a community, not just a money-making business.
– We are fortunate to have grown our reach mostly through recommendations happy clients tell their friends about our programs. Word of mouth is our main marketing channel.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team can be challenging. My advice is to focus on clear and honest communications.
In our experience, all issues can be solved by talking about them by creating a safe, judgement-free space where all parties can openly express their feelings, points of view, and challenges. In my opinion, once you offer this space, and are able to connect with your team members as humans, respecting and honoring their unique experience, and focusing on finding solutions together, all problems can be solved.
When team members feel seen, heard, and supported, their satisfaction with the work place is higher, their confidence and sense of purpose increase, and a high morale is maintained.

We apply the same methodology when supporting our students.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aventurassf.com/
• Instagram: @aventurasinsanfrancisco