On this week’s edition of ‘The Founder’ we feature Kumudini Wickamasinghe, Founder, Kumi’s Montessori House of Children, USA. Kumudini is a mother of three children, a grandmother to three beautiful grand-children, and is a locally qualified, internationally trained, Montessori teacher. She is an alumna of both Mahamaya Vidyalaya, Kandy and Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo. She qualified as a Montessori teacher from the prestigious early child-care education institution, The Maria Montessori Training Center, Colombo. Thereafter, she began her professional career as a Member of Faculty at St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo. She worked with this institution for a period of two years and thereafter in 1979, she migrated to the US. She has been teaching and enriching young minds in the US for over forty years.
What inspired you to launch your own pre-school? What inspired me to start my own business was the fact that I did not identify educating young children as a money-making venture but, as a unique opportunity to serve the developing child. I wanted to, “help the child to help him or herself to build the man or woman that the child will grow up to be.” I did not desire to follow the norm of working eight hour days and gathering a pay cheque at the end of the month. I did need the money to raise my three children, but I knew that there was more to it than following a daily routine. I wanted to do it my way, and I knew that it was a journey I needed to walk on my own.
What was the journey like, from the start to building the business up to where it is right now?
This journey was filled with immense joy, pride and fulfillment. It also contained sadness, failures, betrayals and hardships. I was only living for two years in America, when I decided I could not be a contributor to someone who was more motivated in making a profit than providing every opportunity to help the developing minds and characters of the child. I was a few months pregnant with my third child and my husband had just found a job. So we rented a home and opened a “Montessori Family Daycare,” licensed for twelve children. A few parents got together and found a small house to expand my school. When I protested that I was not ready to expand my business they said, “Mrs. Kumi, the children need you to educate them.” Of course, I was very proud to do so. Forty-two years later, I am in the same building, being the owner and Head Teacher of a unique early childhood educational center. It has a great reputation and has graduated more than five hundred students.
What were the hardships you faced as an entrepreneur and what was the toughest one yet?
As one of the few Asians in the city that I lived in, it was rather a very hard decision to make, but I started my Montessori Child Care in March of 1982. I had to work a hundred times harder to gain the trust of the parents before they could leave their precious little ones to a brown-skinned lady who spoke with an accent. That was the toughest hardship I faced. But it did not take too long for the parents themselves to spread the word around that Kumi’s Montessori House of Children was a great place for a young child’s first educational experience.
Being an entrepreneur, what was it like facing the global pandemic? How did it affect the business?
On the 13th of March 2020, the Roseville City School District sent out a communique that all schools have to shut down in order to contain the virus that was spreading in Placer County schools, as well as around the globe. We shut it down initially for only two weeks. It eventually stayed shut down for over one and a half years. This was a tremendous financial, emotional and social hardship for the staff, the parents and most of all to my young children. We were all baffled, depressed, blinded by this “global pandemic.” We all survived. The Government, State, county and city helped the small business owners (as well as others) in many ways. Many loans, grants and stipends were made available for us to tide over these hard times. Many schools and early childhood establishments were shut down. I was determined to keep my business afloat. As I told many of my friends, “I will not let the virus shut down my business.” We barely made it from day to day. But with the grace of God, we made it through.
Explain a few marketing strategies you have implemented, and what makes them successful?
I have never spent any money advertising my business in any way. It was the parents and my students who advertised my business in word and in their academic performances. This in my opinion was the best way to advertise an establishment that cared for the young developing child. If your work is done with genuine love, care and dedication, you are going to be successful. I look upon each child that enters my center as a child or grandchild of my own, and the families as my own families.
What motivates you to wake up in the morning and do what you do on daily basis?
What truly motivates me to do what I do on a daily basis is the love and dedication that I have for my little ones. Each child is a unique entity of its own. To see their smiles, feel their hugs, wipe their tears, see the gratitude they bestow upon me, how happy they are to come to school, attend their graduations, their weddings and now after all these years teach the children of my former students; this motivates me.
What separates Kumi’s Montessori House of Children from its competitors?
In my business it is the uniqueness of the individual. How genuine you are, how dedicated and caring you are and also how you can bond with the child as well as the family.
What is the end goal?
To help children grow up to be adults who can contribute positively to their communities. Be good, kind, just, empathetic and compassionate humans.
