Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Jessica Sikora of 3ontessori On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be yourself — Authenticity is such an important trait that cannot be overlooked. I think owning who you are, not letting others dictate your path, and being proud of your story is so important. Your authenticity attracts the right people into your circle, and empowers you to continue moving forward in your career. You get to where you need to be through your authenticity.
As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Sikora.
Jessica Sikora is turning Montessori on its side at 3ontessori, as Co-founder and COO. By expanding access to Montessori education through curated boxed collections and monthly themed sensory activities that provide an all-in-one solution for at-home learning, the skills of our young budding leaders and future entrepreneurs can flourish.
She is also passionate about bringing Montessori education to those in low income and underrepresented communities because, in her eyes, every child has the chance to change the world.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I grew up in a traditional Asian-American household, and as a first-generation American, I was expected to pursue a career in healthcare as a part of my parents’ “American Dream.” While I knew early on that I was very much creative-focused, finding a love of art and storytelling, I quickly suppressed that side of myself to do what I was expected. Because of that, I felt that I never had a chance in my childhood to explore my interests, skills, and passions — and it wasn’t until I moved out as a young adult at the age of 23, that I finally had a chance to “meet myself” for the first time. For the first time ever, I had the opportunity to explore my strengths and weaknesses, seek out learning opportunities in the topics that I truly loved. Between corporate careers, I took up a nannying job and fell in love with the curiosity and wonder in the little boy that I cared for. Eager to preserve his love of learning and foster his confidence, I discovered Montessori education and was instantly drawn to this child-led learning. Spending hours researching activities and scouring the Internet to order the right toys and tools, I realized the gap in the market and wanted to make bringing Montessori education easy for busy parents.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
When I first stumbled across the company at its very early stages, I bombarded my now-cofounder and business partner, Christian, with endless emails with my thoughts about the company, sharing about my own experiences with learning and Montessori education, and ideas about the company roadmap and its possibilities. Eventually, after maybe about 2–3 months, he did give in and schedule a call with me to discuss it further and, the rest is history.
Looking back on it, I laugh and wonder what would have happened had Christian not seen my flood of emails as a sign of passion for the company. I think in many other cases, business owners would have been annoyed with my constant communications and blocked me — thankful that Christian gave me that chance to chat with him about the company and be a partner to this adventure.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the funniest mistakes, looking back on it now, was that I was tasked during one of the interviews for my first full-time tech jobs to create a presentation about myself using technology. Eager to get the role, I thought up ways to present myself to the panel of interviewers and came up with the idea of creating a website about myself and my skills. It took me three days to create a site, and it came out to be a multi-page website. During the interview, I found our that the instructions meant to create a PowerPoint presentation… but I rolled with what I had anyway, and did my presentation. I ended up getting that job offer, though I meet only about half of the required skills listed on the job description!
When I later asked my hiring manager, who was one of the interviewers, why they had selected me for the role without a tech background, he said “You made a 12 page website when everyone else did a PowerPoint. I knew it meant you would always go above and beyond to be creative.”
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
3ontessori provides an all-in-one out-of-the-box solution for parents to bring Montessori into the home, as well as offers busy parents easy set-up for their children’s activities every month with our themed activity collections that integrate STEM learning with Montessori principles. We make it easy for families to integrate child-led learning into their daily lives. Passionate about helping those in underrepresented, low-income communities, we are also ensuring that we offer opportunities for all families to have access to our products and learning. Not only that, but the cherry on top is that we are the first Montessori company that is being rolled out by a direct descendent of Maria Montessori, as my co-founder Christian Montessori is her great, great grandson!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
3ontessori has been my biggest project this year, but I continue to work on my nonprofit SUPERBANDS in parallel. Both projects have a spot near and dear to my heart, based on my own personal experiences and personal passions.
At 3ontessori, we have been working to not just roll out our curated boxed collections of Montessori tools to help age groups meet crucial developmental milestones, but as our next step, we have been working on our monthly sensory activity boxes. Coming from a creative background, I’ve been having a lot of fun with coming up with monthly themes and their matching activities.
At SUPERBANDS, I’ve been also playing around with setting up themed boxes too since the organization sends teen music fans care packages to promote positive mental health. That’s been fun since I always picture 13-year old Jessica and how much joy she would have had receiving a box like this — I love being able to do this for teens today.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
There have been so many wonderfully inspiring women in STEM who have carved out a path for many of us to follow, and even today, there are be milestones and achievements in STEM thanks to women which continues to inspire our future female leaders. I do think that the status quo has improved since years ago, but there is still a long way to go.
STEM careers are on the rise, but even presently, women only make up around 50% of the STEM workforce. We need to continue to encourage and empower girls to pursue their interests in the STEM field, and continue to offer programs and support for them to explore these interests and skills.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
Generally I think we are all still under the cloud of the gender norms from decades ago, and in a mentality that girls aren’t as likely to excel in STEM or tech as boys. Thus, they may feel less encouraged or supported — leading to the false impression that girls just aren’t as interested in STEM careers as boys are. I love that there are programs like GirlsWhoCode and different products like monthly subscription boxes to help foster these skills and interests, and build up our girls to ensure that they never once feel less-than.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
A myth would be that women aren’t as skilled as men are in STEM or tech careers — that is certainly not the case. There are amazing women who have made huge breakthroughs in the field, and many more who are outshining their male counterparts. As we continue to empower more women to shine in their careers, and encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM and tech, we can slowly work to dispel this myth.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Be yourself — Authenticity is such an important trait that cannot be overlooked. I think owning who you are, not letting others dictate your path, and being proud of your story is so important. Your authenticity attracts the right people into your circle, and empowers you to continue moving forward in your career. You get to where you need to be through your authenticity.
- Speak up — I struggled for years to tell those around me how I was feeling, when I was needing help. I needed to learn how to be my own best advocate and constantly have to remind myself that it isn’t selfish to speak up about my own wants and needs.
- It’s okay if you don’t know it all (you don’t have to) — I’ve always felt this immense pressure to prove myself and show others that I was ‘worthy’ of my role or career and, because of that, I would really beat myself up if I didn’t have the answers to something. This situations of not-knowing made me feel less-than. I’ve instead now, learned to be resourceful to find the answers I needed or ask for help, and be excited about learning along the way.
- Mistakes do not equal failure — I think every hiccup, or every pivot, should be thought of as a learning point, versus failure. I’ve had to learn to reframe my mind and allow myself to take risks, thinking of each step as an opportunity to get closer to my goal.
- It doesn’t matter what people think! — I’ve been guilty of this since childhood, and still working on it today (but getting better with it). I think the fear or worry about what others think about you can really hinder you from owning your own path, pursuing new endeavors, or taking chances. Silence the worries and ignore the critics, go do big things!
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
I personally am guilty of this, but I do think many women tend to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, juggling so many things between work and home, and putting themselves on the back burner. You don’t have to say yes to everything and can set boundaries for yourself for the sake of your sanity. Prioritize your self-care and your mental health — “You can’t pour from an empty cup” has become a mantra that I try to keep in mind.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
I think of all of the wonderful leaders I have had in my life, and the not-so-great ones, and firmly believe that those who have stood out to me are the ones who have really sat down and made the efforts to get to know me. The leaders who have welcomed the role of mentor, eager to build me up and guide me toward success in my career and my desired path. I try to do the same for those on my own team — giving them a chance to learn new skills that they have expressed interest in exploring, learning about their pets and their families, hearing about their weekend, sharing advice for their career journey, connecting them with those in my network who may be helpful. While it may not be possible for every team, I think keeping your door open and allowing opportunities for your team to connect with you and learn from you is crucial.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am grateful to say that I’ve had many mentors along the way who have inspired and encouraged me. I would say that I’m incredibly thankful to have had the support of one of my college professors, who not just was an educator in the STEM field but also became one of my college advisors. I shared with her so many thoughts about my career journey and she supported me every step of the way, between writing me recommendation letters to giving me advice on next steps to pursue to cheering me along for my accomplishments. I was even so thankful to have her hand me my diploma at graduation! We still keep in touch to this day and I would say that she was one of the most noteworthy mentors in my STEM career.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I think my journey of success continues to be a work in progress, but I think from what I’ve learned from my experiences in the workplace as well as my entrepreneurial endeavors, that I see solutions to problems and have the confidence to go for it. My hope is to take some of the problems I see in the world around me and to offer solutions, whether it was building my nonprofit SUPERBANDS based on my personal experience of feeling alone during my mental health struggles as a teen or through seeing gaps in the accessibility of Montessori education to build 3ontessori.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m actually hoping to do that through 3ontessori! If you look around at existing Montessori schools and their tuition prices, it is disheartening to think that there are so many children who are unable to learn these foundational principles simply due to financial reasons. By bringing Montessori education to as many children as possible –
regardless of socioeconomic status, location, or background — 3ontessori is shaping our future leaders, our budding entrepreneurs, our passionate philanthropists, and our unstoppable creatives of tomorrow. We are allowing the child to lead us, and in the work we are doing, we will help them build a pathway to their desired future… and that’s how you change the world.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“To have something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” As a kid, I spent a lot of time staying quiet, fearful of what others might think of my ideas or think of me as a person. I realized in my early adult years, when I had my first business idea, that I couldn’t let myself just stay quiet anymore and had to learn to step outside of my comfort zone. As new chapters of my life have unfolded, and new milestones have blossomed, I have learned to be more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Looking at my greatest blessings and biggest accomplishments, I realize more and more that these all came from taking a leap of faith and trusting that everything will work out.
The quote is something I still reference to this day, in all aspects of my life beyond just business. When making a decision, I constantly think to myself: Is my fear greater than my desire to have this outcome?
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would love to have a private meal with the Jonas Brothers — no real professional reasoning here, just always been a fan since a teen and it was them who helped inspire my first business endeavor, my nonprofit… but I would say that maybe, in a work sense, to have their buy-in with the organization would definitely help it take off and really impact more people!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Jessica Sikora of 3ontessori On The 5 Leadership Lessons She… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.