She put her Ph.D. in Computer Science to work and developed a one-stop-shop marketplace where parents could search and book all their afterschool classes and summer camps.

She quickly realized, however, that parents were not the only ones in need of a more efficient system. Schools, out-of-school time programs, and providers needed tools to better manage their operations, including registration, roster-building and customer relationship management.

The challenge is that managing afterschool enrichment involves rather complex operations across parents, providers and schools.

"Setting up the sessions and creating printable rosters was time consuming and complicated," said Edith from Thorton Creek Elementary. "The registration process was frustrating for families and we spent lots of time manually paying providers."

The 6crickets enrichment management tool aims to help ease these frustrations by allowing program directors to receive online registrations, pay outside providers instantly and directly, generate real-time rosters, and communicate with parents with the click of a button. The system comes complete with waitlists, lottery, discount and scholarship management.

"6crickets has been a great resource for our school. Having all of our afterschool enrichment registrations in one place makes the sign-up process much more streamlined and easier for both parents and staff," said Christian from Cedar Crest Academy.

"The interface is user-friendly, with many great tools for sorting and organizing rosters and editing classes."

Helen and the 6crickets team want to enable every school to bring the best enrichment opportunities to their students and provide more time for afterschool providers to be engaged with staff and their students. The platform is free for schools and providers to use.

For more information, visit 6crickets or contact them at support@6crickets.com.

 Courtesy of 6crickets.