About Challenge Island

Our Founder's Story

Sharon Duke Estroff M.A.T. is CEO and Founder of Challenge Island, the World’s #1 STEAM Education Program. Sharon started Challenge Island in her 2nd grade classroom in Atlanta, GA 2002 and has grown it to over 160 franchises in 36 states and 4 countries. A veteran educator in Atlanta public and private schools, Sharon was Voted Best Teacher in Atlanta by a Major Atlanta newspaper. In addition to being the award-winning author of the bestselling Challenge Island book series and Random House parenting books, she is a regular education contributor to numerous national publications including Scholastic Parent and Child, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping and Parents Magazines. 

Challenge Island was born in Sharon Duke Estroff’s 2nd grade classroom in 2002. At the time, Sharon was becoming increasingly concerned about the overall direction of education (which had seemed to have spiraled into a standardized testing-palooza that was intent on fitting every child into the same rigid box (or should we say multiple choice bubble?)). That, compounded by an ever presence of screens in her students’ lives and intense societal pressure for them to perform both academically and extracurricularly, left her worried about their present and future wellbeing. Sharon came up with the idea of Challenge Island as a means of counteracting these potentially damaging forces while making school enjoyable again (for both her students and herself!). 

During Challenge Island time, Sharon’s second graders were transported to a parallel universe where learning felt like a party, kids ran the show, and failure was considered a fun opportunity to try something new. Wrapped in whimsical trimmings( colorful headbands, floral leis, treasure chests and the island drum) Sharon’s classroom buzzed with a kind of excitement and enthusiasm that was rarely present in the modern school setting. Her students bubbled over with creativity and innovation as they collaborated with their STEAM Teams to fearlessly tackle challenges using only a few low-tech supplies and their boundless imaginations.

Every morning, Sharon’s students begged her to let them do Challenge Island that day – and the more Challenge Island her students did, the more the magic swirled around them. Suddenly, the children in her class felt more empowered, creative, and collaborative; they were stronger problem solvers, more flexible thinkers, less anxious and more resilient. Sharon became convinced that the Challenge Island experience was absolutely essential to the social-emotional and academic wellbeing of not only her 2nd graders but of every other stressed-out, over-tested, overscheduled, screen-saturated millennial child.

At the end of that school year, Sharon decided to devote her full-time career to bringing Challenge Island to as many children as possible. In 2013, she embraced the franchising model to help her get there. Today, thanks to over 100 fabulous franchisees who share her Challenge Island vision, 5 million children in 15,000 schools and organizations have now been touched by the Challenge Island magic and that number continues to grow every day.