By Martie Thompson
editor@floridanewsline.com
Born in Russia, Yulia Willmore immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 16 years old. They settled in the midwest and she graduated from Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and then a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota. She worked in the corporate world at Citibank in digital transformations. After getting married and giving birth to twin boys, she and her family moved to Jacksonville, where she was able to continue her work with Citibank. Today, she is the owner of the Code Ninjas – Saint Johns franchise. Yulia and her husband Edwin live with their three sons and two goldfish in Julington Creek Plantation, a brief five minute commute to the local Code Ninjas location.
Q: How did you meet your husband?
A: We met through his roommate, who happened to be my manager. We played poker with a group of mutual friends and then started dating. We were married in 2007.
Q: What made you choose NE Florida as a place to settle as a family?
A: The twins were about two-and-a-half years old and we decided to move somewhere warm where we could enjoy the outdoors year ‘round. In South Dakota, the winter is long and the snow is deep, but there is beauty in that and I cherish our time there. We started looking for jobs in a few cities and Jacksonville worked out. It was a crazy move — we sold our home and then my husband and my father drove two trucks across the country with our belongings while I flew with the twins.
Q: What do you like best about living in NW St. Johns County?
A: There are really awesome people here, so friendly and supportive. I love that there are families moving here for the same goals we have — we all value family and education. We have great neighbors and amazing schools and JCP is a beautiful, green, and lush community.
Q: How did you discover Code Ninjas?
A: I eventually found it through my search for something in STEM for my boys to do as an extracurricular activity. At first I found nothing except some tech camps at UNF that were very expensive and not offered for a long enough period of time. Then I stumbled on this franchise. I realized it could fulfill the needs my kids had and realized when talking to other parents that it could fulfill the needs of others. I thought, maybe this is the next thing for me. It could be meaningful and purposeful and provide employment for others. So, we took 10 months between negotiating the lease and buildout before we opened in April 2019. Everyone says the first two years of owning a business are the hardest and that’s an understatement. Our second year, COVID set us back, but by the third year, we were able to stabilize. I have such an appreciation for all small businesses.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job as owner of the Code Ninjas – Saint Johns franchise?
A: First, it’s providing the opportunity for kids (we call them Ninjas) to learn and to get into things they love at an early age. We cater to elementary and middle school aged students and consider what we do an enrichment to go along with what they learn in school. They learn coding by building computer games and seeing them light up when they get it as well as providing a space of belonging for all types of kids is very rewarding.
Secondly, we also provide employment for our mentors (we call them Senseis) and we mentor them as young employees. For many of these high school students, it’s their first job and they get to have an influence on the younger kids. We actually hire a number of our Ninjas as they get older to be a Sensei.
Photo courtesy Yulia Willmore
Yulia Willmore and family.
