Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- The Sweeney siblings opened The Geekery in Salt Lake City, an after-school and summer program.
- Sarah Turnbow, who runs The Geekery, says it gives kids confidence "to walk through this world exactly as they are."
- The Geekery offers programs like Dungeons & Dragons, improv classes and a weekend chess club.
SALT LAKE CITY — Growing up, the Sweeney siblings said they felt different than their peers and family members.
Scott Sweeney, Sarah Turnbow and Sean Sweeney said they struggled in school while they saw other members of their family attend Ivy League-level schools.
One ended up working in Congress, one became a federal judge and another became a governor.
"We were told we had so much potential. We were so smart. We were all these things, but we just couldn't execute," Turnbow said.
"It was a big mystery for me. There was something wrong," Scott said.
Sean, a self-described class clown, made friends using humor and sports, but Sarah and Scott said they had trouble socializing.
Scott was interested in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, creative writing and drawing cartoon figures, something other kids weren't.
When they were adults, each was diagnosed with ADHD.
"We were definitely all very neurodivergent, and that's probably played a part in why we felt a bit different and felt like we needed to put on a different face, so to speak," Turnbow, an executive functioning coach, said.
A conversation about their childhoods eventually led the three to the basement of a small retail building where they opened an after-school and summer program they named "The Geekery."
"Wishing we had some place like this when we were kids," Turnbow said. "We wanted to create a space where kids felt like they could be themselves."
Turnbow helps run the business. Sean runs a weekend chess club and teaches improv comedy classes for kids.
Sean said improvisation teaches kids to think on their feet and instills confidence in their ability to handle other offstage situations.
"You start to see them come out of their shell and find their own voice," Sean said.
Scott teaches creative writing and runs Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games.
In the D&D room, lit by artificial candles and blue-green lights, a small flock of artificial black birds perches above 10-year-old Sawyer Durst and three other young players.
They navigate an imaginary world under the guidance of Scott, the dungeon master, who speaks both as the game's storyteller and as some of the characters they encounter on their quests.
"He can make the characters basically become more alive in your head," Sawyer said.
Sawyer took up D&D after reading a graphic novel series, "The Dungeon Club." She recently moved from Denver to Salt Lake City and thought joining a D&D club at school would help her make friends. She learned about The Geekery and signed up.
"It's really fun to think of things that don't exist, but that they could exist in a different world," she said.
"It's really fun to watch these really shy kids come in and then just see them kind of come to life," Scott said.
"We give kids the confidence to walk through this world exactly as they are," Turnbow said. "The next generation of geeks."
