Inspiring the personal best.

Our mission drives everything we do. From organizing events for our youngest campers in the Washington, D.C. metro area to hosting ensembles across the globe, we are committed to creating opportunites for young people to achieve their personal best.

Our Mission

Our mission is simple: to inspire the personal best in high potential young people. We believe everyone, with the right support and encouragement, is high potential and capable of amazing things. Our job is to place opportunities in front of them so they can continue to cultivate the greatness inside of themselves. We believe those opportunites are best acted on in a culture that celebrates each unique individual.

When we say we inspire every individual’s personal best, we’re not playing around. Well, actually we are. We believe the power of play is one of the most effective ways to bring out each and every personal best. Every camper is unique and every “best” is, too. For us, summer is a time for exploration. Our experience shows that guided exploration leads to the realization of untapped passion and talent.

And when that happens during the most memorable time in a person’s life? Well, we believe the possibilities for the future are limitless. For over 20 years, we’ve been creating programs that inspire children, young people and adults to courageously engage with the world, celebrate the challenges that come with trying hard things, and meet every opportunity and every setback with persistence, patience and a positive attitude.

We do this work because we believe in the profound value of social and emotional learning to equip our participants with the power to spark inspiration and unlock potential. We have developed a set of tools that we call the Headfirst Super Six to teach these valuable lessons. They aren’t just any tools; they’re character building social skills that are highly correlated to success and leadership. The Headfirst Super Six are Resiliency, Hope & Goal Setting, Optimism, Emotional Mastery, Grit & Determination and Self-Efficacy.

Whether it’s a STEM lesson in Summer Camp, performing at the Vatican or objective measurements in Honor Roll Camps, we build these tools into each and every curriculum. And, we hope that in partnership with families, we are playing a small, but valuable role in helping our members achieve success so they can be the absolute best version of their future selves.


Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The Headfirst Companies is committed to cultivating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion that transforms our workplaces and experiences into environments where everyone can discover their personal best. We believe embracing individual uniqueness is an essential element of our mission and that maintaining a diversity of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences among our staff, clients and customers is a core measure of our success.

To guide our efforts, we focus on a series of commitments that act as the pillars of our DEI initiative:

We are committed to:

• Equitable Hiring and Retention Processes
• Policies, Processes and Goals that Embrace Individual Uniqueness
• Experiences and Marketing Practices that Value Inclusivity
• The Accessibility of Our Programs
• Continued Professional Development around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

These pillars are embedded into our everyday work across the companies. Whether it be in the creation of camp curricula, training of our full-time and seasonal team members or how we market our programs, the commitments are prioritized and lead us to furthering our diverse, equitable and inclusive culture.


The Headfirst SLIDE Initiative

Since 1996, Headfirst has had the privilege of witnessing the impact our mission has had, and continues to have, on inspiring the personal best in people of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences.

Our Community Impact Initiative – Headfirst SLIDE (Support, Lead, Invest, Donate, Empower) – widens our impact by dedicating time and resources in our day-to-day work to positively influence others.

Headfirst SLIDE benefits underrepresented youth by providing in-person support, finances, and avenues of accessibility to our experiences.

S – Support Our Community 

Headfirst is and has been a proud sponsor of the Defeat DIPG Superhero 6k for the last 5 years! There’s nothing quite like having people in your corner, and our team looks forward to providing in-person support to local, non-profit events year after year.

L – Lead Authentically within Our Community

Headfirst strives to bring about the best in our youth, families, and each other. Every day, we challenge ourselves to be leaders within the community regardless of the circumstance. Whether it’s offering free college recruiting webinars throughout the year to share guidance and insight with student-athletes looking to fulfill their dreams of playing at the next level, or assisting families through the COVID-19 pandemic by providing helpful webinars and Headfirst AT HOME activities for kids, we take pride in stepping up to the plate when our community needs us most.

I – Invest in Accessibility

Headfirst Summer Camps proudly works with a variety of partners to ensure students have the opportunity to spend their summers with Headfirst. Headfirst Professional Sports Camps works alongside club partners to build accessible programming – finding 100+ deserving campers to join us each summer.

D – Donate Equipment and Resources

Our camp divisions set aside equipment and gear to be donated to Leveling the Playing Field every year – with the hopes of impacting young people through a baseball bat or a “Bounce Don’t Break” wristband. We also participate in an office-wide toy drive each holiday season for Toys for Tots. For every Headfirst employee who donates to the cause, Headfirst matches the donation with an additional toy for a child in need.

E – Empower our Campers, their Families and Each Other to Inspire the Personal Best in Everyone.

We are committed to our team members and their passion for supporting our community. At Headfirst, our team members are offered company time to support the causes they’re passionate about.