Southwestern offers unique opportunity for students

By: Tamar Weinberg and Jessica Lucero

Posted: 2/6/04

02/06/04 - Outside of the University of Rhode Island's dining halls, the Memorial Union and other popular locales, a representative of the Southwestern Company may ask you to fill out a summer work questionnaire. The small brightly colored card asks questions that college students commonly confront such as "What did you do last summer, how are you paying university expenses and what are your plans for the summer?"

The Southwestern Company provides students with an experience that allows them a way to make money, travel to a different state and meet other college students working in the program. Associate Sales Leader and URI recruiter Jacqulyn Berg described participating in the experience as being "like a muscle. It will break you down and build you back up."

In the program, students act as a private contractor to the Southwestern Company selling encyclopedias and other educational texts door to door in their assigned location. The marketing area dictated by the company is located in a state other than the recruited student's university.

Students spend thirteen weeks of their summer working from 7:59 AM to 9:31 PM, six days a week. Berg said of the work experience, "A cinch by the inch is hard by the yard."

The average pay of a Southwestern employee in their first summer is $8,400, and the organization does not handle the costs of training, rent and other living expenses. The students spend their summer living with a host family, and they are given the option of living in a house provided for them or searching for their own host family by asking door to door, according to the Southwestern website. According to Berg, the process of finding a host family is used as a training and practice before students begin selling educational texts.

The Southwestern Company performs an extensive search of the URI campus through questionnaire cards and recommendations, which are encouraged of all interviewees. The first stage of the interview process is to be contacted by Southwestern personnel. Selected students are asked to attend a non-binding informational session, which explains the purpose of the company and its benefits.

If the company appeals to the prospective employee they are then asked to attend further interviews over the following weeks. They must complete nightly "homework" such as reports and informational reading in preparation for the summer.

Qualifications for this opportunity include possessing vision and foresight, independent decision making skills, coachable and teachable attributes, communication skills and the ability to work hard, Berg said.

"Southwestern was one of the most exciting experiences of my life," said Ryan Chutty, a third year employee of Southwestern and senior Business major at URI.

For more information, visit the organization's website at http://www.southwestern.com.