Southwestern Launches LEAD Program for High School Students

For over 150 years, Southwestern has trained college students on the principles of leadership and community impact. These principles are now being introduced to high school students all across the U.S. through LEAD. LEAD is a 6-month program designed to help young people develop the skills and character they need to achieve their goals in life. The program spotlights Life skills, Emotional intelligence, Academics, and making a Difference in the community — preparing students for success both before and after graduation.

Members enjoy full access to our academic service SouthwesternGlobalAcademy.com

Advantage4teens is like having unlimited access to a virtual tutor on every required school subject. Adv4life focuses on self-leadership and life skills for situations outside of the classroom. Also included is access to AdvantageTopicSource.com, a valuable report and research-writing resource featuring 35 of the most commonly assigned nonfiction report topics covered in expert detail.

LEAD Growth Book

Your LEAD Growth Book is self-paced. It covers over a dozen leadership principles—and more importantly—suggested action steps with a social media challenge. By taking these simple action steps, you’ll experience immediate value while engaging with an uplifting social media community. In conjunction with the Growth Book are online training modules for concept solidification. 

DiSC Personality Assessment

This personal test helps young individuals realize their unique strengths and behaviors. Understanding ourselves helps us better understand each other. DiSC® is the leading personal assessment tool used by over 1 million people every year to improve work productivity, teamwork and communication.

Accountability

Members will receive regular communication from Southwestern and/or your Student Rep for program benefit and accountability. Our accountability system includes access to exclusive webinars featuring accomplished athletes, leaders, entrepreneurs, and top students from across the nation. eLessons on leadership and self-assessments will come monthly or bi-weekly to your inbox, and texts can come daily to your phone.

Community Impact

In the ‘Difference’ part of our program, LEAD members can choose to complete a variety of Community Impact Challenges. Nominate a deserving family for free lifetime access to our online learning platform, rally support for a guided fundraiser that benefits a local organization, and more. We provide the framework; LEAD members provide the action.

Leadership Certification & Letter of Recommendation

By demonstrating action and understanding around the principles spotlighted in LEAD, members will receive a leadership certification and letter of recommendation that can be used when applying for colleges, scholarships, and jobs – written by Dr. Ralph Brigham, the Vice President for the Employer Network with the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA).

Advancement Opportunities

Graduates of LEAD may be invited to advance into a second phase of the program or into Academic Edge – a one-on-one performance coaching program with a certified professional coach.

Click here to connect with the LEAD community on Instagram

Southwestern Advantage and COVID-19

Information below is also published at southwesternadvantage.com/covid19

Regarding COVID-19, Southwestern Advantage has taken extra steps to protect the safety and well-being of our staff, sales leaders, college and university students who sell Southwestern Global Academy and the families they serve.

Every business in the country is affected in some way, and we are no different. We have been following CDC, Federal, and local government guidelines to protect those with connections or business interests of any and all types. This is our top priority. Despite all the nation (and world) has been through for the last several months, we’ve always believed there is an important line between thoughtful, constructive actions and fear-based paralysis. We have moved from Phase 1 of our summer sales and leadership program – done virtually using Zoom – to Phase 2 in which students have resumed serving families by going door-to-door in counties, cities, and municipalities that have re-opened for retail business and are allowing us to join their efforts.

We believe that with schools being closed all across the nation, the educational resources and support that the young men and women in our program provide to families is more essential than it’s ever been. We applaud those who have chosen to spend this historic season serving the educational needs of families. The hundreds of young American men and women who participate come from over 100 institutions across the U.S. deserve a chance to have an experiential education, gain life skills, earn college credit hours, and help offset their educational expenses. We’re proud to be associated with them. 

Applicable Safety Measures & Precautions

Throughout our 152-year history of this program, we have worked to ensure the safety of all involved. To this end, the following specific measures have been taken and continue as part of this summer’s standard operating procedures: 

Phase 1

• In adapting to the situation presented by the virus, all of the students participated in a 2 to 3 week time period of quarantined virtual training and sales. They were placed in Airbnbs in their home states with only a few other program participants. During this time, their temperatures were checked daily and interaction with others was limited. Masks, hand sanitizer and frequent hand-washing was encouraged.

Phase 2

• Students traveled with their roommates to Williamson County, TN for sales training. Although the county had reopened, students were still separated into multiple hotels, wore masks, and practiced social distancing.
• Each student has been issued 3 reusable masks to be worn during training and throughout the summer (or as requested by any homeowner/family they visit). The masks have our company logo on them for identification.
• All student participants are living either with a local host family that has space for social distancing, or are in an Airbnb that accommodates for social distancing.
• Students have been trained to practice social distancing by maintaining a six feet space between them and any prospect or customer, asking each family if they prefer the visit to remain outdoors.
• Students are having their temperatures taken daily, many times twice daily, to keep record of any abnormalities that would indicate the need for testing.
• Students are trained to maintain possession of their demonstration materials.
• Students accept touch-free payment methods.
• Students are trained to remind families, particularly children, of the importance of covering coughs and sneezes and to wash your hands regularly.
• Students are asked to check in with the local police or Sheriff’s Department prior to starting their business. They should display necessary permits (if applicable or required) and identification as they work.
• Sales Leaders with Southwestern Advantage are checking in daily with students to monitor their health, wellness, and continued safety and best-practices training.
• Customers have the option of having their order shipped directly to their home rather than having the student personally deliver the products.
• It is important to note: we have had no cases of COVID-19 within our management and support teams or the 700+ US college and university students who have chosen to participate in the program in 2020.

Looking Ahead

Just like our leaders in government (Federal and local), we do not know how this pandemic will look short-term or long-term. As a company, we continue to be a responsible corporate citizen and follow all CDC, Federal, and local guidelines to protect everyone. In the months ahead, we will continue to observe the state of the virus and adjust accordingly. 

There are urgent needs for at-home education for families across the nation. As we transition back to a similar version of our traditional processes of selling, we diligently work to provide a safe environment to build skills and character in young people and serve the families who purchase our products. We thank the students, parents, customers, and community leaders who have shared in our problem-solving mentality with an attitude of finding a way.

The Southwestern Global Academy products are needed more than ever in households across America. The lessons of self-reliance and resilience our program has taught for over a century-and-a-half are also needed more than ever by the young people who participate in our program.

Public Guidelines

Please visit the CDC’s website for the most current information and guidelines about COVID-19.

Southwestern Advantage Facts

Southwestern Advantage - A Member of Southwestern Family of Companies

Our Family of Companies features 29 brands that serve businesses and consumers through financial services, consulting, real estate, fundraising, insurance, direct sales, executive placement and more. Southwestern Advantage is the founding company (1855), providing America's oldest entrepreneurial program for university students (1868). Participants of the program regularly find career opportunities within Southwestern Advantage and our Southwestern Family of Companies.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• 1,500+ participants from 200+ campuses and 20+ countries each year
• Winner of the CEIA Charles F. Kettering Award for Top Internship in the U.S. - presented to Southwestern Advantage and Dr. Ralph Brigham, our Global Director of Campus Relations
• Recognized by the industry experts at WayUp as one of the nation's Top 100 Internship Programs
• Recognized three years by Nashville's leading newspaper, The Tennessean, as a "Top Workplace"
• Two-time "Best In Business" award winner by Nashville Business Journal for accelerated growth and community impact

PRODUCT PARTNERSHIPS

• Product partners with National Geographic, Princeton Review, and McGraw-Hill
• Books, websites and apps designed by a national board of top educators and experts to fit the needs of public, private, and homeschool curriculums

ALUMNI

• Over 150,000 student participants from over 1,600 campuses since 1868
• Alumni have been in the Forbes 400 ,White House Cabinet, entertainment, medicine, tech, best-selling authors, and more

ETHICAL COMMERCE

• Approximately 150,000 families invest in Southwestern Advantage products each summer
• Southwestern Advantage is an accredited and charter member of the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee since 1961 with an A+ rating
• Recipient of the BBB Torch Award for Ethical Commerce

DIRECT SALES AND MARKETING

• Southwestern Advantage is America's oldest single-level direct sales and marketing program
• Participants take consumers' orders and payments, company inventories and ships product orders, difference between the products' wholesale cost and retail price is the participant's profit - similar to any small business owner
• Zero sign-up costs, entry fees, or financial endorsements required
• All initial training and sales materials are provided free of charge
• Participants' parents are included in the selection process by receiving a packet of information from the company, followed by their signing of a Parent Support Letter that simply states their awareness and approval, followed further by ongoing email updates from the student's leaders
• No quotas for sales or recruitment
• Leading member of the Direct Selling Association, holding direct sales companies accountable to ethical business practices and DSA Code of Ethics
• Southwestern Advantage has testified in support of anti-pyramid scheme legislation
• Company president, Dan Moore, elected to the DSA Board of Directors
• Listed on DSA Global 100

CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS AND MEMBERSHIPS

• Most students are eligible for 3-9 hours of transfer college credit via Trevecca Nazarene University
• Partners with Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE)
• Member of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
• Premium Partner with Handshake - the leading platform connecting campus career centers, employers and students

CAREER SERVICES

• All students that complete one or more years are provided with a Professional Career Counselor for their career path and resume at no charge

COMMUNITY IMPACT

• Southwestern Advantage Student Reps have visited and helped 27 different organizations in five international cities through our Share The Advantage donation program
• Southwestern Advantage fights human trafficking through our partnership with End Slavery Tennessee
• Active partner with the Kindness For Kids Foundation
• Corporate partners with United Way of Metro Nashville

For more information about Southwestern Advantage and our family of companies, open our online brochure, visit our Instagram & Facebook, or browse our website.

Share The Advantage: Leona Vicario

We believe in the power of serving others.

Each summer, Southwestern Advantage Reps can opt-in to participate in Service Week. The amount they choose to donate from their personal profits goes toward the service project held on their incentive trip. In 2019, over $26,000 was donated to help the Mayan village of Leona Vicario, Mexico.

For a long-term impact, a wing was added to the town library specific to children and special-needs children. On the two days Southwestern Advantage Reps went to the village, over 30 mini-service projects took place. Homes received new roofs, dirt floors were replaced with concrete floors, food, diapers and medicine were delivered to those in need, plumbing was installed in homes without, and two churches received supplies for local aid.

Reps also spent time getting to know local families, library staff, and the school children who benefited from their assistance. The Mayor, City Delegate, and townspeople said, “Southwestern Advantage is now a part of our life and town. You are now all citizens of Leona Vicario. Our home is your home!”

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/SouthwesternAdvantage/posts/3007244329285960?__tn__=-R

Special thanks to:
City Delegate Chano de Leona
Projects Coordinator Nayeli Fregoso Martinez

Learn more at https://southwesternadvantage.com/share-the-advantage

Southwestern Advantage Partners to Fight Human Trafficking

Southwestern Advantage is honored to have an official partnership with
END SLAVERY TENNESSEE. ESTN promotes the healing of human trafficking survivors and strategically confronts slavery through training, aftercare, advocacy and prevention services.

ESTN is the single point of contact for all human trafficking referrals in Middle Tennessee and provides comprehensive, holistic, trauma-informed care to every survivor in their program. We are honored to be partners with ESTN and to stand with our student reps against human trafficking.

Learn more about our Share The Advantage initiative: http://www.southwesternadvantage.com/Share-The-Advantage