College student helping local families with their education needs

Kae Widener, a student from Grand Canyon University, is helping families this summer with their at-home learning. Her hometown being in Iowa, she’s participating in a long-standing sales and leadership program that finds her talking to thousands of families and learning the ins and outs of running a business in Athens County, Ohio and Mason County, West Virginia. She is living in Pomeroy with a local family who is hosting her for the summer.

Widener, a Communications major, has spent the last two summers with Southwestern Advantage, the nation’s oldest entrepreneurial program for college students. Southwestern Advantage has conducted the program since 1868 — just after the Civil War. The company offers students the opportunity to learn how to manage their own business, gain valuable soft skills not often taught in a classroom, and help offset their educational expenses. Each summer, around 1,500 students from over 200 college and university campuses worldwide participate.

Widener, visiting families at their homes through referrals and cold-calls, says she has felt very welcome in both of the communities and that the products she has shared have been well received by families. In addition to meeting new people and helping with what is sometimes a pain point in the home (learning & homework), Widener is grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from an experience that is not-so-common as it once was: door-to-door sales. While it can be challenging, it can be very rewarding as well.

She’s excited about the skillset she is acquiring and her resume experience will now include many new things that will help her land a future job and set her apart from peers. A few of those things include goal-setting, schedule, communication, problem-solving, money management, and other skills.