We have been writing about how three of our students – Kaspar, Liisbet, and Annika – are a part of the 150-year-old Southwestern Advantage program and are spending their summer in America. The booksellers’ have nearly reached the end of their summer, and have only a few days left to enjoy. We interacted with students there and here is an account of what we heard. We interacted with Liisbet and her team again this week.
As the end of summer approaches, some whose strengths begin to wane and they start feeling homesick, but some are extra zealous to achieve the last of the remaining goals they set for themselves in spring. The group leaders’ job is also to help the students stay focused until the last days so that when they look back at the end of the summer, they feel good and can say that they gave their all.
Liisbet, the group manager, feels her work is similar to that of a coach when it comes to the management of a group of young people in the USA 🙂
Each week there are prizes, and that help to keep the focus. The previous week the participants had the FLOWER POWER competition. It’s an exciting competition where the winners can choose to send flowers with good wishes to a chosen person anywhere in the world. The next year’s selection process has also begun, where the best first-year booksellers are selected for the management program. These exemplary students are given the opportunity to not only return the next summer but also bring a few friends to join them and guide them on the same journey. This involves a 2-week selection process, where the organisation’s leaders work with these students to help them reach the next level in sales, give them more responsibility with organisational tasks and help them decide on whether the management program could be the right choice for them. The most important prerequisites for being selected for the management program are positivity and a good work ethic, as the chosen students would be the role models for the next set of participants of the Southwestern Advantage program. Actual results are also considered, but those are usually based on hard work, and having a good attitude.
Below are excerpts from our conversation with Liisbet and her team members this week.
KELLI: Wow! The first week of August is already over, and it was a great week too. Getter and I have moved in with an elderly couple, such cute grandparents.
LIISBET video greeting
KRISTI: Another great week gone by quickly. I am working in a new city called Yoakum, which is so great there! It’s a cute little town where everyone knows everyone. People have lots of animals, like roosters, chickens and other birds, walking around everywhere. Yoakum has many Spanish-speaking families, so it’s fun with a mixture of English and Spanish. I went to City Hall on Monday to get a work permit and they made a post about me on Facebook, so everyone already recognizes me at the door and knows what I do. I’m like a local superstar 🙂 But what I love is that I get to witness the most amazing sunsets here.
LISANNA: Week 1, day 1, just getting started! It gets a little better every day. You get to meet so many different families every day. This week, my focus was to take off sales pressure, i.e. “week of choice”. It was pretty fun. I met very kind people who helped me with my bike (I was able to fasten it to the post in such a way that it wouldn’t come loose). One mother made tacos for me, another mother had ducks at home (in a big cage, I could play with them). Even the Mexicans had fun, because I don’t know Spanish, so I have a very funny approach at the door, which always makes them laugh and become more interested in me. I don’t want to go back to Estonia!
GRETE: I have been meeting a lot of families lately with lots of pets. This week was also a lot of fun with more such families, and I met ducks, goats, chickens and puppies. Last Sunday we moved to a new host to be closer to the area where Lisanna and I work. Mega nice grandparents, very sporty and with a crazy schedule – they go to bed at eight and wake up before five. So we don’t really see them.
