Student Lured from the UK
What a fantastic site. Let me share my Southwestern experiences with you, as someone who was lured there all the way from the UK.
I was in my 2nd year at University in England in 2006, and was recruited for the Southwestern programme. And I wish to God I had seen this site before I went. The only thing I can thank Southwestern for is that they got me out to America, where, once I quit, I found a lovely job and made some amazing friends to whom I owe everything.
I lasted a month. I remember once we were taken to our selling area our living quarters weren't ready, so we stayed for 2 nights in a disgusting motel, 2 girls and 2 boys, we barely knew each other but had no qualms about huddling together on two beds, fully clothed, under the nicotine-stained sheets for comfort. To go back a bit, training school was cult-like. Although The large sessions were laced with positive clichés, my student manager favored the stick rather than the carrot, telling us that he had no time for failures etc. I genuinely wanted to succeed, not for money (although I hoped I would earn back what it cost me to get out there) but for the great experience we were all told we were getting.
I worked 12-13 hour days, cycling around on a bike. My periods completely stopped. I sobbed every morning as I got up. Through the month I worked I didn't want to face "failure", I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. Sundays consisted of bragging to each other that we had been out selling until 9/10 o clock at night.
Although I had a few customers, I ran out of money for rent, food etc.
One day I got completely soaked in a storm, it was like I'd jumped in the river. I parked my bike at the cinema, walked in and bought a ticket with my last dollars, and sat in the film crying! It sounds pathetic now, but you turn into a different person, honestly. I look back with disbelief at how I became.
When I finally quit, the phone call lasted 45 minutes, in which my student manager told me if I quit Southwestern, I would fail at everything I ever did in the future. Nice try, pal. Even I wasn't that brainwashed. When I quit I had to move out of where I was living. I was thousands of miles from home, not even in my own country, with no job, and under pressure to find a new place to live. This is where I can thank Southwestern for the one piece of good advice, which was: find a nice place to have breakfast. The place I'd been to everyday was great, I'd made friends with a few of the locals, who wasted no time in helping me, I ended up working in a bar and living with the kindest lady ever, who is still my friend now, and to whom I will be grateful for the rest of my life. The rest of my summer I earned a nice sum nannying and waitressing, and experiencing the wonderful side to the USA.
Lots of students from outside the US come every year, and I'm sure lots of them aren't as fortunate as I was in the end. Southwestern is a cult, it is a scam, it is despicable.
Received: September 17, 2008
