What is Southwestern?
Southwestern is:
a community of the most interesting and motivated college and university students in the world

Southwestern is:
a summer work internship for students that gives them

• Unmatched experience for a powerful resume
• Extraordinary financial opportunity
• Life skills training
• Challenge
• Mentoring from the best
• A stepping stone to their goals in life, whatever they may be
  

Southwestern is:
the gateway into an amazing career in one of our 15 companies, OR into the resources, experience, and mindset to partner with you in building a new one.

Southwestern's Mission
The Southwestern Company’s mission is simple: To be the best organization in the world at helping young people develop the skills – and the character – they need to achieve their goals in life. We build people: the people who sell our products; the consumers who benefit from them; and the people who become members of our team of employees. We build people. And those people are building a great company.

Our History
The Southwestern Company has been located in Nashville, Tennessee since 1855, and began helping students finance their education by selling books in 1868. Southwestern has been in the UK since 1994. Southwestern markets family-oriented educational reference books and software through a sales force of over 3,000 students each summer.

What We Do
Students who participate in the program represent approximately 350 colleges and universities from the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and South America. Our products are sold to families in their homes by these students during their summer breaks. These students are independent contractors and have the opportunity to run their own businesses by purchasing products from Southwestern at wholesale and selling them to customers at retail.

Company Changes for 2008
A suitable place to live for every first-year dealer will be lined up in advance, and no door-to-door knocking to find a place to live. Southwestern's host family coordinators work year-round to help locate housing for each student before each summer.

There will be no charge for initial dealer kits, book bags, samples and other supplies at Sales School.

Dealers will only pay $100 for their 5 night stay at a hotel during Sales School. They will only be responsible for gas, food, and travel to Nashville.

Associations
Southwestern is a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce – Bristol, England, and a Charter Member of the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee. In addition, we are a member of the National Association of Colleges and Employers and all six of its regional divisions and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (United Kingdom). Southwestern is also a member of the Direct Selling Associations (DSA) of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
As a Direct Selling Association (DSA) member, The Southwestern Company has pledged to adhere to the Code of Ethics set forth by the DSA. As a condition of admission and continuing membership in the DSA, Southwestern is bound to abide by the code's standards and procedures. The DSA Code of Ethics speaks to both the consumer and the seller. It ensures that member companies will make no statements or promises that might mislead either consumers or prospective sales people.
Since 2005 the Southwestern Company UK Ltd have met the Office of Fair Trading approved consumer code of practice.