Dr. Ralph Brigham and Southwestern Advantage have been selected as award recipients of the 2019 Charles F. Kettering Award.
Each year, Cooperative Education & Internship Association (CEIA) recognizes one recipient of the Charles F. Kettering Award for excellence in industry, business or government internship/cooperative education programs. CEIA is the national leader in cooperative education and internship program management.
This award comes with the distinction of being rated as the top-rated internship/cooperative education employer in the nation providing outstanding resources and service to college students and the profession. Southwestern Advantage joins a prestigious group of past winners including IBM, NASA, Walt Disney, AT&T, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Bloomingdale’s, Ford and General Motors.
For the past 17 years Dr. Brigham has served as the company’s global director of Campus Relations. In his role, he is the liaison between universities and Southwestern Advantage in building and maintaining relationships with the more than 200 universities in North America, Europe and Asia that have students participating in the program (over 1,600 campuses total in 151 years of continuous operation). He has been invited to speak to students at universities across the United States and in France, England, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Kazakhstan to name some recent countries.
Dr. Brigham has served as the president of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In 2013 he was inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows.
“I am humbled and honored to be recognized by CEIA, and for Southwestern Advantage to also be recognized alongside some of the top companies in the world,” said Dr. Brigham. “For over 150 years, Southwestern Advantage has provided services and opportunities for college students to gain an experiential education through our entrepreneurial program. This award is a result of the principles that the company stands for and instills in the students who participate.”
Southwestern Advantage is the oldest entrepreneurial program in the United States. Since 1868, Southwestern Advantage has offered a sales and leadership program that gives university students a way to afford their degrees, gain entrepreneurial skills, and build character. Each summer, a sales force of nearly 1,500 independent student reps market an educational learning system to families across the U.S. and Canada through direct sales.
