Lithuanian student sells study materials in Washington County

WASHINGTON — Živilė Stanevičiūtė wakes up every working morning to an alarm set for 6:59 a.m., in the home of a host family in Tiffin. From that moment, it’s a race against her roommate to reach the shower first, followed by breakfast, then a drive, and by 8:59 a.m., a knock on the first of many doors.

Stanevičiūtė is one of nine Lithuanian students currently traveling abroad through an internship with a company called Southwestern Advantage, selling study materials to parents and students from preschool to the end of high school.

She said visiting the United States was a long-held wish.

“When you’re watching movies, you think, ‘Oh my God, one day I want to go there,’” she said. “My mom, when I told her about this opportunity was like, ‘Well, this is going to be your dream, right?’”

Interns for the company buy the products wholesale, and sell them at a retail rate as their own business, according to a company FAQ page. Stanevičiūtė said she was referred to the program by an acquaintance, and quickly jumped at the chance to visit America.

While the entrepreneurial work is appreciated, Stanevičiūtė said she was mostly in it for personal growth. That goal, at least, has already been achieved: she said her grasp of English had improved tremendously over the summer, as has her overall sense of self-assurance.

“At the first day, I was so shy with my English and not feeling confident,” she said. “I think I’ve had more than I expect … I look at myself and I see something different. And my friend, also from the team, told me, ‘It’s because you feel more confidence.’”

The group of students flew out of Lithuania on May 30, which happened to be Stanevičiūtė’s birthday.

She said she was surprised — not disappointed, she noted — to learn a month prior that her destination was Iowa, of all places.

“It looks way different because at first I didn’t know anything about Iowa, and when I find out about how I’m going to Iowa, I start to Google it, and there was like, corn and farmers,” she said. “Now, I see Iowa through different eyes … Before, I would think about America like big cities, like Las Vegas.”

The sights are, admittedly, different from the America portrayed in movies. Still, Stanevičiūtė said she enjoyed her off-days taking in the state’s highlights with her peers, including group trips to a bowling alley, the state capital, or an amusement park in Waterloo.

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One prediction about the state did hold up: Stanevičiūtė said she was told to expect the “Iowa nice” culture. Still, she said she was surprised by the warm reception she’d received.

“The people here are really friendly and nice, I really enjoy being here,” she said. “Since our job is go from door to door, and knock, people being really nice is more than I expected … You can raise your hand and everyone is like, ‘Hi, how are you?’ and that’s pretty cool. In Lithuania, it’s way different. If you go to market, nobody asks you how you’re doing today, and they don’t know you.”

Stanevičiūtė started selling the materials in Coralville, before moving on to Riverside, then Ainsworth, and now Washington. She tentatively plans to make her way through Kalona next, but plans aren’t set in stone.

She said she appreciated the network of connections that came with smaller towns, even at Washington’s scale of over 7,000 people.

“If you show some picture of the people you’ve met, it’s, ‘Oh my god, I know them, they’re like my brother,’ or something, and that’s pretty cool for me,” Stanevičiūtė said. “I can ask where I should go next, ‘What about your neighbor,’ and people usually know.”

The job isn’t always perfect, of course. Stanevičiūtė works on even the most sweltering days, and frequently faces rejection from people uninterested in the product or unconvinced by the sales pitch or unwilling to answer the door for a door-to-door salesperson.

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She said she managed thanks to a positive attitude and healthy expectations. The hardest part has been convincing people she’s the real deal.

“Because of my accent, sometimes people get confused,” she said. “I try to be calm and explain that I’m a college student, it is my summer program … because they think I’m a scammer, strange girl with (an) accent from Europe.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com