Chad's Story

Chad took the ACT a total of 18 times in high school raising his score from a 19 to a 32.

Chad comes from a simple home. He went to his mom's high school graduation and his dad lugged boxes in a grocery warehouse for 30 years. His parents had not saved any money for college since it really wasn't expected. No Cargill in the Cargill family history had ever graduated college. Chad's dad told him he would have to get a job and attend the local junior college. During high school Chad knew he needed to win scholarships in order to attend Oklahoma State University. Chad's Freshman year in high school, he discovered that many scholarships were based on ACT scores and the journey was on. He took the ACT a total of 18 times in high school raising his score from a 19 to a 32. This phenomenal increase was simply due to him learning what was on the test and how to take it. Chad says, "People think I'm crazy for doing what I did. But I tell them, I'm not normal. Because you know what normal is when you go to college, broke."

After graduating high school, Chad went back to his high school to tell some of the students what he learned from the test. When the results of those students' tests were very positive, the counselor asked if he would come back to tell more students what he had learned. After a few cycles of helping students at his alma-mater, other schools began hearing about the workshop.

Eventually Oklahoma State University approached Chad with the opportunity to start giving workshops hosted by the OSU Engineering department. He gave several workshops on campus and counselors began requesting him to come to their high schools. Chad agreed and the rest is history. Chad worked five years as an engineer for Lucent Technologies while giving workshops in the evenings and weekends. Now Chad travels full-time across the country giving his workshop.

In the 2009-2010 school year alone, Chad gave his 3 hour Test Prep and Character Building Workshop 158 times to 10,648 high school students throughout the midwest. To find more information about Chad Cargill, to view his upcoming schedule, or to book a workshop, visit www.chadcargill.com.

Quotes

"A little sacrifice now is a lot of reward later. No sacrifice now is a lot of flipping burgers later."

"If you spend 10 hours in high school doing nothing but filling out scholarship applications that require no essays or writing portions, you can complete about 40 applications in that timeframe by cutting and pasting from your resume. If you win one $800 scholarship from those 40 applications, you just got paid $80 an hour tax free for sitting on your bottom in the air-conditioning! That's like $90-$100 an hour on a regular job."

Home Town:	Harrah, OK
Favorite Restaurant:	Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Favorite Movies:	Braveheart, Gladiator, Band of Brothers
Favorite Vacation Spot:	Disneyworld
Top 3 Books:	Wild at Heart, QBQ!, Do Hard Things
What's on your iPod?	Addison Road, Toby Mac, and a bunch of others
What’s Your Radio Usually On?	Sports Animal, K-Love, AirOne
Favorite Store to Shop:	Cabelas
What do you get at Starbucks?	Skinny Carmel Latte (Venti, Skim milk and add a pack of Splenda)
Hobbies/Interests:	NRG Kids' Church, OSU Sports, Bird Hunting, and anything with My Wife and Kids
Favorite Websites:	www.chadcargill.com www.nrgkids.com www.daveramsey.com www.foxnews.com www.compassion.com