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Chad Cargill's Story & Our Team

The Beginning

Chad comes from a simple home. His dad worked in a grocery warehouse for 30 years. His mom graduated high school after raising three kids. Neither had saved for college it wasn't expected of them.

No Cargill in the family history had ever graduated college.

His dad told him straight: "Get a job and attend the local junior college."

But Chad had a different plan.

Where It Started

The Discovery

During his freshman year of high school, Chad discovered something life-changing: many scholarships were based on ACT scores.

Chad Cargill Teaching in a Classroom

That became his mission.

He took the ACT 18 times in high school not because he was obsessed, but because each attempt taught him something new.

His score climbed steadily: 19 → 21 → 24 → 27 → 32.

From 19 to 32. A 13-point improvement.

All those attempts taught Chad something crucial: The ACT isn't about being smart. It's about knowing what's on the test and how to take it.

"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."

With that 32, Chad won scholarships to Oklahoma State University. He became the first Cargill in his family history to graduate from a four-year university.

Raise Your ACT Score See How Chad Teaches
The First Workshop

The Beginning of the Workshop

After high school, Chad went back to his high school and told some of the students what he’d learned from his 18 attempts.

When those students' test scores came back positive, the counselor asked a question: “Would you come back and tell more students what you learned?”

He did.

A few cycles later, other schools heard about him.

Eventually, Oklahoma State University's Engineering Department approached him with an opportunity: host workshops on campus for students.

He agreed.

Counselors began requesting him to come to their high schools.

chad-cargill-in-person-act-workshop

The Turning Point

The Career

Chad worked five years as an engineer for Lucent Technologies while giving ACT workshops in the evenings and weekends.

Then something shifted. He realized his passion wasn't engineering it was helping students understand that scholarships (and avoiding college debt) were within reach if they mastered the ACT.

He left engineering to do this full-time.

Now Chad travels across the country giving his workshop.

Raise Your ACT Score See How Chad Teaches

The Impact

The Scale

Chad Cargill Leads ACT Workshop

In the 2009-2010 school year alone:

  • 158 workshops
  • 10,648 high school students

Today:

  • 20+ years of experience
  • Over 10,000 students per year
  • Same workshop, proven results
The Approach

The Philosophy

Chad's entire workshop is built on what he learned taking the ACT 18 times. Not theory. Not what test prep companies think works. What actually works.

Two Powerful Insights

  • On Sacrifice

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

  • On Scholarships

    "If you spend 10 hours in high school filling out scholarship applications that require no essays, you can complete about 40 applications 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. That's like 90-100 an hour on a regular job."
This is why the ACT matters. Not because it defines intelligence. But because it unlocks scholarships.
Raise Your ACT Score See How Chad Teaches
BEHIND THE SCENES

The Team Behind the Work

Chad doesn't do this alone. For over 20 years, two dedicated people have been instrumental in helping him scale his impact from one high school to thousands of students across the country.

Penny Loch - VP of Operations

Penny has been with Cargill Consulting since 2004–22 years. She oversees all business operations, coordinates with schools, manages logistics, and ensures every student has a seamless experience.

When you book a workshop with Chad, Penny is the person behind the scenes making sure everything runs perfectly. She coordinates with counselors, manages workshop logistics, and handles the relationships that keep schools coming back year after year.

Her 22 years with the organization represent something important: stability. This isn't a fly-by-night operation. The same core team has been helping students for over two decades. When you work with Cargill Consulting, you're working with people genuinely invested in your success.

Shane Cowherd - Technology Director

Shane graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Management Information Systems and joined Cargill Consulting in 2006 nearly 18 years ago.

While Chad teaches the strategies and Penny handles operations, Shane manages the technology infrastructure that makes everything possible. He oversees the website, online academy platform, workshop scheduling systems, student dashboards, and all the backend systems that allow us to reach and serve thousands of students.

In the early days, Chad gave workshops one school at a time. To scale impact, the organization needed to build technology that could reach students beyond what physical workshops alone could do. Shane was instrumental in building the online academy a platform that lets students learn at their own pace, with video lessons, practice tests, progress tracking, and community support.

Every time you sign up for the online academy, every time a school books a workshop through our calendar, every payment processed for Chad's prep book that's Shane's work behind the scenes. He's built systems that are secure, fast, and reliable enough to serve thousands of students.

Shane's technical expertise transformed what could have remained a "one-man operation" into a scalable organization that helps 10,000+ students every year without sacrificing the personal touch or proven results.

THE DIFFERENCE THAT MATTERS

Why This Model Works

Most test prep organizations choose one of two paths: massive corporations with high overhead and unknown instructors, or solo operators who can't scale beyond their personal bandwidth.

Cargill Consulting is different.

Chad still creates the curriculum and gives the workshops. He hasn't been replaced by franchisees or corporate trainers. But he's built a team that allows him to reach far more students than he ever could alone.

Penny handles operations and has built trust with counselors across the country who return year after year because they know Chad delivers results.

Shane built the technology platform that lets students access Chad's strategies online, on their own schedule, with the same quality as live workshops.

The result: founder-led, team-supported, proven at scale.

20+ years. 10,000+ students per year. Same quality. Same results.

Raise Your ACT Score See How Chad Teaches
CHOOSE YOUR NEXT STEP

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