ABOVE: Kristaps Kaza, a student from Latvia, is seen with his marked car and licensing. Kaza is selling educational materials in the Fairmont area through Southwestern Advantage.

FAIRMONT– With a goal of visiting 30 families a day, many people in the Fairmont area may have already met Kristaps Kaža. Kaža is a college student from Latvia going door to door selling educational materials through an internship program with Southwestern Advantage.

Southwestern Advantage is an educational sales company based out of Nashville. It allows students the opportunity to run their own business selling materials while also providing them with communication and business management skills and self-development.

Kaža said he heard of Southwestern Advantage while in school. He shared that there are over 1,000 American students in the program and just a few hundred from Europe.

In school, Kaža is studying business management with the goal of running his own business some day.

“That’s why I’m doing this job. To become more brave and learn how to believe in myself and learn better communication skills,” he said.

The money he’s earning this summer will go toward his college education. After he finishes his four years of undergrad, Kaža wants to go on to get his Master’s, which will likely take another two years.

This is actually Kaža’s second year working for the company and his second time to Minnesota, though the first time around he was in the Twin Cities area and this time he’s in southern Minnesota.

“I know a group of like 13 Latvian students who are in southern Minnesota now. A couple in Mankato, New Ulm and Rochester. In the northern part of Minnesota there’s like 30 Estonians,” Kaža said.

On the weekends, Kaža gets together with others from his group. He shared that last weekend several of them met in Mankato to play laser tag and share about their experiences.

He’s been in Minnesota since early June but just arrived in Fairmont this week. Upon arriving, he met with Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce President, Kandi Menne, and Fairmont Police Chief, Mike Hunter.

It’s important for Kaža to let people in the community know what his intentions are and that he has the proper licensing. Everyday he wears a marked shirt and badge and also has a mark on his car that says Southwestern Advantage.

“I have an accent so sometimes people are worried because I’m from out of the country,” Kaža said.

He understands the concern and shared that it’s helping him work on becoming more comfortable in different situations.

“When I see the person is confused, I just have to explain what I do,” he said.

So far, Kaža said most people have been very kind and welcoming. He has even met a good amount of people who have known someone in Southwestern Advantage or have purchased materials from someone working for the company in the past.

He has made a point to take a “selfie” with many of the families who have purchased materials from him. He does this in part for himself, to keep a record of the people he’s met, but he also posts the photos on Facebook and allows others to see as word of mouth and referrals are a big part of his business.

“I usually start work at 8 in the morning and finish in the evening around 9,” Kaža said.

He pointed out that the company doesn’t do online orders so it’s his job to provide the service and show potential customers the products.

In comparing Minnesota with his home country of Latvia, Kaža has noticed some cultural differences.

“People are way more social here… people (in Latvia) are still friendly, but usually they just become friends through work or school. Neighbors don’t usually go to their neighbor just to talk,” he said.

Kaža shared that he started learning English as part of his regular school work when he was in about 2nd grade. He said almost everyone in his country is fluent in English and shared why many Europeans know English.

“We learn English because if we go to Estonia, they speak another language. All of the neighboring countries speak a different language so you would need to know 20 languages just to get around Europe. The easiest thing is for everyone to just learn English as a second language so if we visit a neighboring country, we can all communicate,” he said.

It’s unknown how much longer Kaža will be in Fairmont because his company tells him where to go each morning. However, he knows he has yet to visit the communities of Welcome, Sherburn, Truman and Blue Earth.