Executive Director, Students Offering Support: Greg Overholt |

We had the incredible opportunity to hear from Greg Overholt, who is the Executive Director at Students Offering Support, an organization that raises money to raise roofs through raising marks of various students across North America. A social entrepreneur making an impact in the education sector!

Why have you chosen to work in the education sector?

An education creates opportunities. It provides the possibility to cure diseases, invent, and break the cycle of poverty. Education should be a principle right for everyone, not to just those who are privileged.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

Being able to see the tangible impact of my time and effort – be it helping students improve their marks on campuses across Canada through SOS’s Exam-AID review service, or improving access to a quality education to the hundreds of children in rural Latin America through our school build projects using the funds raised through our on-campus Exam-AID initiative.

What is the greatest challenge that you encounter within your role?

Launching this club nationally in 2008 – finding the funds to support the development of the national organization while finding student leaders who see the on-campus volunteer opportunity as a way to truly enable sustainable social change locally and globally.

What do you think attracts people across industries to work in education?

To those who value and appreciate the immense impact that a quality education can have on a person, community, and society as a whole, being able to give back to the education system and help those who were in your shoes is such a great industry to spend your career in.

What misconceptions (if any) do you think people have when considering a career in this sector?

That being a teacher, professor, faculty or staff at an education institution is routine and boring since your doing the same thing year after year. Teaching (or supporting those in the industry) to those who know is definitely not routine. For example, as a teacher/professor, working to continually hone your ability to communicate effectively and face new challenges everyday helping different students through different problems is extremely challenging and dynamic!

If you could change our sector in just one way, what would that look like?

Globally, I want each government to properly place the importance of education for their country’s children as high as it should be – providing access to a quality education all the way through to secondary and support those in financial need through to university & college.

Locally in Canada, I would like to see the university system change quicker to adapt to a teaching pedagogy that aligns with the current cohort of students. The old system that has a professor lecture to hundreds if not thousands of students at the same time doesn’t engage this generation of students as it did with our parents and our parents’ parents.

Reflecting on your role and the impact it has, is there anything that you find you appreciate more now than before?

I definitely appreciate the Canadian education system more than I ever did when I was young. Having seen how eager and passionate kids in our Latin American communities are towards school and learning, I reflect to Greg as a 7-year-old and I wish I was more eager to learn. Not view school as something we had to do, but instead, view it as something I desperately wanted to use it to its full advantage. I used to love gym, recess, and lunch. The kids in our community can’t get enough of English, math, science and really anything that is new and unknown – it is truly inspiring and wish I appreciated it more as a child.

What’s one thing you would want to tell to those applying for a job in the education sector?

Look to a job in the education sector not for job security and a secure pension, but for a way to develop as a community leader, give a part of yourself to others, and constantly look for ways to be a better educator.

…and…finally:

What is your favourite apple-inspired food?

It’a tie between candied apples and apple cider.

Thank you Greg!