Mom Inspired By Grandmother’s Encouragement And Love of Education Creates Online Study Site

DawsonTimes.com:

For the last thirteen years, Forsyth County resident, Julie Wilson has been fortunate to have been a stay-at-home mom, thanks to her husband, Denny’s, entrepreneurial knack for building successful businesses. Although Julie hasn’t been part of the workforce, per se, in many years, she has worked diligently at raising the couples’ two children, taking particular interest in their education and success in school. She has devoted countless hours studying with her children – now in 8th and 4th grades — and devising creative ways to help them study and have fun doing so.

“Over the years, I’d spent a great deal of time studying with my son and daughter after school, making flash cards, cutting and pasting in Word, and verbally quizzing at the kitchen table, but our interaction wasn’t always as uplifting and positive as it could be,” explained Julie Wilson. “I realized I was actually doing my children a disservice because they were not organizing their own study materials — I was! They really didn’t know ‘how to learn’ – but only, ‘what to learn,’” she continued.

Julie discovered she needed a creative way for her children to study that would involve her assistance but would put the ball in their court more often, while teaching them valuable study skills along the way. She navigated the Internet for study tools and was dismayed at the cost of the various programs and how complicated some were to use. “I knew what I wanted, but just couldn’t find it,” said Julie. Tapping into her organizational skills and question-designing expertise gained while working for years in qualitative market research, she began to design Qwizzy’s World (QW) in her mind.

She shared her thoughts and ideas with her parents and her beloved grandmother. “My grandmother was quite the entrepreneur in her younger years and loved that my idea involved education. She had graduated from high school in the 1920s and had continued on to secretarial school, providing her with solid training for the then male-dominated business world,” recalled Julie.

When her grandmother passed away in late 2006 at the age of 98, she lovingly left Julie a modest inheritance. “I knew right away that Gramie Virgie was helping to make my dream come true, and I had to pursue it. Hence, Qwizzy’s World began to evolve, and by November 2007, I had a unique and dependable quizzing system that allowed kids, parents and teachers a new way to study together, while enabling students to learn a valuable skill – test anticipation without the anxiety!”