The Encouragement Foundation

Julie Wilson, an Atlanta, Georgia (USA) wife and mother of two had been fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom for a number of years, thanks to her husband, Denny’s, entrepreneurial knack for building successful businesses. Over the years, Julie has worked diligently at taking care of her family, raising the couples’ two children and taking particular interest in their education. As a loving and devoted mother, Julie has spent 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.

Desiring to help her children succeed in school and ultimately in life, Julie devoted much time studying with her son and daughter after school, making flash cards, cutting and pasting in Word, and verbally quizzing at the kitchen table. As loving as Julie’s intentions were, the interaction during homework time wasn’t always uplifting and positive. Her son had some grades that needed to be pulled up, and Julie wanted to help him any way she could.

Julie genuinely enjoyed studying with her children but knew that she needed to find a creative way for them to learn that would still involve her but encourage independence and teach valuable study skills simultaneously. She began navigating the Internet for study tools that met the criteria she was seeking, but she ran into several road blocks. Some of the programs were very costly and others were way too complicated to use. She knew exactly what she wanted, but just couldn’t find it. Discouragement set in, but not for long. 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.

During visits with her parents and her beloved grandmother, she began sharing her thoughts, ideas and dreams regarding what she envisioned QW to be. Julie’s grandmother was quite the entrepreneur in her younger years and loved that Julie’s idea involved education. “Gramie Virgie” 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. She was a success story and an outstanding example for Julie. Her grandmother persevered when it wasn’t so easy to be a woman in a man’s business world. Julie knew she had to forge ahead with this idea that was growing in her head.

When her grandmother passed away in late 2006 at the age of 98, she lovingly left Julie a modest inheritance, and she knew, without a doubt, that Gramie Virgie was helping to make her dream come true. She had to pursue it. Hence, Qwizzy’s World began to evolve, and by November 2007, Julie had birthed a unique 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.

When Julie launched her QW web site, she discovered that it helped her reconnect with her kids, something she treasured and knew Gramie Virgie would be smiling about. Homework time became an entertaining experience for Julie and her kids. The kids were becoming “whizzes at taking quizzes” and their classroom experiences were more enjoyable.

The kids learned to create their own quizzes, and when they went to bed, Julie would log on, use the QW edit function on the site, and add more challenging versions of the same material. The fact that the site randomized the questions on their quizzes ensured that they were really learning the material as opposed to just memorizing it, another of Julie’s goals.

Because the Wilsons had set up multiple accounts on QW within their household, they could ‘Buddyshare’ quizzes with each other – a special feature allowing Julie to create quizzes and send them to each child’s account with the touch of a button. Additionally, she could access quiz scores by reviewing them in the performance results section stored on QW. When mid-terms rolled around, Julie used another special QW feature enabling her to put several previous quizzes together, creating one ‘Ultimate Quiz.’ She watched as her kids experienced a boost in self-confidence at test taking, along with a boost in their grades.

Although the goal of helping her own children had been met, she desired to see other students excel as her children had with the help of QW. She envisioned the QW concept being used in schools, both public and private, all over the globe, along with the growing home school segment and the tutoring community. On this note, Julie made sure the site was made affordable for all students, teachers and families, regardless of their means.

Qwizzy’s World has become Julie’s passion and labor of love, and she truly desires to help students across the globe learn study skills that will take them successfully through all levels of school, enhancing their experience along the way. Her ultimate goal is to someday make QW available at no cost to students, and she looks forward to the day that it’s second nature for students to create their own practice quizzes and that test anxiety is a thing of the past. Gramie Virgie would be proud.

To learn more about Qwizzy’s World or e-mail Julie Wilson

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