And he knows you can, too!
It was 2012 when Courtney Stingley started as an electronics sales associate at Walmart Store 1059 in Forest, Mississippi.
When he started, Courtney admits that he “had attitude issues.” He struggled to feel comfortable. But all that changed when he trained at the Academy.
“The Academy helped me to dive deep on what my personal issues were and how to establish a work ethic and a work behavior,” he says.
Courtney kept learning, moving from one area to another, working as an overnight support manager at Store 1069 in Newton, Mississippi, then back to Store 1059.
He’d been manager of men’s and boys’ apparel at Store 1059 for a year when Walmart partnered with Guild Education to create our Live Better U program.
“I started researching it,” says Courtney. He already had his associate degree in drafting and design and his cosmetology license, and he knew that going back to school for a $1 a day was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. (And now, the program is completely free!) He enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in supply chain transportation and logistics management at Bellevue University.
As Courtney hoped, education led to more and better opportunities. It took him two years to complete the course. One week after he was done, he applied to be logistics load manager at West Transportation Command Center. A week later, he received an offer letter!
His new position offers the challenge he seeks. “Everything is completely new, and that’s one of the things I love,” he says. It doesn’t hurt that the job came with a pay increase, allowing him to purchase a house—and fulfilling a longtime dream.
Courtney still visits home, seeing his family and his old stores, hoping to bring others along with him. “I go in. I say, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Have you guys taken advantage of Live Better U? Have you looked into Guild Education?’”
He knows how challenging it can be, so Courtney has a message for every associate: “Beforehand, I didn’t think that I was capable of doing this. And I stand proudly as a testimony to anybody who feels that they couldn’t do it, that it wasn’t possible, that there are too many obstacles, too many troubles: You can do it. It is possible. You have everything that you need already inside you. You just have to tap into it and continue forward.”
