Supporting the employment of the deaf and hard of hearing

By Mike Switzer

Published July 13, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT

It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that people who are deaf or hard of hearing have lower rates of college-level education, which means lower paying jobs and higher rates of unemployment. Which is why our next guest’s organization is working to alleviate this situation. Mike Switzer interviews Mary Reaves, the director of programs at BeginningsSC in West Columbia, SC.

Tags

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer