<Begin Segment 19>

AI: Well, so I wanted to ask you also, how did you decide on your focus in college? You ended up majoring in both English and economics. How did that happen?

PJ: Right. [Laughs] Well, that happened because I was told in no uncertain terms by my father that I needed to get a degree in something that was gonna get me a good job, 'cause we had all these loans to pay. And so that was economics. That was really... and I have this very logical side, I like math and, you know, I'm good at math. And so economics was sort of like the thing that would get me a good job. And, but I hated it. And I just really did not like it, and my sophomore year of college I had this macroeconomics course that just, I just didn't like it. It was awful. And so I just decided that I was gonna major in English, and I called my father from a pay phone to tell him. And he, I mean, I just had to hold the phone out like this, 'cause he was so furious. And, "What are you going to do with English?" And the funny this is, my mother has a master's in English. But, you know, "Useless," and "it's not going to get you a job, it's not going to pay the bills." And I said, "Believe me," I said, "I am going to get an English major, but I will take care of myself, and you do not have to worry about paying anything. I will get the same job that I would have gotten with an economics major as an English major." And he said, "You, you better, because..." and this whole thing. And so then I just had enough credits that I could be an economics major, so I just decided to do both. And then, and then I had to prove to my dad that I was gonna do what I, the same thing. And so instead of, I went after the same job, which at that time was investment banking. It was the mid-1980s and it was the hot thing, and if you were really smart and you wanted to make money and you were, that's what you were supposed to go do. And so I had to show my dad that I was, of course, very smart and wanted to make money and was going to be able to pay off all these loans. [Laughs]

And so that's what I did. I interviewed for investment banking jobs. And basically, they would say, "Well, you have an English major and why would we hire you into investment banking?" And I would say, "Well, it's really the value of a liberal arts degree, that you can teach people a lot of things. You can teach them about financial statements and balance sheets and numbers," I said, "but you can't teach somebody in two years how to think, or how to write, or how to act. And that's what a liberal arts degree gives you, is that kind of integrated knowledge that allows you to..." So I got the job. [Laughs]

AI: That sounds like a very good promotional piece for a liberal education.

PJ: Absolutely. Well, at that time, they weren't really hiring people with liberal arts degrees. They were really focusing on people with economics or business degrees. And all my friends -- 'cause Georgetown had a business school where you could actually get an undergraduate degree in business. And that's what they all wanted to do, and so it was always kind of like, "How did you get that job, and you have a mast-, you have a degree in English." I have a degree in business, but I do believe that. It wasn't, I mean, I did say that, but I also believe that. I really see, through my life, how the ability to write and read and articulate is so critical. And I think it's so much of what we don't teach kids in the U.S. school system.

AI: Unfortunately.

PJ: Yeah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.