<Begin Segment 11>

RP: You graduated in 1936.

MS: Uh-huh.

RP: And, what did you, what did you do after that?

MS: Well, after that I was planning to, I was gonna go to any college I could, or whatever. But I thought, well, the only thing I could really afford was City College. I could get to that on the streetcar. And I also got a WPA, I guess it was, was it a WPA grant? Which helped pay for my... and I remember the job I had was... included formaldehyde, must have been a biology lab or something [Laughs]

RP: Where was this?

MS: At L.A. City College.

RP: What do you remember doing for that?

MS: I don't know what I had to do, but I remember that because of the... I had to help the teacher and so whatever the professor wanted me to do I had to do. And so I, I must have printed out tests and done other things. But I also remember doing something with the formaldehyde, which I can't remember now.

RP: This was part of this WPA grant?

MS: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: Do you know how much it was?

MS: I haven't the faintest idea now. But, on the other hand, because I had been involved with the Girl's Club at the Christian college, Chapman College... is a Christian college, same denomination -- it used to be Cal-Christian apparently. I didn't know that. It was called Chapman College, but it was on Vermont Boulevard right across the street from Los Angeles City College. Los Angeles City College used to be the site of UCLA before it moved out to Westwood, I think. But, but they wanted me to go to Christian college, you know, Cal... that would be Chapman College. And so they put me in for a scholarship and I got a scholarship to Chapman College. So I went there which was just across the street. And because it's smaller, I liked that. And you got to know the professors much more. So, I stayed a year at the city college and then I transferred to Chapman College. And, Chapman College, this is very interesting because it was unusual at the time, I was invited to join a sorority. And I was against sororities as a general thing. But this sorority was very unusual, extremely unusual. They had two sororities on, at campus, and one sorority had beautiful girls and the other sorority had less beautiful girls but more interesting in many ways. [Laughs] They were, they were the editors of the newspaper and drama people and it was fascinating because they had a, a black person, and they asked me, and later they asked a Chinese lady. And, and they I think were trying to live a Christian life, and were being very open. Now, in the '30s, that was very unusual and, and so I joined. And that was a really good group.

RP: It kind of broadened your horizons socially and ethnically.

MS: Uh-huh. Yes. And I think because the classes were different... they were smaller and... yeah, I think I learned, I learned many things that I might not have learned in City College. I remember... I never liked history because all the history I had been taught really seemed to be related to dates and wars and... but I had a history teacher who recognized why things happened in terms of history. And so you brought in the larger context and so even thought the dates were there you had a sense of why things might have been, and that I really appreciated.

RP: When you --

MS: No, I was gonna say, I had a, I remember a philosophy... no, my first philosophy class, actually, was in the city college. And I was very interested, was very interested in philosophy and was doing very well. They had midterms as well as finals and little, I don't know, little quizzes or something. And I always did very well. And I wanted to do especially well on the final. And so I stayed up all night, which I never should have done, drank coffee. And I... the next morning, when I took the test, it's almost as if I could see thing, but it's almost like I could see the page and yet I couldn't remember. [Laughs] And I did not do well in that test. So the professor asked me, he said, "Oh, what happened?" And so I told him what had happened. And so he discounted, I think, much of that test, which was nice.

RP: Were some of your older siblings also attending college at this time or had attended college?

MS: No, the...

RP: What was happening to the other brothers and sisters?

MS: My, yes, my brother, oldest brother, had graduated from City College. And I'm glad, because he had his picture taken with my mother and I think that she was very proud that happened before she died, you know. And, and then none of the others went. Let's see now, my second, the sister just above me, my second oldest sister, Mary, went to nursing school in San Diego and, and of course later my brother Paul went to City College, just before we were evacuated.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.