Success Stories

Bruce Blonigen

Economics Professor at the University of Oregon
Educational Experience
UC Davis, Ph.D in Economics
Gustavus Adolphus College, B.A. in Economics and German

I was born and raised in central Minnesota in a small town near St. Cloud.  My parents were young and relatively poor but worked very hard to support us.  My mom would take night-shift jobs so that she could take care of my sister and me during the day while my dad worked.  My dad was a diesel mechanic until he retired a couple years ago and my mom started off with lots of different jobs but has worked herself up to owning her own real estate company.  In the early days, we lived in a trailer house behind my mom’s parent’s house.  Eventually, they saved enough to build a house in the country, which we moved into when I was about five years old.

Both my parents received a high school education but never went to college.  There is no history of college education in my family until my generation and most of my cousins did not go to college either.  Despite this, from the very beginning, there was no question in my parents’ minds (nor in my mind) that I was going to college.  I knew they were working hard to give me opportunities that [they] never had.  I am eternally grateful to them for this having this attitude and instilling it in me. 

Despite their attitude, I don’t think they knew much about how to finance college.  I’m sure they saw it as a very costly thing, but they knew they would do whatever it took to send my sister and me to college even if they had to work night and day to pay it all themselves.  Of course, they didn’t have to even though both my sister and I went to a private liberal arts college in Minnesota—Gustavus Adolphus College.  About a third of my tuition room and board was covered by a scholarship from the college, my parents paid about a third, and about a third was college loans.  I came out of college with about $9,000 in loans, which at the time seemed like a fair amount, but you realize five or ten years later that this becomes a small amount with inflation. 

Students these days should obviously be fine with much larger loan obligation than this, as the wage difference that college-educated people get in today’s economy is much larger than those with only a high school education.  In fact, the difference in lifetime earnings for these two groups is estimated to be about $1 million dollars!

Part of being a first-generation student in college was that my parents and I were much more concerned about having a major that leads down a very certain career path than other students.  As a result, I was an international business major from day one.  But as I went along, I realized I liked lots of other liberal arts subjects, such as History, Political Science, and English.  About the end of my second year, I realized I could switch into Economics, which was still related to business, but allowed me to think much more about the connections to these other disciplines.  By my senior year, I realized that I wanted to continue to pursue these subjects even more academically and go to graduate school to ultimately be a professor.

My parents were very supportive of my transition though my mom especially has probably never truly understood it.  I am now a full professor at the University of Oregon, but even a couple years ago my mom asked me if I would ever decide to purse a “real” job in the business world.  My dad is more an academic type who would have been able to do well as a professor if he had had the chance.  He understands very well what I do. 

After college, I pursued a Ph.D. in economics at the University of California-Davis.  It’s a long story how I chose that particular program, but it was one of a number of schools that offered me a full-ride teaching assistantship for my five years in the program.  Thus, graduate school for me was fully funded, including enough to live on.

After completing the program in 1995, I was hired by the University of Oregon as an assistant professor in Economics and eleven years later, I now hold an endowed Professorship in the department.  I love teaching the students here and get to pursue whatever research projects interest me.  I am invited to more places (with expenses paid) to present my research than I can actually accept. 

In so many ways, I have led a very fortunate life.  I give a lot of credit to my parents’ unquestioning idea that I would go to college as being instrumental in that.  I wish we could instill that in so many more parents who only have high school education. 

My advice to first-generation students is to open as many doors as possible – don’t assume that any door is closed to you!!  For example, I think so many students don’t even get information on college costs and financial aid because they hear that college is expensive and assume that they could not finance it.  While it may mean taking on some loans, college is affordable to everyone, even those living in households where basic necessities are questionable on a month-to-month basis.  Colleges and universities these days have a real mission to help poor and first-generation students, and there is quite a bit of scholarship and grant money available for these students.

Of course, this means doing well in school ahead of time, so make sure you keep those doors open by working as hard as you can in school.  The successful students will work hard not only at the subjects that come easy to them, but also the ones that are more difficult.  Think of each of these as opening another door to more opportunities.