The pairing of economics and the arts may seem unlikely, but not for Jennifer Wijangco. The 32-year-old Austinite has found the perfect job, helping convince people that the two must be seen and understood together, complementing each other, educating together.
Wijangco is part of a three-person team that makes up the Texas Cultural Trust, a project that informs people about the importance of the arts in education and ultimately, business. She is also the founder of strataTX, which pulls in younger donors committed to the trust’s mission. Launched in November 2006, the 70-member strataTX attracts professionals from all areas, ranging in age from the lower 20s-to-the-40s.
Her relationship with the arts dates back to Wijangco’s childhood, when she began to draw. Then, she took an art history class in high school. “Art history, it’s so much richer to know the environment that the work was created in,” she said. But she still thought she would go into business. In the end, she received a double major in finance and art, and a master’s in art management. From there, the native of Spring, TX worked in the business world, “doing Excel spreadsheets all day long,” but she still saw creativity in what she was doing.
Today? Wijangco does fundraising, event planning and, she’s also grounded enough to admit with a smile, “stuffing envelopes and filing.” In her previous work life she “worked in a cube, seeing the same people every day. Now I meet a lot of people.” She has come to realize that the arts are an economic driver. “Business modeling, for example. I think the arts help that,” she said. In the same way, students can be motivated by the arts. “One of the reasons kids drop out of school is that they are bored.” The arts can change that.
It’s the simple things that drive Wijangco … good manners, sincerity, good friends. “You can smell it when people are not sincere,” she said. Her mom has been her greatest influence: “I learned so many good things that I use every day … like writing thank-you notes, which is critical in fundraising.” Her friendships go back years, notably with a group of women she met while a sophomore in college. She likes to rifle through the phone book looking for her last name, which is uncommon even in the Philippines, from where her parents hail. In Austin, she found a woman with her name and called. It turned out their grandfathers had been brothers. They hooked up, her new friend introduced her around, and today Wijangco has a ready-made group of girlfriends.
Wijangco drives herself hard … and that’s the secret to her success. “I’m very much a doer. I don’t sit back. A lot of the success I’ve had is from hard work. You can have great ideas but if you can’t carry it through…”
austinwoman: What’s your biggest regret?
JENNIFER WIJANGCO: This is going to sound like a cop-out answer, but I have no regrets. My number one fear is regret. I live my life trying to not have regrets.
aw: What has been your greatest triumph?
JW: I’m really happy with where I am right now, professionally. I know that not everybody is willing to take the risk I took in changing careers and going back to school, so I’m very proud that I knew that that’s what I needed to do and that I was bold enough to do it.
aw: What kinds of people turn you off?
JW: Fake people. You can detect insincerity. You just read it in the body language. I don’t what it is, it’s just a sixth sense. Maybe it’s that I’m choosy in whom I spend time with.
aw: What bores you?
JW: I would say the gym bores me. There are so many other things that I would like to be doing … like sitting in my big comfy chair with my dog. We’re couch potatoes together. I really treasure the times when I can be still. We just watch TV; I’ll take her to the dog park.
aw: So, what is your greatest sin?
JW: I don’t work out! I’m terrible about exercising. I go in spurts and I try to, then I get busy.
aw: What do you need to improve on?
JW: Understanding that not everyone works the same way. Everyone has a different working style. When I had my first summer job in high school or college, I realized that I often worked faster than a lot of people.
aw: Where would you like to see your life in 10 years?
JW: I would like to be married, have a family, still be in Austin, still working, in arts specifically.
aw: What makes you happy to be alive?
JW: My family and friends. I feel very, very blessed to have the people I do in my life. The friends that you keep are a reflection of you. I admire so much the people I have as friends. They’re real people, they’re honest. My girlfriends, they’re strong women. They’re fun.