FAQ: Why Finance and Theology?

TL;DR: I studied Finance and Theology/Religious studies in college. When I feel like sharing the Theology part, I realized I could introduce myself as a whole person with career and life passions alongside each other. These were the choices I made in college to develop my personhood and a great question for me to share where I want to go next!

“I have a degree in Finance and Theology from the University of San Francisco”

“Huh, that’s weird and different. Why?”

When faced with this incredulous look, I get stumped answering: “Why finance and theology?” Everyone thinks I’m trying to be a nun, which makes sense but is not the case to be clear. To all the liberal arts college majors out there, I’m sure you get the same “circle-not-fitting-in-square” reactions as people piece together how you got from point a to b.

• Finance is how I answered my past of financial hardships and ignorance growing up under a single-mother, Filipino-American immigrant. I overcame a fearful and dominating relationship with money through work experiences in startups and managing family financials during my mother’s stroke.
• Theology is how I came to understand myself, my mother, my Filipino heritage, and core values of fairness. I discovered a curiosity about people through a perspective of spirituality/religion framing global traditions, cultures, and values.

I found a community in both. USF Entrepreneurs club and the Saint Ignatius Institute.

Each impacted the other. Developing the students in E-Club to find meaningful work and global business creating an insatiable need to understand all types of people through history, philosophy, and theology.

Both balanced the other. I remember studying Zen Buddhism in dialogue with Catholicism’s Dominican Order. I developed awareness around how solitude could absolve one’s individuality to focus into a Nothingness that could ultimately lead one towards oneness of Love with God and all humankind (Yes, notice the capital letters. If you’re curious, Google Thomas Merton). But, I took it to an immature attempt and created a self-sabotaging humility that led me to a loss of my own identity and will power. Like taking a philosophy class, I questioned everything to no avail and was stunned from the indecision. Finance, on the other hand, required a certain, heightened egoism to clearly state my wants and witness the political sabotage for promotions, salary negotiations, and power. Especially in a homogenous tech industry, where [**state diversity and inclusion data** Diversity in Tech is scarce and important. As a resource, I like Project Include]. I built up the USF E-Club to acknowledge an imbalanced system of access for careers in Tech, and how to claim space and opportunities as POC, LGBQA, First-Gen, etc young professionals.

I did my gosh darn hardest devoting myself to both Finance/Tech and Theology, and I needed both to stretch my extremes in becoming a humble servant and social justice warrior. (I don’t really think I’m a “social justice warrior”, it just fit the dichotomy of servant and warrior….but I guess both work like Grey Worm of the Unsullied?)

Where could a conversation on Finance & Theology lead me to?

The coolest thing that came out of this question, when I’m honest enough to mention theology in a business event, was that I met Mark Pritchard, Chief Marketing Officer of Proctor & Gamble, and he gave me his email. This is very cool I think. I’ve met a lot of good people through networking and school when I felt confident just enough to mention both.

It’s hard to come as your full self all the time, but it’s the life your living. You are an accumulation of so much experience and knowledge. The people, community, and tribe to help you towards the next step will be there only because they had the pleasure to witness you at your core.

6/4/2019: New Thoughts to Add

I had a thought as I was walking to get more water for my Britta filter. I’ve been able to break into tech and work in some big projects I never would have thought to have at 20–21. Now, I feel like I’m starting from scratch all over again to start my tech career.

I realized I might not want a tech career. I might want a career somewhere else that heavily involves tech.

I’ve always had a big heart and love for people different from me. Learning about Catholic theology accessed safe comforting spaces in my being that were built up by my mother, family, and home. But even in that space did I need to deconstruct Filipino popular Catholicism versus Roman Catholicism, and the historical, economic and political truths that came from these realizations brought more peace and clarity from the frustrations and uncertainties I held in my filipina identity.

Then, I did something natural and intuitive for me, and something I’ve only realized is actually very special, distinctive, and important about myself. I studied other religions from different people in the context of their unknown walks of life. I engaged with my curiosity about Buddhism, Islam, or Latin American religions from my newly developing view of Christian Catholicism. Religious beliefs have consistently been deafening ingredients for differences between individuals, families, tribes, and nations. I wanted to embrace and learn these differences with my unconscious biases and assumptions in tow, in the hope that I could better love my neighbor and seek out the truths of our world.

In terms of my career, I want a dynamic workplace that constantly challenges my worldview. I want to work on various projects with multiple stakeholders that are in need of someone that can help bridge gaps in understanding and coordinate actionable goals to execute programs, services, and solutions that will help the world love itself more and more as it is.