Quantitative economics. Philosophy. Black Studies. At first glance, these areas of study have little to do with one another. But to hear Violet Gibson explain her courseload, it all makes perfect sense.
Gibson’s major, quantitative economics, will provide the background to work in record projections for the music industry. A minor in philosophy offers a thought-based approach to economics. And a second minor in Black Studies helps Gibson understand who she is and where she came from.
“I grew up in Bend, Oregon, and I didn’t get a lot of my own history,” she says. “Coming to Portland State, I wanted to be able to get that knowledge about who I am as a person and the history behind who I am.”
Gibson is the new Associated Students of Portland State University president, and among a medley of other things, she wants to unite the student body.
Bringing together students with differing opinions isn’t easy, but she’s trying.
“I’m slowly starting to figure out just how to bridge these gaps for people who normally wouldn’t talk to each other and how to encourage them to have neutral conversations where they can find common ground,” she adds.
Campus safety is perhaps the most challenging subject ASPSU faces. Gibson says she personally supports armed campus police but understands the arguments to disarm.
“It's really difficult because in the middle of all of this is a person's life,” she says, reflecting on Jason Washington, who was killed by campus police in June 2018. “It's still affecting our campus. People on our campus are still triggered by this event and students on campus still care about this horrible tragedy.”
As ASPSU president, Gibson wants to work with the Portland State Student Union and the Campus Public Safety Office to find common ground and move forward together as a community.
She’s also concerned about student food insecurity and fostering a better relationship with PSU’s administration.
“In the past, it has definitely been kind of hostile between ASPSU and the administration, and this year we really want to take full advantage of everything that the university president has to offer,” Gibson says.
Finding PSU
When Gibson discovered the cost to attend her first-choice school, Howard University, a historically black college in Washington D.C., she looked to the only in-state school that offered both diversity and opportunity.
“PSU just seemed perfect to me — it was diverse and also close to home so I got in-state tuition,” she says. At 17, she moved to Portland and began the college experience.
“It wasn't necessarily like college life where you're kind of coddled, it was very much like you got to live your own life,” Gibson says.
Now 21 — days away from 22 — she appreciates what PSU has to offer, specifically when it comes to math and economics. Gibson describes herself as a writer and musician, but thanks to the passion and dedication of her professors, she’s discovered a love for the economics that drives her path toward the music industry.
“Music has been always been such an inspiration to me,” she says. “But I’m not necessarily the artsy type, I’m very much the planning type.”
Getting a job with Portland State Professional Sound (PSPS) helped her realize how her major and music could work cohesively as an economist for a music label.
Future vision
Gibson graduates in June, but she’s already planning to return to Portland State and earn her master’s in economics and another bachelor’s degree — this time in math.
In between classes and student government, she also works with PSPS as a production manager. Gibson organizes the Live at Lunch concert series and is responsible for booking bands and overseeing set-up. This work has helped supplement her studies in economics and provide the music background necessary to make it as an economist for a record label. She knows there aren’t many positions that fit her goals, but is optimistic each experience at PSU has been carefully curated to launch her toward success.
Gibson is excited about the future, but when it all comes down to it, she’s got a plan post-career that tops it all.
“I’m going to buy a farm and just have a whole bunch of goats and I’m just going to knit,” she says. “I also want to save dogs from foreign countries and just watch them play and be so happy. That’s my absolute dream.”
Her favorite barnyard animal that puts all else to shame? Donkeys.
“Every time I see one, they’re just the most precious things on this earth.”