Mr. Gates is speaking about teaching folklore.

Bob Gates: Since I teach kids, I always -students, I always, um, kind of stress that folklore is not just a discipline. It’s almost a way of thinking about life differently and that, once you, you get in that headset of thinking of people in groups and belonging in groups and having small cultures with it-in each group, and many cultures they belong to. It’s a whole way of looking at life differently. Uh, even when I go to a restaurant, I’m doing ethnographic observation sometimes. I’m looking around, seeing what people are doing. I’m interested in how things work, what they are talking about in the currents that are going on, and it’s not gossip. It’s more like, you know I mean, it’s like seeing it in different light. So when I when I teach kids, Introduction to Folk Studies, I always ask them at the end of class “Will you be using any of this in your career? or do you think any of this is something you might- is important to you?” and you know, they can brown nose and say “Yeah, it was great. It was the best thing in the world for me,” but most of them of them give me good examples of how they’re going to use it- especially nurses. Because I get a lot of nurses and they’ll say, “Oh, yeah. I’m going to treat my patients a lot differently when I see them now.” And for me, it’s like everybody should learn folklore.

Lily Hayden: So kind of back to advice, what is some more like specific advice that you would maybe give to someone in your position or in your similar field of work?

Deanna Jenkins: I think too, it's important to remember that- Especially if you've studied something like English or history or art history, you might not find a job or you might not find a job on a posting that says “we want someone with an art history degree,” but you have the skills to do almost any job out there. And so I think you need to be open to any type of opportunity that you can take things that you've learned and maybe use them in a different way. Also be open to your goals changing or be open to, you know, going in a whole different direction. I'm in a field that I didn't really know existed until I started working here. You know, like I didn't know that higher education fundraising was a whole thing that like, I mean, there's professional organizations, there's people- every university has people fundraising for the university, and some of them have huge operations and some of them have very small operations. And so I think that's one thing about- In college, your world gets a lot bigger and you learn about a lot of things. But then even right after that, when you're looking in the job market, you're going to find whole fields you didn't know about, job opportunities you didn't even know were a thing, roles, and then the role will evolve over time like mine has.  

This is Mark Brown’s response to being asked what advice he would give to students who also want to pursue a degree and career in Folk Studies.

Mark Brown: I think that the field of folklife and folklore, and also oral history, just, I think it benefits from having many different personalities and backgrounds. I think it's for everybody. It's for introverts and extroverts, and for people of all, you know, like experience levels. And I think that, you know, people are naturally, can be good interviewers, whether you've done, whether you've done a formal interview or not just by kind of consciously listening. You know, and that's something that, well, my wife would probably tell you that I'm not a good listener but if I consciously exercise it I can be  and it's, you know, it's something that you know- conducting an interview, as you know, takes a lot of energy. And like, when you're usually, when you're done doing interview it's like, “wheww” it's a big relief that it's over and, but you also feel like you've really done something. Like, you've really learned something about someone and your- their story is now going to be like, more accessible because of that. So, I feel like it's very rewarding work. It's probably the most rewarding work I can think of. Because you're- because it's just, it's exploring with people like what's important to them, what their experience is, what their memory of something is, and you know, journalism is similar. You get to do, like interviews and stuff that way. But I think the the perspective and the the approach of the folklorist and the oral historian just doing the interview for its own sake, learning about someone without trying to, you know, like trying to frame their story in a way that works for you, but more about like- they get to frame the story, like in a way- in the way that works for them. Um, I just think that's a great thing that we need more of. We need more of that to happen. I think with so much division nationally and internationally, that's a key way that it counteracts that force, you know, it brings people together, instead of splitting them apart.

In response to the question: “…do you have any advice for students in the field of history?”

Lucas Somers: So my advice to history majors. I If you have the chance to do something you enjoy, if this is something that you actually have the opportunity to do, I would put everything-like, I would put all the time you can into it, because it is worth it. Like, if, whatever it is, even if it's not studying history, like if it's teaching history, if it's writing or doing the researching or being a librarian, the archive work, the public history, stuff, like, it's okay to pursue something that you like. I have students every day who I know love history. I know they are in my classrooms. They ask questions, they love the readings, but they are an engineering major, or they're like a business major, which I know why, and that I've had students that tell me, “Well, my parents don't want me to be a history major because it doesn't pay well.” And what, all the all the stuff that I've said to this point in this answer, is that I understand that, and I want history students, whether they're majors in history or something else, to know that, like, it's okay to go with the money, but, like, it's a shame to give up on something you're really passionate about. And I, I guess I'm just one example of that working out for, as far as being able to stick with the passion and the stories and the research and the writing and eventually the teaching of history, to just do the thing that I like to do, the question that I asked students, what I would ask students, if they're ever listening to this is like, what is the job that you don't-that you think you're going to be able to tell yourself, “I can't believe I get to do this for a job.” Like, that's what I tell myself. Like, if you can get to that point with your job, I think you're doing okay. Also, if you're a history major, you study four years of history. You learn all that stuff, but you do something completely different with it. That's great. You just have learned more history than the majority of people in this country. Use that because our world needs educated folks as far-especially in the area of humanities.