Wendy Kopp: I had just, as I said before, been just overly — obsessively — involved and busy throughout my time in college. And for some reason, really had not registered on the idea that I gotta figure out both. I’ve got to write a thesis and I’ve got to figure out my summer job. It just struck me in about October or November of my senior year. I started searching for what I really wanted to do, and I didn’t want to do anything. I was just in a funk. It was late ’80s, and all of the recruiters really were investment banks, management consulting firms, brand management firms, all these companies — for liberal arts graduates like myself — that wanted us to commit two years to go work in those firms. I majored in public policy, the Woodrow Wilson School, and I just didn’t want to go work in one of those firms, so I started trying to figure out what else I would do, but there was no clear path. I was doing things like writing to people saying, “Would you ever hire interns?” Looking for “off the beaten path” things. But nothing was striking me, and honestly I just descended into a funk. I’ve never truly been in a funk, I just didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t even try to come up with a thesis topic. I think I was officially the last senior that year to propose a thesis topic.