What it takes – How Dr. Jennifer Jensen built a college

“It looks like this,” Jennifer Jensen often says as she walks to the big whiteboard to draw one of her well-loved graphs. Most students didn’t know she put this whiteboard together in her garage just before John Adams College opened in August 2019. Her charts always leave students wondering how exactly she manages to capture an entire historical era or philosophical idea in a single line.

It would not be uncommon to find renditions of Dr. Jensen’s graphs in her students’ notebooks, breaking down dense concepts with digestible analogies and shapes. She has parallels to every economic principle from Bastiat, Hayek, Friedman, Smith, and Mill at the ready.

While Dr. Jensen’s graphs are legendary, her contribution to John Adams College as its cofounder go far beyond her ability to break down complex issues. She founded John Adams College with the late Gordon Jones.