Background
Schwartz was born in Southern California, and spent much of his childhood moving between America's West coast and its capital, Washington, DC. He ultimately graduated in 1983 from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland. With aspirations of becoming an architect, in 1983 he entered college at Carnegie Mellon University, and subsequently transferred to Wesleyan University in 1984. At Wesleyan, he ran short of funds and was preparing to drop out, when a friend suggested he apply for a scholarship, the Gilbert Clee Scholarship. He was awarded the scholarship, which funded the remainder of his university expenses. He received dual degrees in mathematics and economics.
He is of mixed origin, a fact he did not discover until late in his life. He is one quarter Indian and one quarter Welsh on his mother's side, and one quarter Hungarian, and one quarter Russian on his father's side.
In 1986, Schwartz was nearly killed while riding on the Amtrak Colonial train that crashed in Chase, Maryland. He is cited in interviews as saying the incident had a profound impact on his life.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan I. Schwartz
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