From kgrey@u.washington.edu Wed Oct 15 21:55:40 1997 Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 13:24:17 -0700 (PDT) From: "K. Grey" To: econgeog@u.washington.edu Subject: Introduction Hi, my name is Kelli Grey and I am very excited to be taking Geography 498. This class is the very last class that I need to take in order to graduate. My major is Economic Geography. I tried to take as many transportation classes as I could because I found them very interesting. My first two years at UW I was planning on majoring in Economics, but I never got very excited about it. After I took my first couple of geography classes, I knew that I found a major that was more of what I was looking for. The classes didn't put me to sleep and I started getting much better grades because I actually enjoyed the classes. I do wish that I would have discovered my major earlier so that I would have had more time to take a few more classes. Although I took two GIS classes, I would have liked to take more. My four years at the UW have been great and now I'm looking toward the future. My future includes successfully finishing this class, finding a job and possibly returning to school to get my MBA. I hope to use my degree to help me get a job in the travel industry. I would like to work for an airline (possibly Alaska Airlines) or a cruiseline. At one point I did want to become a travel agent and open my own small business. This idea is still in the back of my mind but I want to keep it there for a few years. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about travel agents possibly becoming obsolete. Many people think that computers can take the place of a travel agent, but there are also a lot of people who disagree with this. There are advantages and disadvantages of using a travel agent or a computer reservation system to book a trip. I feel that travel agents are very helpful resources. A computer can't answer questions about a vacation destination like a travel agent can. It's hard to say if the travel agents will survive or not. I am also in the very early stages of actually looking for a job. I have gone to a few interviews and have found that they are very good practice. I am also realizing that I have made some mistakes throughout my years in college that might hurt my chances at finding the "perfect" job. I'm also considering the possibility of doing an intership, which is something that I should have done earlier. It's too late to change what I've done in the past four years, but I hope that I can help others not make the mistakes that I did. Kelli Grey