Go Huskies!

My mom was so right. Midway through the first presentation yesterday afternoon, the feeling set in. UW felt right. As I met with the department chair, who is also the director of the scholarship program I have been offered, as well as the professor who would be my advisor, the feelings strengthened. For all intensive purposes, I am now a Husky!!

In addition to having an awesome scholarship which give me incredible leeway in terms of my research, there is also an exchange program I can apply for once I graduate. I could spend a year either doing postgraduate research or working in either a Scandinavian or Baltic country. My biggest (only?) regret of my undergraduate college career is that I did not study abroad. I never imagined having to opportunity to erase that regret.

My soon to be advisor focuses in freight transportation and logistics. It is not something I am overly excited by, but listening to her describe her current research projects I realized that the possible applications of these projects are endless. She has 5 really interesting project going on now and I will have my pick of the litter. Right now I am internally debating between a project that sounds so interesting but the objective is to maximize profits for an entrepreneurial group (and will involve numerous trips to Jackson Hole!), or a project which is still pretty interesting (but not quite as interesting as the first) and will help us better understand and improve the regional economy. My goal is to improve society through my work not help someone get rich, but…

I’m not worrying about it too much though – it will all come together in the end.

I am just so relieved that I have come to a decision and that I feel REALLY good about it!