Geography Department: Why did you choose geography as your undergraduate major?

Jake Evans: I took a class in high school that introduced me to the world of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and remote sensing, and it caught my eye.

Morgan Hurt: I chose geography as my undergraduate major because I love to travel and want to have a better understanding of the different cultures of the world and how they came to be. I think studying cultural geography will enrich my future travels by helping me to further appreciate the world’s diversity. 

Jack Snelling: I chose geography as my major because over the course of the summer after my sophomore year I rediscovered a passion for maps, road trips and everything highways — and by the end of the summer I realized that I liked this too much to not be majoring in it. I’ve had this love in me since I was a little kid, but I left maps and roads to the side for most of my middle school and high school life to focus on other things. I’m so happy I rekindled it!

Jack Stevens: I wanted to go into cartography and GIS, but felt I needed more of a background in geography before I proceeded. I have loved maps since I've been very young and have always been fascinated by all the details put into them.

Geography Department: What do you like most about geography at Mizzou?

Jake Evans: What I like the most so far about geography is the variety of courses offered here, which really benefits me as I am still trying to figure out the path I want to take.

Morgan Hurt: I am taking Dr. Larsen’s “Introduction to Humanized Earth” this semester and I have been enjoying the class! Lately, we have been focusing on the layers of landscape and how they build on each other. I have never put too much thought into what has influenced my current environment before, so the experience has been eye-opening.  

Jack Snelling: I’ve only been a geography major for a couple months, so I don’t have a ton of experience here, but it was amazing to get a nice note and care package from the geography department right as soon as my year started. I felt like more than just another student, and that’s a really good feeling.

Jack Stevens: I like how right off the bat, I was contacted by students and teachers letting me know that they're here to help me and if I ever needed help in classes or adjusting to college, that they were here to help.

Geography Department: Tell me a little about you as a person (interests, hobbies, career goals, etc.).

Jake Evans: My whole life I have been surrounded by sports, playing and watching. I played baseball and basketball all the way through high school. I enjoy helping others succeed and I volunteer with kids who have disabilities, and I help them play sports. As for my career, I am not sure what I want to do exactly, but I am excited to see where my college journey takes me.

Morgan Hurt: I love to travel and want to have a career that allows me to do so. I am also exploring a double major in either political science, international studies, or business. In my free time, I like to read, run and draw.

Jack Snelling: My other major is music composition, so I spend a ton of time playing and writing music from a bunch of different genres! I play jazz piano and classical bassoon in Mizzou’s School of Music, and you’re likely to catch me in the practice rooms or around our new music building pretty frequently! I also play in a jazz quartet called Sharp the Nine outside of school that’s performed at a bunch of different places around Columbia like Cafe Berlin (pre-COVID, of course!).

Jack Stevens: My biggest interests are sports, history and maps. I absolutely love history and maps and applying the two together. Piri Reis and Herodotus are some of my favorite historians and cartographers. I love playing frisbee and being outside playing all sorts of games. I also enjoy reading about oceanography, astronomy and the weather. I feel all of those area play into geography which makes the topic more fun for me. I hope to complete my degree and then go into GIS with all the knowledge I need so then I can jump right into mapping and surveying land. From there, I have three goals for my career. I plan to achieve at least one of these goals as they are all very difficult. I want to 1. Map the bottom of the ocean, 2. Discover a lost city, or 3. Prove where Atlantis is.