Stella Watson

About Me

I’m a senior math major from Greenville, South Carolina.  I just graduated from Furman, but I’m sticking around for Math and the Mouse.  I’m attending Clemson University for graduate studies in mathematics in the fall.  I’m interested in several areas of math, including operations research, combinatorics, graph theory and number theory.  In addition to math, I like running and riding horses.  I teach horseback riding lessons at Grove Station Farms, and I have a wonderful horse named Jasmine.

What I’m Looking Forward To

I’m looking forward to Math and the Mouse for two reasons.  Number one: I’ve never been to Disney World, and I can’t wait to see what it’s all about.  I’ve heard lots of wonderful things and I’m excited to find out if Disney lives up to its reputation.  Number two: I’m really intrigued by the math involved in the logistics of operating a facility as large as Disney World.  One of my favorite areas of math is operations research, a field that focuses on efficiency and optimization problems.  Operations research has a lot of applications in logistics (scheduling, routing, and assigning) and in business (manufacturing processes and production decisions).  Disney incorporates both of these aspects of operations research.  An important component of operations research is creating accurate mathematical models of real world problems.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity see operations research at work at Disney and make connections between real world problems and mathematical models.

Restaurants

I don’t know a lot about the restaurants in Disney, but there are a few I’ve heard good things about.  Eating in the Beauty and the Beast Castle sounds really cool.  And several people have told me that the pineapple soft serve at the Dole Whip stand is delicious.  I’m also looking forward to trying the different ethnic foods at Epcot.

Attractions

Since I’ve never been to Disney before, I don’t have any favorite attractions yet.  However I have heard numerous times that the Tower of Terror is the best ride, and I’m looking forward to trying it.  I’m also looking forward to the safari in Animal Kingdom.  Working with horses has given me an appreciation for amount of planning it takes to care for large animals, and I’d like to see how this plays out at Disney.  I’m also looking forward to riding some of the more iconic rides.  Perhaps I’ll be able to empathize with the seemly huge proportion of the population that has gotten stuck on “It’s a small world”.