Winter 2011 Newsletter Extended: Cassie
Live It, Protect It, Explore It!
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RPTA ROMANCE: MAJOR BRINGS COUPLE LOVE, THEN MARRIAGE...
By Kevin Mould (RPTA '14), Staff Writer
Being an RPTA major brings with it numerous opportunities, from providing community service to attending conferences and networking with professionals, but in the case of Cal Poly RPTA alumni Bart Gant and Cassie Walitsch, being part of the department also brought with it a fantastic new relationship. The soon to be married couple first met in Dr. Jeff Jacobs’ RPTA 412: Adventure Travel & Tourism course on Cruise Tourism (their first class together). Here's how the RPTA love story unfolded...
During that first class together, they discovered they lived only a few blocks from one another and began carpooling to class together. Gant admitted that he developed a romantic interest in Walitsch right away. When the RPTA 412 class took a cruise to Mexico over Spring Break, the two really hit it off, spending every meal together and enjoying one another’s company. At the cruise’s conclusion, since both were from the Bay Area, they drove back together and got the chance to meet one another’s families.
The next quarter they had class again, this time with Kendi Root, who, recognizing the potential spark between them, strategically paired them up for a quarter-long personality assessment project. After the cruise, Dr. Jacobs had asked them both to work at his summer camp in Michigan, and they both accepted. Although a relationship seemed a little risky to Cassie because they would be working together, by mid spring they were officially dating. They then went through the summer, one last quarter at Cal Poly, and then eight months of long distance relationship before both getting jobs at Mount Hermon in the Santa Cruz mountains. Bart then asked Cassie to marry him, and the two plan to tie the knot this September.
Both Walitsch and Gant embody the spirit that makes being a part of the RPTA major like being a part of a family, and their department family wishes them all the best as they embark on this next chapter of life together.
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