The Battalion- July 24

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2019 STUDENT MEDIA

CLOSING THE GAP

Texas A&M soccer players weigh in on the U.S. Women’s National Team’s call for equal pay.

Jesse Everett — THE BATTALION

LIFE&ARTS

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The Battalion | 7.24.19

AMBUCS.ORG

VOLUNTEER for

Move in Assistance Day SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019

Please join us in welcoming to campus the newest members of the Aggie Family!

Your participation has such a positive and significant impact. Assisting incoming residents and families with moving their personal belongings in to our residence halls reduces unloading time at designated drop off zones, easing traffic and congestion, and makes for a more welcoming and pleasant experience overall.

Volunteers receive a free MOVE IN DAY T-shirt and can park for free in the Southside Garage. All members of the University community—faculty, staff, and student organizations—are encouraged to participate! reslife.tamu.edu/movein/volunteer

Residence Life DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

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THE BATTALION is published once every other week during the summer (except

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News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://www.thebatt.com.

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Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

ThoughtSpace is an app created by Aggies that helps students looking for internships connect with businesses.

Finding the right match ThoughtSpace app helps students in internship search

By Luis Sanchez @LuisSanchezBatt Developed by a group of Texas A&M students in April 2019, ThoughtSpace became a company that aims to help connect college students with businesses.

The ThoughtSpace testing application is currently under beta testing that students can participate in and the app will launch properly in September 2019.

On February 2019, prior to becoming a company, the team behind ThoughtSpace went to Silicon Valley to meet with Facebook, Roku, Silicon Valley Bank, Google and billionaire investors. So far, the platform has helped around 200 students with internships and is actively working with five companies. Updates for the fall will have student profiles start matching with companies automatically, rather than having to go through a manual process.

According to Mohamed Bialy, ThoughtSpace CEO, the app started out very limited, being mainly chat-

based three years ago. But as the number of people involved grew, so did the project. Bialy said that what started as a small group, eventually became a company that served a wide variety of students.

“We started out as a student organization, just a bunch of people who came around once a week to talk about technology,” Bialy said. “After that, we became the first ever student run program. [We] got funded by the School of Innovation, they gave us a big budget to run a program and then we outgrew that infrastructure, so that we became a company.”

Yousef Sammour, chief development officer for ThoughtSpace said the application benefits students and companies alike. Sammour said because ThoughtSpace was developed by students, it takes into consideration the needs of college students the way other services wouldn’t.

“We created this pretty much by students for students. We really care about the students and want to get them real-world [opportunities] and gain valuable experience,” Sammour said. “When it comes down to an employer, it’s where you would rather assess somebody based off of their per-

formance and projects they have completed over their college career, [over] just off a resume and an interview. The project based makes more sense and is more reliable and credible.”

Mohamed said ThoughtSpace intends to offer students long-term opportunities and increasing the number of internships students participate in while in college.

“What we try to do is get the companies to work with the students year round, instead of just using them for summer internships,” Bialy said. “It becomes, essentially, a big power incubator where students and companies can work on projects, work on courses, work on challenges so they can grow their skills and be more ready for when they leave college.”

Yuqi Hu, business development intern at Clariant used ThoughtSpace to help her find an internship.

“The service was good,” Hu said.

“ThoughtSpace sent a mass email. I applied through the link with my resume. Then the hiring managers of the internship company selected me for [an] interview. The staff at ThoughtSpace were friendly. I will definitely recommend it to my friends to find internships.”

LIFE&ARTS

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The Battalion | 7.24.19

Changing the game

PROVIDED

As a Texas A&M Vet student Rachel Ellerd, Class of 2021, has assisted in the care of animals ranging from kittens and birds to elephants and kangaroos.

Veterinary student paves new way into A&M, shares journey on blog

By Camryn Lang @CamrynLang The pathway into veterinary school is fraught with difficulties, but one student used only her experience to gain acceptance into the school without having completed her undergraduate degree.

Rachel Ellerd shared her unique journey into the Texas A&M Veterinary School through her Instagram and blog, ‘Exotic.Pet. Vet.’. She gained acceptance to the vet school as a student at the University of Texas at Austin without earning her degree until after getting into A&M. The combination of her expansive animal experiences like her volunteer work with both Austin Humane Society and the Austin Bat Refuge, along with her high GPA, Rachel was able to join the Class of 2021.

After creating her Instagram a year ago, Ellerd expanded it into a blog to detail the exact steps she took to accomplish her goal of entering vet school. After receiving a positive response, Ellerd began writing about her study abroad experience in Africa and has plans to create another post about her recent trip to Thailand and Vietnam for an A&M volunteer program.

Ellerd’s decision to pursue a veterinary career stemmed from her upbringing. Ellerd’s family owned many pets, inspiring her love of all animals from a young age. The list of animals include lizards, turtles, birds and even a python.

“I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t one of those kids that grew up knowing they wanted to be a veterinarian. I grew up with animals all throughout my life. My family basically had a zoo,” Ellerd said. “It worked out because I really like science and that was a way that I could combine both my love of science and my love of animals. It came together in veterinary medicine.”

When she first applied to veterinary school, Ellerd had no expectation of getting in. She said she wanted to use this attempt in order to question the school about how she could improve upon her application.

“I had no idea it was even a possibility until I was looking up the prerequisites online. On some website it said you need these prerequisites but you don’t need to have a degree,” Ellerd said. “I did more research about it. It is very rare to get in without a degree, because it’s so competitive and people need a high GPA and lots of experience and usually that doesn’t happen until your in school for so many years.”

The ‘Exotic.Pet.Vet.’ blog was Ellerd’s answer to the large number of students asking her advice on veterinary school admissions through her Instagram, which has garnered over 4,000 followers. Ellerd’s blog post goes into the specifics of her undergrad career and gives tips on how to best prepare for the application.

“I had so many people asking me how to

get into veterinary school. I was kind of tired of answering their questions. So I wrote that one blog about how I got in,” Ellerd said.

Although Ellerd has a long list of credentials, it took a little bit of luck to earn the acceptance.

“It was kind of by accident that I had all my classes finished in time because I didn’t plan on taking a super heavy course load,” Ellerd said.

“I had to double-down on my science classes and I got [in] by one class. I just barely made the deadline.”

For the aspiring veterinary students, she advises to take as many opportunities as you can and pool your efforts to finding research experience.

“Get involved with research. Everyone knows you need to have a high GPA and everyone knows you need to get experience.

Research is not something people think of.

That was such a big part of my experience as an undergrad… it opened up so many opportunities that I couldn’t even imagine when I first started research,” Ellerd said.

NEWS

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The Battalion | 7.24.19

‘A powerful moment’

Via @USWNT Twitter profile

U.S. Women’s National Team forward Megan Rapinoe celebrates after scoring a goal in the 2019 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal against France.

USWNT breaks barriers, inspires women in team’s fight for equal pay

By Abigail Ochoa @AbigailOchoa88 In March of 2016, five members of the United States Women’s National Team filed a lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stating they made four times less than the men in 2015. While this was an important moment for the team, it was just the beginning of a journey filled with a World Cup win, inspiring performances and 28 new role models for young women.

When the original lawsuit was filed, center midfielder Carli Lloyd told TODAY after their 2015 World Cup win that this was the right time to bring this issue to light.

“I think the timing is right. I think we’ve

proven our worth over the years, [we are] just coming off of a World Cup win,” Lloyd told TODAY. “The pay disparity between the men and women is just too large and we want to continue to fight. The generation of players before us fought and now it’s our job to keep on fighting.”

However, a month earlier U.S. Soccer filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association, stating players didn’t have the right to strike against the pay gap.

It wasn’t until February 2019 that the original players in the lawsuit — Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo — earned right-to-sue letters from the EEOC. The EEOC letters moved the process forward and allowed the 28 members of the 2019 USWNT to join a federal lawsuit against U.S. Soccer alleging gender discrimination on March 8 — more than three months before the

start of the World Cup. “At the heart of this whole issue we believe that it’s the right thing,” forward Megan Rapinoe told the Associated Press. “We believe that there has been discrimination against us, and while we have fought very hard and for a long time, whether that be through our CBA or through our players association, putting ourselves in the best possible position that we can to get the best deal that we can, we still feel that we don’t have what we’re trying to achieve, which is equality in the workplace.”

Associate professor of women and gender studies at Texas A&M Joan Wolf said while the wage gap in professional soccer doesn’t add up, both morally and financially, it’s not going to be forever.

“You can’t find a reason why a team that wins more and seems to bring in more money is making less money...once you look at the team and say ‘there is no logical explanation,

Jesse Everett — THE BATTALION

Senior Ally Watt celebrates during the teams 3-0 win over the Kansas this last season.

from a purely capitalist one or a purely moral one, there is no way you can make the case that these women should be making less money.’

I think that is a powerful moment. It was a powerful moment.”

In light of the Me Too and Times Up movements, Wolf said the women’s national team is another prime example of women raising their voices to the masses.

“Women have woken up,” Wolf said.

“They’re asking questions, they’re making demands, they are saying ‘I have a right to be heard.’ For a long time, women said, ‘I have a right to have a voice.’’ Now, they are saying more along the lines of ‘I have a right to live in a way that acknowledges that I am a full human being.’”

A&M senior goalkeeper Cosette Morche will begin her own career in professional soccer when she heads to Sweden after her August graduation to play for Eskilstuna United.

Morche said as she watched the World Cup final surrounded by her teammates, she was reminded of her passion for both soccer and equal pay.

“Ever since my senior season ended I’ve been trying to go play professionally and watching the World Cup it made my heart really happy,” Morche said. “It makes me very excited for the future because I know one day that’s going to be me and I can be a woman who wants to fight for equal rights. Hopefully kids will want to look up to me just like they look up to the girls on the national team.”

Fellow teammate and senior midfielder Cienna Arrieta watched the World Cup final in an auditorium full of young soccer players at an Olympic development program. To Arrieta, the team was fighting for much more than their fourth World Cup win.

“They are sitting there in the room asking for equal pay and saying that their treatment

isn’t what it should be, then they got out a week later and win a World Cup and then they are going to come back and say ‘okay, we deserve this.’ I think that is what they were fighting for. It’s not all the things we usually fight for on the pitch, but that is something that they probably had in the back of their heads,” Arrieta said.

According to Morche, the wage gap begins at the lowest level of professional soccer. When trying to find a team to play for after college, she began to notice the major difference in starting salaries between women, men and different countries.

“I’m going overseas to get the experience and build my resume, but also it’s kind of a nice feeling to get paid a little more than I would if I stayed here in the U.S.,” Morche said.

Arrieta hopes to also continue to play soccer after graduation, but said this fight for equal pay goes farther than just men versus women.

“Completely take away gender and base the team off of their accolades and everything they’ve done,” Arrieta said. “If you put that on a piece of paper... you put these two national teams [men’s and women’s] on a piece of paper and you give it to 20 people and you put their compensation for their accolades — it’s not going to add up in one sense. You don’t even have to think of it in the gender aspect. You can think of it just from a business standpoint.”

Arrieta said the women’s team has the biggest and best platform to fight for this issue because of the many young girls they will inspire.

According to Wolf, the reach the U.S. team has on others is incalculable.

“It’s hard to measure. It’s hard to put into words what these women have gifted the United States and the world by standing up for what they believe in, by going out and winning,” Wolf said. “They said that they were going to do this and they did it. They were powerful,

they were articulate, they did not let anything stand in their way and Megan Rapinoe stood up at the end and said ‘we have to have more love.’”

The fight for equal pay was a major talking point throughout the World Cup and continues to be after the team’s World Cup win against the Netherlands on July 7. Forward for the USWNT, Alex Morgan told the Associated Press this is an issue the team takes, and will continue to take, very seriously.

“Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that,” Morgan told the Associated Press. “We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility. As players, we deserved to be paid equally for our work, regardless of our gender.”

NEWS

6

The Battalion | 7.24.19

Combatting hurricane season

PROVIDED

The combination of buoys and radars that float throughout the Gulf of Mexico assist in detecting weather patterns and ocean currents.

Aggies help collect data on weather patterns in the Gulf of Mexico

By Khadeeja Umana @Khadeeja_Umana The Texas A&M College of Geosciences is currently working with technology that is a combination of large buoys and radars that float in the Gulf of Mexico to help detect winds and tropical storms like Barry.

The buoys are funded through a Joint Industry Project and were put in due to concern of an offshore spill out of the Flower Garden Banks — a coral reef and National Marine Sanctuary 110 miles south of Galveston. Each buoy costs about a quarter of a million dollars to build, and require large ships to charter out and retrieve them. Ships collect data and clean

off the barnacles that may accumulate at the bottom of the buoys. The radars are funded through A&M Chancellor John Sharp’s research initiative and costs about $1.8 million dollars to install.

A&M Geochemical and Environmental Research Group director Anthony Hayden Knap said both the buoys and radars are extremely helpful in detecting weather patterns off our coast.

“The buoys started being installed about 24 years ago and they’ve been operating since that time,” Knap said. “The radars were funded three-and-a-half years ago.”

The buoys and radars work to provide recent information on the Texas Automated Buoy System website.

“This data is public for people to be able to use,” Knap said. “One of the coolest things about the radars, when they’re all working

together, is that if there was an incident such as a boat sinking, or going missing, you can track where the people in that boat could have gone. So, you could [also] do more accurate search and rescue of citizens.”

The technology can play a part in an everyday fisherman’s trip a few miles out into the coast or to help predict the severity of tropical depressions or hurricanes.

“Buoys give us specific points of current speed and direction, and the radars give a broader perspective, going out at least 120,000 miles down into the ocean and over the whole Texas coast,” Knap said. “They’re incredibly important for shipping, for oil spill movement and looking at where ocean currents can take things. They provide another form of protection for the Texas coast.”

The radars have two antennas each. One antenna transmits, while the other receives

signals. The signal goes over the waves and gives a radial that then compiles to give us surface vectors of ocean current speed and direction in real time.

“Each radar can last 10 years, and costs $150,000 a year to operate,” Knap said. “This money comes from Gulf Coast Ocean Observing System.”

The JIP that funds the buoys recently disappeared, and there are currently two buoys out that need to be brought back for maintenance.

“We are trying to find funding for those buoys again, and it’s not cheap,” Knap said.

“Between them [the radars and buoys], we probably have one of the most sophisticated ocean observing networks anywhere in the United States or in the world.”

7

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ANSWERS

The City of College Station’s Park and Recreation staff and Texas A&M are gearing up for the Amateur Federation Games of Texas from July 25 to July 29 throughout the Bryan-College Station metroplex.

The games are set for ages five to 18, with events for adults as well, according to the Games of Texas Coordinator Kelly Kelbly. “[The games] are Olympic-like,” Kelbly said. “This year we are looking at roughly 8,500 athletes, the majority of those are in track and swimming.”

The summer games will begin with an opening ceremony followed by events on the next day. After Monday, the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation will name its annual Male and Female Athlete of the Year.

According to the Federation website, over 140 organizations with 210,000 athletes compete every year in both winter and summer events. However, only a fraction of those make it to the summer games.

Athletes that qualify in their respective sport are invited to compete at the games. After competing in state competitions prior to the summer games, the best athletes in the state will be qualified to compete in College Station.

The summer games will hold events in archery, boxing, five-on-five flag football, golf, judo, lifeguard competition, pickleball, sand volleyball, skateboarding, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field and ultimate frisbee.

The best athletes and teams at the summer games will qualify for the national games every other year, which are known to host college scouts for the sports played at the NCAA and NAIA levels.

A&M’s contribution to the summer games has been integral, according to Kelbly. The university rents the use of the Natatorium at the Recreational Center as well as the Physical Education Building specifically for the competitions. The Rec Center staff and EMTs are also a very important part to how smooth the events run.

“We also have between 200 and 400 volunteers every year,” Kelbly said. “Primarily they are A&M students and then people throughout the community.”

Athletes come from all over the state to participate in the various athletic events Kelbly said.

“We love to invite people into the community. We like to show them that we have top-notch facilities and a top-notch staff. Hospitality is kinda what we do. The economic impact of this event over the last two years is about $15 million, and that goes directly into this community,” Kelbly said.

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The Battalion | 7.24.19

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