MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2018 STUDENT MEDIA
The 2018 SEC Indoor Track conference championships were hosted at Texas A&M. For more coverage, visit thebatt.com
Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
Sophomore Reid Williams, juniors Connor Joseph, Blake Jones, Gavin Suel and sophomore Karsten Lowe ran together as part of the 5 for Yell campaign.
Sharp wins SBP, 5 for Yell sweeps Student body elections concluded Friday, making way for new leaders By Gracie Mock, Taylor Fennell, Megan Rodriguez & Luke Henkhaus Students gathered in Academic Plaza on Friday night as Election Commissioner and chemical engineering sophomore Paige Rigsby stood on top of the Sul Ross statue to announce the results of the Spring 2018 student body elections. A total of 15,363 votes were cast. After the announcement of the winners for each position, the full unofficial results were made available online. Results were certified Feb. 25, according to the Election Commission’s
student body election calendar. Student Body President Amy Sharp, management junior, will serve as Texas A&M’s student body president for the 2018-2019 school year. Sharp’s policy goals include increasing funding for residence tutoring, supplemental instruction and academic scholarships, improving student physical and mental health and improving student inclusion in organizations and traditions. She has served as the Class of 2019 president for the past three years. Sharp won the election with 66.03 percent of the vote. She will take office on April 21 after current SBP Bobby Brooks completes his term with a speech at the campus Muster ceremony. Sharp described her reaction in three words
Dalia Muayad — THE BATTALION
Junior Amy Sharp served three terms as the Class of 2019 president and was elected as the Student Body President for the upcoming school year.
— “Overwhelmed, shocked, excited.” Moving forward, Sharp said she is focused on implementing the policies she campaigned on. “Immediately it’s going to be right to academic improvement, increased inclusion and improved access to mental and physical health services,” Sharp said. “First thing is the mental and physical health services.” Sharp said she is grateful for all the people who backed her during the campaign. “Thank you to everyone that was here tonight and everyone that’s supported me this whole time,” Sharp said. “Again, just so moved. First time in my life I’m crying happy tears.”
seph were voted into the three Senior Yell Leader positions for 2018-2019. Reid Williams and Karsten Lowe were elected Junior Yell Leaders. The five cadets were elected after running together in the 5 for Yell joint campaign. As the newly-elected Yell Leaders celebrated their victory Friday night, they reflected on a campaign season that brought them together and taught them countless lessons. The campaign trail presented the incoming Yell Leaders with many opportunities to learn, according to Blake Jones, elected senior leader and industrial distribution junior. “If it’s taught me one thing, it’s taught me just to give everything you have to whatever
Yell Leaders Blake Jones, Gavin Suel and Connor Jo-
ELECTIONS ON PG. 3
SOFTBALL
COURTESY
Public Health assistant professor Natalie Johnson uses both exposure characterization and animal models to conduct her research.
Johnson awarded $2 million grant Asst. professor researches prenatal air pollution risk By Kathryn Whitlock @KathrynWhitloc8 Examinations of prenatal pollutant exposure are progressing as a Texas A&M School of Public Health assistant professor has received an extensive grant. The National Institutes of Health has awarded Natalie Johnson with the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES). This award is intended to recognize early stage investigators and provides Johnson with around $2 million for her research. ONES is a standard Research Project Grant (R01) award for five years, and contains a career development component that allows external advisors to guide Johnson throughout her project
and career. After receiving her undergraduate degree in biology from A&M in 2006, Johnson received a Ph.D. in toxicology through A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2010. During her doctoral candidacy, Johnson said she established an interest in food toxins and air pollutants. “I was working with a population in Ghana that primarily burned wood for cooking and heating their homes,” Johnson said. “We were measuring biomarkers of exposure to air pollutants and seeing really high levels from this wood burning. My Ph.D. work got me interested in going into public health, so I went to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for my postdoc fellowship.” Back at A&M, Johnson runs a lab where her research is conduct-
ed via two methodologies: exposure characterization and animal models. “I joined the faculty here at the School of Public Health in 2013 and I’ve decided to dedicate my research program around prenatal air pollutant exposure,” Johnson said. “One side of the lab is where we characterize exposure. The other side is where we have developed an animal model. The new grant is going to build off of that preliminary data, and we will look at how prenatal exposure causes respiratory dysfunction in children later in life.” Having her own children is what Johnson said inspired her to study pollutant exposure. According to Johnson, a study reveals that moms who have a polymorphism in a specific transcription factor, GRANT ON PG. 2
Junior Samantha Show went 1-1 on the weekend as No. 6 A&M participated in the Mary Nutter Classic. C. Morgan Engel — THE BATTALION
California challenge No. 6 A&M softball goes 3-2 at Mary Nutter Classic By Angel Franco @angelmadison_ In a weekend that featured three games against Top 25 teams, including the No. 1 team in the country, No. 6 Texas A&M softball suffered its first two losses of the season while defeating three teams — two of which were ranked — at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California. A&M wrapped up the tournament with a 4-3 extra-inning loss to No. 1 Washington. The nine-inning affair ended with a ground ball to third base by senior shortstop Kristen Cuyos. The Aggies were down by a run in the bottom of the ninth
after the Huskies scored two in the top half. Washington broke the 2-2 tie after Amirah Milloy, who was standing on second base due to the international tiebreaker rule, scored off a fielding error by Cuyos. According to the NCAA rule book, the international tiebreaker rule can be implemented at the top of a predetermined inning, placing the batter who is ninth in the lineup on second base at the start of the inning. The Huskies then extended their lead the following play with an RBI by Taylor Van Zee. A&M cut the lead in the bottom half of the inning after senior catcher Ashley Walters led the inning off with an RBI single, which allowed junior Kaitlyn Alderink, who was on second due to the SOFTBALL ON PG. 2