l tuesday,
june 18, 2013
l serving
texas a&m since 1893
l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media
thebattalion
The giving tree Century Tree seedlings raise over $100,000 for scholarship fund Mackenzie Mullis The Battalion
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he Century Tree has remained a cherished piece of Texas A&M’s history and traditions since the early days of the University. Well over 100 years old, it has seen thousands of students bustling to classes, lounging in academic plaza and even wedding proposals — hundreds of wedding proposals. Now, throughout the southern U.S., this famous tree is spreading its reach, sprouting new generations of trees across the nation all in thanks to Andy Duffie, Class of 1978. His goal of sprouting trees from the acorns of the Century Tree has led to a President’s Endowed Scholarship of more than $100,000, all of which will help an incoming freshman pay for his or her educations. In 2008, Duffie started a small project without knowing where it would take him.
“This actually started as an experiment,” Duffie said. “I was on campus in September of 2008 for my 35th class reunion. We were walking past the Century Tree and noticed that it was laden with bunches of acorns so I picked some off the tree and put them in my pocket to take home. I was just thinking how cool it would be if I could get some of them to sprout. Unfortunately, not a single acorn sprouted.” Duffie said he later learned that acorns aren’t mature until they drop from the tree, normally in early October. He came back the next year and picked up about 50 acorns and repeated the process. He said of those 50, only about 10 sprouted. After another year, Duffie came more prepared, bringing an ice chest that he filled with 3,000 acorns See Century Tree on page 2
COURTESY PHOTOS
Andy Duffie (far right) poses with Rodney and Ann Boehm, who have ordered four of Duffie’s trees, in front of the Century Tree in Academic Plaza. Duffie grew 540 Century Trees (bottom) from acorns he gathered to sell to former and current Texas A&M students for The Century Tree President’s Endowed Scholarship.
new student conferences
Instagram contest offers opportunity for students to show Aggie spirit Allison Rubenak The Battalion
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Alice Chang — THE BATTALION
his summer, those on the “outside looking in” will be able to gain a further insight into Aggieland from fellow and future peers. The Division of Marketing and Communications has organized a summerlong contest involving incoming students and the use of the mobile photography platform, Instagram. “New Student Conferences are the start to [new students’] college memories,” said Diane McDonald, executive director of marketing and social media for the Division of Marketing and Communications. “We thought [the contest] would be a fun way to welcome Aggies to campus.” Krista Smith, communications coordinator helping administer the contest, described the contest as having a “wonderful response so far,” with almost two hundred photos in collection. To enter the contest, students are encour-
We are looking to create a relationship with the students. We are helping get a lot of user-generated content about Texas A&M into the social media sphere.” — Krista Smith, communications coordinator for the Division of Marketing and Communications
aged to first follow @Tamu on Instagram. Then, the new students can upload and share photos using the hashtag, #NSCTAMU. The image should express either some favorite aspect of a New Student Conference, creative photos of campus, or any moment that captures the Aggie Spirit. After the last conference, one photo will be selected and the winner will receive a “#2” Aggie football jersey. Although targeted with new students in mind, participation in the Instagram contest is extended to any incoming, current or former student. Daniel Suda, co-chair of the Aggie Orientation Leadership program, said the contest is a useful way for students to view the
science&engineering
Summer camp provides real-world STEM experiences and education Sarah Hoffschwelle The Battalion
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he Aggie center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics welcomed its batch of 6-11th graders to its fourth annual summer camp that lasts from June 10-22. The camp features four main activities: bridge construction, electronics such as wiring a house, bacterial growth and robotics along with other activities such as seed germination, making lip gloss and creating iPhone apps, all of which are taught by professors from A&M. “[The STEM summer camp] just seemed perfect for me since I am looking for a future career or major in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, the STEM program,” said Linnea Sill, a soon-to-be high school senior. Niyazi Erdogan, camp coordinator, is a graduate student at Texas A&M pursuing his masters of education and helped staff previous STEM summer camps with the help of other
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graduate students. “The courses depend on how many students we have,” Erdogan said. “This year, we were expecting more students than last year. So, we came up with more activities.” There are three camp options available to students: day camp only (middle school and high school students), day camp plus activities (middle school and high school students), and full camp including residence (high school students only). “It was only [full camp including residence] at the first [STEM summer camp], but we thought maybe we should advertise this to see if other students from the Bryan-College Station area would like to come,” Erdogan said. “Now, half of the students are coming from the Bryan-College Station area.” The other options of the camp were put into place last year. See STEM camp on page 6
experiences their friends are having before their arrival at their own conference later in the summer. “It’s allowing students to connect in more ways than before,” Suda said. “Seeing Aggies being able to post on Instagram is great because a picture can often be worth so much more than words.” This summer’s contest is only one of the many recent initiatives to promote the “brand” of Texas A&M. The summer of 2012 featured a contest involving Pinterest. “We are looking to create a relationship with the students,” Smith said. “We are helping get a lot of user-generated content about Texas A&M into the social media See Instagram on page 2
inside sports opinion | 3 Dueling columns: Manziel and social media Controversy is once again surrounding Johnny Manziel, who tweeted late Saturday night that he wants out of College Station. After deleting his comment and noting how much he enjoys being an Aggie, is it time for Manziel to move on from Texas A&M to bigger and better things or are the critics once again too harsh on the star Aggie quarterback with two years of eligibility remaining?
movie review | 5 ‘Man of Steel’ disappoints
The Superman reboot leads the weekend box office by a landslide over comedic runnerup “This Is The End” but it wasn’t enough for our critic who says a lack of character development and a wealth of special effects watered down the film.
6/17/13 11:20 PM