WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA
Samantha SANDERS
SMASHING STANDARDS
Freshman Samantha Sanders has easily moved into her role on the volleyball team and is a force to be reckoned with, according to her teammates. Kevin Chou — THE BATTALION
Freshman outside hitter makes seamless transition to Texas A&M volleyball team By Ryan MacDonald @Ryan_Macdonald2
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rogressing from high school to collegiate athletics is a big jump, but freshman volleyball player Samantha Sanders has made it seem easy. Sanders’ volleyball career started in the sixth grade, playing at the middle block position. In high school, Sanders shifted to outside hitter, where she excelled at Midway and was named to the all-district first-team, all four years. She earned national recognition as well being named an Under Armour All-American Honorable Mention her senior year. Sanders also found success in club volleyball, being named to the all-tournament team after leading her team to a silver medal in the 2017 USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship her senior year. Growing up in Waco, Sanders always wanted to play for Baylor, and verbally committed there her senior year. However, Sanders changed her mind after taking an official recruiting visit to A&M. “When I came here, it just kind of clicked. I fell in love with the team and the coaches and I knew it was where I wanted to be,” Sanders said. Since coming to campus in July, Sanders has played a large role on the A&M volleyball team, starting her first game on Aug. 26 against VCU. “I was very nervous. It was my first time playing in the gym, but overall I was just siked to get out and play,” Sanders said. Despite her nerves, Sanders played well with four kills in the team’s straight-set victory. Sanders’ confidence was augmented after A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli elected to start Sanders the following game against No. 2 Penn State. “I felt more comfortable in the Penn State game, it was my first start and that’s when I started to believe in myself because Coach [Corbelli] let me start in such a big game,” Sanders said. Sanders played well in the match with four kills and just one error. Since then, Sanders has started in every SANDERS ON PG. 2
MORE THAN JUST A CLASSROOM Professor allows student to bring child to lecture when childcare fell through By Skye Lovelady @skyelovelady
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Professor Henry Musoma received recognition from the dean of Mays Business School for allowing a student to bring her son to class when she couldn’t find a sitter.
Henry Musoma’s section of Management 309 has around 450 students enrolled, comprising of juniors, seniors and on Thursday Sept. 7, a 10-month-old. University studies senior Ashton Robinson said she was surprised when her professor gladly welcomed her to bring her 10-month-old son Emmett to her lecture class. Robinson emailed her professor telling him that she couldn’t make it to class because she couldn’t find a babysitter. In response, Musoma, clinical assistant professor, emailed Robinson and told her to bring her son to class.
“I could not believe it,” Robinson said. “It just seemed like his plate was so full that he wouldn’t be able to handle a baby in the class, and I didn’t want to put that on him. But he told me not to worry about it and to just focus on the class.” Robinson then posted her experience on Facebook to share with her friends. By Sept. 19, the post went viral on Aggie social media. “Whenever I posted the story I was just posting my personal experience,” Robinson said. “But then everyone commented on it, people were saying from years ago when they had Musoma as a professor. It just speaks so much about his character.” Cooper Cox, construction science senior, is also a student in Musoma’s class. This is his first semester taking a class from Musoma and PROFESSOR ON PG. 4
Grants awarded by CPRIT have allowed Texas A&M University to develop new cancer therapies and treatments.
Grant gives Texas A&M funds for further cancer research
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By Meredith McCown @mccown_meredith In early September, The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded more than $9 million within eight grants to Texas A&M University for cancer research. More than $7.7 million was dedicated to academic research grants and the remaining $1.35 million towards a prevention grant. The largest amount within the total equaled
an almost $6 million grant given to Director for the Center for Advanced Imaging Michael Mancini and professor and Director of the Center for Translational Cancer Research Peter Davies, whose goal collectively aims to develop new therapies across a broad spectrum of cancers. Davies and Mancini share a leading partnership for the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics in the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, College of Medicine. Regarding the Core Facility Support
Award (CFSA) given to Davies and Mancini, the money will support their collaborative core facility that is shared between Texas A&M University Institute of Biosciences and Technology and Baylor College of Medicine. Other institutions such as Rice University, MD Anderson and the University of Houston will have access to this facility. “The award is to support specialized core facilities to provide researchers with access to state of the art equipment and expertise to help support cancer research projects,” Davies said. “Specifically cancer research projects focused
on developing new therapies for cancer.” Davies said as of now, the main focus is to fund projects directly involved in new therapies for cancer. More specifically, cancers that are lacking in sufficient drugs. “It’s a facility to serve many, many investigations,” Davies said. “We anticipate that in any given year, 20-30 different projects will be running in the facility, in the program, supporting different aspects of cancer research for many different types of cancers.” Two years ago, A&M received a grant for RESEARCH ON PG. 4