Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Friday, March 6, 2020
Volume 120, Issue 115
PROJECT
Students, not soldiers UT’s student veteran community is small but supportive during the transition from military to college life. By Hannah Ortega @_hannahortega_
eddie gaspar
t 29, firstyear student Axton Vorpahl sits at the front of classes filled with students potentially a decade younger than him. While most freshmen have likely only ever known their high schools and college, Vorpahl saw much of the world during his five-year career as a builder in the Navy. Now studying civil engineering at UT, Vorpahl likens his unconventional college experience to “Billy Madison,” a 1995 movie starring Adam Sandler. “He’s a grown adult, but he has to go back and redo … (years at) his elementary schools,” Vorpahl said. “That’s kind of what it feels like. You’re just this grown adult with 18, 19, 20-year-olds. It’s different.” Despite making up less than 0.4% of the total campus population — roughly 425 students — UT’s student veteran community is “a huge fraternity of brothers and sisters” who support and lift each other up, said Jeremiah Gunderson, director of Student Veteran Services. “We’ve all seen and experienced so much, whether it has a bad effect on us or a good effect,” Vorpahl said. “We look at life a lot differently than the majority of the people that go to this school because … they haven’t seen what’s actually going on out there where most of us have, and so it’s nice to be able to be surrounded by similar-minded people in that aspect.” Student veterans at UT, 65% of whom are first generation, face the challenges of integrating back into civilian life while learning to navigate college and manage their time. They are often older,
/ the daily texan staff
Axton Vorpahl, a Civil Engineering freshman and Navy veteran, has found a community among the roughly 425 UT student veterans.
emma overholt
& megan fletcher / the daily texan staff
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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UT Farm Stand hosts “Pick Local, Chews Local” students make salads.
UT needs to provide LSAT and MCAT prep courses to help more students succeed.
NCAA football transfer portal provides opportunities for players who wish to play elsewhere.
have families of their own and must take care of financial responsibilities without the support of parents. Student Veteran Services offers several resources to student veterans like Vorpahl, such as a mentor program and veteran-focused orientation. UT was recently named the best college for veterans in Texas, a state with many military residents, and ranked No. 6 nationwide. Eighty percent of student veterans at UT complete their degree, and 77% go on to earn more than $28,000 a year after attendance, according to career website Zippia. “The main goal of ours is to help (student veterans) understand that you have to transition into a world that’s different,” Gunderson said. “You can’t continue to operate like you did in the military and be successful as a civilian, so it’s really focused on transition.” Vorpahl said the relationships he has with student veterans at UT are comparable to the ones he had in the Navy — they joke and talk about similar topics. At the Student Veteran Center, where Vorpahl often spends time studying, students and office staff have a fellowship built on shared experiences. “We call it gallows humor, but … joking about things that other people don’t is a way that a lot of veterans cope with high-stress environments, so it kind of carries over here,” Gunderson said. Vorpahl said his wife encouraged him to go back to school, but he misses the structure of the Navy. When he was building, Vorpahl would wake up, drive to the project site, come back around 6 p.m., eat, exercise and go to sleep. During deployments, he worked anywhere from 12 to 17 hours a day. Sometimes, he worked 24-hour shifts with few P R O J E C T PAGE 2
Student makes GoFundMe for trip to powerlifting contest in Czech Republic.
CAMPUS
CITY
Texas Brain Exercise Initiative volunteers aim to fight Alzheimer’s
The Wall Street Journal ranks Austin best city for job market nationwide
By Sana Hameed @sana21hameed
Members of the new organization Texas Brain Exercise Initiative began volunteering last month with people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at a senior living community near campus, Brookdale Westlake Hills. The 74 members utilize activities meant to stimulate the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which controls higher cognitive functions such as memory and verbal ability. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, 46 million people worldwide are affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia-related diseases. Thao Le, president of the initiative, said her grandmother’s diagnosis inspired her to pursue a capstone project in high school to re-
search treatments for Alzheimer’s. Her research eventually led her to the Brain Exercise Initiative. “We often view Alzheimer’s as something that is incurable, untreatable,” said Le, a biology and neuroscience sophomore. “There’s no medication for it. But from research that has been shown over in Japan, there are preventative measures that can be done to help alleviate this disease. If there’s any sort of way to help it, by all means, we should go ahead.” The brain exercises, developed by neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, are broken down into three components: math, writing and reading. First, Le said residents are challenged to complete simple math problems quickly and without worrying about accuracy.
“If you go through it slowly and actually take your time, it works a different part of the brain,” volunteer Nathan Hardham said. Hardham, a chemical engineering freshman, said the residents then rewrite questions without answering them and practice reading aloud. The exercises are followed with opportunities for volunteers to catch up and bond with the residents. “It’s more clinical than just volunteering or hanging out with the elderly,” Hardham said. “At the same time, we’re still working on maintaining a good connection with them.” Samantha Lazenby, resident programs coordinator at Brookdale Westlake, said while some residents were apprehensive about participating in the program, the reception so far has been B R A I N PAGE 2
By Austin Martinez @austinmxrtinez
While the weather in Austin is pretty hot, The Wall Street Journal said the city’s job market is even hotter. For the second year in a row, Austin ranked No. 1 in the United States for its job market, said Eric Morath, labor and economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Morath said the Journal ranked metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people using five metrics: unemployment, labor force participation, job growth, labor force growth and wage growth. Rankings were based on data collected by financial intelligence company Moody’s Analytics. “The great thing about Austin is it’s a pretty diverse economy,” Morath said. “It’s well-known for its tech scene and of course its music scene
… There’s a number of industries from construction to health care that are growing.” Morath said Austin topped the rankings because of its low unemployment rate of 2.7% in
The great thing about Austin is it’s a pretty diverse economy. It’s well-known for its tech scene and of course its music scene.” ERIC MORATH
labor and economics reporter for the wall street journal
comparison to the national 3.6% rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Journal ranked Austin No. 3 in the country for wage
growth because of its 5% pay increase since 2019. Michael Powell, director of the Engineering Career Assistance Center, helps students with career planning and development. Powell said Austin has a vibrant employment scene with leading companies such as Apple, Dell and Oracle. “We have a lot of prominent employers … that get a lot of attention, do a lot of hiring and are doing quite well in this economy,” Powell said. Powell said the University is an attractive destination for employers. “When employers come here, they know they’re going to get high-quality students in terms of the education they’re getting and the ambition they have,” Powell said. Austin’s job market benefits students and graduates with great internship and T O P J O B PAGE 2
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SPRING BREAK $50
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in March!
1-800 SKYDIVE