facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercury
July 31, 2017
UTDMERCURY.COM
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM ARIANA HADDEN Managing Editor
As Jessica Chester entered her freshman year of college, she was already four months into motherhood with her first child. Balancing college and taking care of her baby would be difficult, but Chester said she was not too worried — until she discovered she was pregnant with her second child. Chester graduated high school in the top 1 percent of her class and decided to pursue college out of state. When her mother insisted she stay in-state for the sake of her child, Chester applied to UTD in 2005 and received a full ride with the AES scholarship. Despite all the fears and worries she had as a new mother, Chester dove headfirst into college, satisfied she was able to have the experience. “Being a teen parent is a struggle for anyone, but being a parent you have a lot to deal with outside of school,” Chester said. “Just having to wake up a whole lot earlier, having to get the kids ready, getting them to day care, as students we are up all night anyways, so on top of breast-feeding and diaper changes, it was just my personal hardships.” While struggling to balance her course load and caring for her children, the 2009 alumna maintained her scholarship and
→ SEE PARENT, PAGE 8
Alumna Jessica Chester holds her six-week-old daughter Ava in her arms as she recalls her time on campus while raising two children. Chester entered UTD with a four-month-old baby boy, unaware she was pregnant with her second child.
RUTH VARGHESE | NEWS EDITOR
Alum breaks world record UTD orgs assist int’l students with arrival
Local Free Play Arcade livestreamed 24-hour Tapper marathon on Twitch
Members provide airport pickup, temporary housing
SAHER AQEEL | PHOTO EDITOR
Alumna Lauren Featherstone broke the previous record of the arcade game Tapper with a total of 14 million points and won a total of $2,900. She was awake for 32 hours by the end of the 24-hour livestream. DONIA BOSAK-BARANI Mercury Staff
A UTD alumna broke the Tapper world record at Free Play Arcade in Arlington, scoring 14,000,600 points and making her the first woman to hold the record-breaking title for the game. Lauren Featherstone first played the vintage arcade game in 2015 at Free Play Arcade in Richardson. She wasn’t a gamer, but was drawn to the machine every time she visited the arcade. Not long after she started playing, she held the highest score at the location. Now, two years later, she holds the world’s highest score. Featherstone broke the world record on July 15 after playing for 18 hours on a Twitch live stream. She continued playing for the full 24 hours and walked away with $2,900 by earning $100 for every million points and a bonus of $1,500 when she surpassed the previous record of 10,361,550 points. She said she could have kept playing to increase her score but decided to leave her total where it was because she had already done all she had to do and was exhausted.
“At that point I’d proven everything I needed to prove. As far as the world record, I’ve played longer than anyone else has on one quarter,” Featherstone said. “I’ve had the fastest speed. The previous record holder got so many million at so many hours, so as far as pace goes, I was outpacing the previous record. And of course I got more points than anyone else has ever gotten.” In Tapper, the player is a bartender who throws beers to customers and catches empty glasses. The game doesn’t follow a pattern and is completely randomized every time someone plays, so she didn’t memorize patterns, but relied on instinct and reflexes instead. “It’s what’s called a time-management game essentially in that my eyes have to be in a lot of places at once because it gets very fast,” she said. “Keeping track, catching the glass right before it falls off, throwing someone a beer right after they finish the other because you can’t throw it too soon. It is a down to the second kind of game. I did a lot of what’s called point-pressing. I’d sacrifice lives to pick up money to get extra points.” In addition to her strategies, Featherstone’s success was dependent on her sup-
portive team of friends and the accommodations provided by Free Play. She and her team planned ahead and prepared for every possible situation. She opted for glasses instead of contacts, wore several layers, got a shoulder rub from her husband, limited her liquid intake and ate healthy food. Meanwhile, the Richardson arcade transported its own reliable gaming cabinet and a battery backup to the larger Arlington location where Featherstone made history, in order to allow for enough personal space and overcome any outages. Her husband Josh Featherstone experienced her Tapper journey from start to finish. He says Lauren taught herself everything she knows about the game. “She wasn’t so interested in looking for a world record or anything when she first started playing, she was just having fun with it. But then later, as a matter of pride almost, she never looked online for tips or tricks or anything else,” Josh said. “It was all just completely selftaught from the beginning, she would just trial and error, and she learned what would make her survive, what made her get points. There’s
→ SEE TAPPER, PAGE 5
RUTH VARGHESE | NEWS EDITOR
Organizations such as the Indian Students Association help incoming students adjust to campus life with mentors and a connection to the community. SAUMYA JAGATA Mercury Staff
Each year, more than 1,500 international students arrive at UTD. As these students prepare to study in a new country, UTD’s cultural student organizations prepare to welcome them and build an environment of home away from home. President of the Indian Students Association, Vishal Keswani, said his organization helps nearly 700 international Indian students arriving at UTD each year. They focus on providing initial airport pickups and temporary accommodations in collaboration with the International Center at UTD, International Christian Fellowship, UTD alumni and current students.
“Our organization was set up with the mission of service before self,” Keswani said. “Around 17 years ago, the Indian alumni came up with this idea (of setting up this organization) solely for the purpose of providing pickups and drops. It was a totally voluntary service and it still continues after 17 years.” Current UTD students assist the ISA in managing the large number of new students, and ensure they are completely settled before classes start. Feng Zhang is president of the Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars, assisting more than 300 Chinese students adjusting to life in the U.S. each year. “Having lived in the U.S. for nine
→ SEE ARRIVAL, PAGE 8