IN THE NEWS:
Part student, part soldier
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 21, 2016 12:31 a.m.
Louis Bethge, second-year economics and Russian studies student: "In hockey if the other team is throwing arms, hitting us with the sticks, I’m gonna get riled up. I don’t feel bad for being aggressive because they were coming for me so I come for them. I think it’s kind of why I like the military; I don’t really want to hurt anybody but if you come after me, you better be darn sure than I’m coming after you. You know I won’t start a fight, but you’re darn sure I’ll finish one.”
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
“Outside of ROTC it's mostly school. I do a lot of IM sports and hockey and I’m a really competitive person so sports are a good way to kind of release that. You really bond with people through sports. I don’t necessarily play to win. I play to have fun but there’s nothing more fun than winning so it’s hard to beat that. [Sports] are a good way to have fun and it gets your mind off things, especially when you have school stuff to do. I’m from Maryland on the East Coast. My dad is from Buffalo in New York so when I was younger my dad had me play roller hockey. I tried basketball because I’m really tall; unfortunately basketball is not a contact sport so that didn’t last very long. So I went back to hockey and I played for six years before coming here."
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
Jennifer Barrantes, third-year biology student: “I’ve played volleyball since I was in second grade and so in high school, I was on my high school varsity team all four years and I still play now. I can’t be pent-up all the time and that probably has to do with my upbringing. The reason why I did so many sports was because I wasn’t really allowed to hang out with friends outside of school so I tried to be at school as long as possible and practice usually took a couple hours."
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
"There’s a team unity that you can’t really get anywhere else, other than the army because once you’re in that squad then you have the group mentality and telepathy with the other players or with the other squad members. You make a move and you can predict what the other players are going to do and play off of that. You have an ideal, shared goal and in sports you can reach that goal and in the army you can reach that goal too.”
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
Matthew Li, fourth-year engineering geology student: "I always have this belief that I want to give back. I was never out of shape or anything, but my dad said to me, ‘How do you expect to take care of other people if you can't take of yourself?’. People always say that when they first meet me, they are intimidated, but after they know me, they see that I am very emotional. I’m one of the only people in ROTC who can talk about feelings.”
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
“I’m pretty involved on campus, being an RA and being president of Pi Kappa Alpha for two years. I also did USAC and worked at the LGBT resource center. That’s pretty much how I occupy my time, besides doing research have a few jobs. I saw the value of the whole college experience and since I’m not at at a military academy, I could be involved in other things that aren’t the army. I tried not to make ROTC my entire life, but it’s really important to me. It’s a major priority; it’s what I’ve been doing since Day 1. But I don’t really let it overtake my life, I try to diversify myself across campus."
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
Gerardo Lopez, fourth-year sociology student: “With my my time out of of ROTC I like to travel, go out dancing, eat at restaurants, sing, and do fun things with fun people. My biggest hobbies are dancing and I am seeking professional training from teams around the LA area to increase my technique and potentially compete in Latin ballroom one day."
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
"On the dance floor, I control every move and lead the women to execute my combinations properly. Once I get off step, I mess her up and myself as well. It's a lot like ROTC. You need to work together to move as a cohesive unit. Once one person deviates from the goal or mission, it all fails and falls apart.”
(Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin)
Timu Saari, fourth-year biology student: "I just love the idea of everyone being able to play and how soccer is accessible to everyone and you don’t need anything except for a ball and you don’t even need shoes. I’ve been to places where they played ball with a paper bag wrapped up or masking tape. The game takes all shapes and sizes and just to be able to play is a joy for me.”
(Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
“I’ve played soccer ever since I was in second grade. Initially I started out in baseball but then I figured out I had very little hand-eye coordination and I got hit by too many baseballs but then I found soccer and I fell in love with it ever since. I definitely like to play in the backfield; I like to get hands-on with people and jump over them and side-tackle them, legally of course. I always really loved the game. I never even played club because it was never really in my blood to be that competitive."
