Matt Campbell, city desk writer, sits down with senior Patrick McGinty to talk about his role as 2014-2015 head yell leader and his late arrival to the Corps of Cadets.
THE BATTALION: What inspired you to become a yell leader?
McGinty: It was the end of my fall semester my sophomore year and I was just really looking for a way to get involved and serve this university and the opportunity came up to run for yell leader. I was blessed to be able to talk to some former yell leaders and hear the responsibilities and what it was about, and the opportunity to serve the University and travel to so many different events and teach people about A&M — be a representative to interact with prospective students or parents who are visiting campus for the first time or other children who grew up not raised an Aggie — just really get them excited about A&M. I’d heard a bunch of different stories from the former yell leaders and decided it was something that really was up my alley and something I could see myself doing.
THE BATTALION: What were some of your thoughts when you were selected to be head yell leader for the 2014-2015 school year?
McGinty: We found out towards the end [of the spring semester], before Big Event and obviously it was something I didn’t really expect. We have a great group of seniors, all of them could do a fantastic job and whenever I found out — the way we looked at it — we were all senior yell leaders together representing Texas A&M. It’s not one person above another. There’s different meetings that I have to go to and they do something else and we break up the responsibilities that way, but at the end of the day, we all have a same responsibility as a senior yell leader here at Texas A&M, to serve the University ­— and that’s what we do. It was an incredible honor when I found out, but it doesn’t affect our dynamic at all. That’s how we see it.
THE BATTALION: Where do you and the other yell leaders travel to during the summers?
McGinty: We’re going to San Antonio this weekend. We go anywhere from busy cities like Houston, San Antonio, Dallas to small towns where there might be 10 people at the event, whereas other ones have a couple hundred. But whether it’s 10 people or a couple hundred, it’s always an unbelievable time. It’s just a lot of fun. Like I said, you’ll be talking to people about A&M. I have friends and roommates who ask me “Isn’t that like a job? Doesn’t it get old after a while?” and I always tell them there’s nothing better than traveling around and talking to people about A&M. It just doesn’t get better than that when I talk to other Aggies about Texas A&M. We go anywhere in Texas. As long as it’s within a couple hours of College Station, we’ll be there. We have different regions that we go to every weekend.
THE BATTALION: What is one of your favorite memories as a yell leader so far?
McGinty: During the summers we’re traveling every weekend. We don’t have a weekend off. We’re going to different A&M clubs and a bunch of different events around the State. When you’re with a group of five guys and you’re driving anywhere from 200 to five or 600 hundred miles every weekend together in a minivan, you’re going to get the chance to really get to know those guys pretty well and really establish some unbelievable relationships.
THE BATTALION: What influenced your decision to join the Corps of Cadets after the first semester of your freshman year?
McGinty: When I got to school here, funny story — I actually didn’t know what the Corps was, because I had applied at the last minute and hadn’t really grown up familiar or exposed to Texas A&M. I got up [to College Station] and my first semester I was not in the Corps. At the beginning of my first semester I had a good friend who was a year older than me who was in the Corps. I just remember mentioning it one time, just asking questions about the Corps to figure out what it was. He took that opportunity to basically start recruiting me for the Corps and there was a long process and it kind of took the entire semester, but I found out more about the Corps and ended up making my final decision that I was going to join three days before I had to report for the spring semester. It was just through a friend that ended up really just answering a lot of questions for me and it was just something that I could see myself doing and I decided to give it a shot and just absolutely fell in love with it. That’s when I really, I think, started to appreciate everything about Texas A&M was once I joined the Corps in spring of my freshman year.
THE BATTALION: Do you have any goals for yourself this upcoming school year?
McGinty: Looking forward to this upcoming year we’re given the chance to travel to some schools that we haven’t been to before. We’re going to South Carolina and with the success we’ve had the past couple years, we’ve really started to get more of a national spotlight and so I think a goal for this year is exposing the nation and those outside of the Texas A&M circle to this University and to our traditions, because I think we’re doing some special things here on this campus. We’re producing some pretty special leaders — men and women — after they graduate.
THE BATTALION: You will be a senior this year. What do you see yourself doing after graduation?
McGinty: Ah, the million dollar question. I’ve got a couple different things I’m looking at. The most immediate thing I want to do is I want to serve in the military. So I’m planning on doing that for about six years after I graduate and then following that. I’m just going the let the Lord guide me and I’ll go wherever he wants to put me.