Twice a week, Aggie Transition Camp counselors can be found conducting their own yell practices in the campus tunnel under Wellborn near the West Campus Garage.
These yell practices are a part of a training process wherein ATC counselors ensure that new counselors can teach transfer students Aggie yells.
The ATC holds two camps every year, Howdy Camp in January and T-Camp in August, with the goal of helping transfer students settle into Texas A&M culture.
“One big goal of ours is that because they are transfer students, they have less time while at A&M, like 2 or 3 years, so we want them to come in and already have an idea of what it is like at a football game, come in already knowing about yells and other traditions, so that they can hop right into it and maximize the amount of time they have,” said Rachel Walsh, visualization senior and ATC co-chair.
Walsh is one of the ATC members who teaches yells. She said it is important that ‘Teamers,’ those who will teach the yells to transfer students, know the yells well.
“If you are selected for Team, you must have been part of the camp before as a Discussion Group parent or a counselor,” Walsh said. “So a Team is this group of 10 counselors who lead the yells during the camps and do skits about various other traditions like the Silver Taps and the Midnight Yell.”
Walsh said knowing about traditions at Texas A&M like Midnight Yell helps transfer students understand what it is like to be an Aggie.
Sarah Edwards, extended orientation assistant director of student activities and advisor for ATC, said transfer students coming into A&M have different needs than freshmen attending a university for the first time.
“They are not new to college,” Edwards said. “They are just new to Texas A&M. So T-Camp and Howdy Camp essentially can tell them about Texas A&M and its traditions, rather than how to be a college student.”
Edwards said there are different types of students who come to the camp and different kinds of feedback from the campers.
“Some of them have always wanted to get to A&M and it was only a matter of getting here,” Edwards said. “So they know the yells and they know the traditions. But they now have a small group to be in the Aggie family. For others, we get a feedback that coming to A&M is not as scary and they now know what they need to know.”
Walsh said ATC caters to where these students are in their Aggie experience and that yell practices in the tunnel are a means of ensuring counselors can do so.
“We teach them [yells] and each movement that goes with each yell,” Walsh said. “And each practice has them go through the yells two times, three times if they aren’t doing so great that night.”
Ronnie Jimenez, biology senior and executive director for ATC, said yell leaders attended the last day of T-Camp last year and were surprised when they saw how well the campers knew the yells.
“They let us do our yell practice, and at the end of it they taught everyone how to do the ‘Beat the Hell Outta’ yell, and I swear, every camper was there on the stage and I could see the Aggie spirit inside everyone,” Jimenez said.