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The school slogan at the University of Texas at Austin is "what starts here changes the world."
These 17 students don't just aspire to this motto, they live it.
From cross-country cyclists to environmentalists to small business owners, these Texas Longhorns have proven that they're more than ready to change the world.
Jon Cozart is a YouTube video star.
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Class of 2015
When Jon Cozart started at UT, he had about a quarter of a million YouTube subscribers; now he has 1.5 million subscribers, and over 90 million views on his viral, musical videos. He’s sold over 100,000 songs on iTunes, all of which were recorded in his bedroom.
The internet phenomenon from Little Rock, Ark., spent last summer touring different conventions around the world, including the Harry Potter convention and LeakyCon, where he sat on a panel about making YouTube videos and performed his videos and musics for thousands of people.
At UT, Cozart performs in a short-form improv comedy group called Gigglepants. A talented writer, Cozart hones his skills through elective English, poetry writing, playwriting, and Shakespearean literature classes.
Cozart plans to move to LA when he graduates to dive headfirst into the film and television industry. He plans to continue his YouTube stardom while launching a career in writing and acting.
Holland Finley is revamping emergency response services to make campus a safer place.
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Class of 2014
When business student Holland Finley dialed 9-1-1 for a classmate suffering from a medical condition, the call went to a city operator, not campus police. The dispatchers didn't know the names of the University buildings and struggled to locate Finley quickly — making a scary situation that much more frightening.
The Austin native channeled the ordeal into reforming UT's emergency response services. She worked with developers who created a UT smartphone app to fortify available safety information, and helped to modify campus maps that could be used for reference when speaking to emergency services. Her efforts to improve dialogue between UT and the City of Austin's emergency responders has helped students get the help they need, fast.
Finley, a Tri-Delt sister and and former UT all-girls squad cheerleader, is also a collegiate national wakeboarding champion. A former world titleholder, she consistently places on the podium alongside the guys.
Finley has accepted a job at Bain & Company in Dallas after she graduates in the spring. She would eventually like to go back to school to earn a law degree and an MBA.
Katie Floyd translates historical documents written in colloquial 18th century Spanish.
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Class of 2015
Katie Floyd took on the most hands-on research apprenticeship of her college career — handling the translation of original 18th and 19th century documents regarding the first fine arts school established in Latin America under the Spanish crown from old world colloquial Spanish to English.
Floyd, a Latin American studies major, got special permission from the UT Library to sit in the rare books room nearly 10 hours a week to see the texts. The most challenging part of the project was not actually translating but deciphering the script, which were handwritten in shorthand and idiomatic Spanish and hadn't been looked at in centuries.
The self-described aspiring "Renaissance woman" has traveled extensively through Central and South America, and for seven summers has worked at an orphanage in the highland mountains of Guatemala.
Two years ago she founded Campamento de Paz, a summer camp for underprivileged children on the west side of San Antonio. Many attendees belonged to single-parent homes and families attached to gang activity. Floyd set out to provide them with a constructive, creative alternative through the camp. Continuing on this path, Floyd hopes to someday work in policy or as an art historian, and support refugees.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider