Broken, forgotten and weather worn, bikes are abandoned as students graduate, purchase new ones or deem broken ones not worth fixing. If not for Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) these once-coveted velocipedes would crowd parking areas, their carcasses slowly picked clean by looters. “We are picking up abandoned bikes constantly, it’s a year round process,” said TAPS Bicycle Program Coordinator David Takemoto-Weerts. “We pick up around 1,000 bikes a year.” TAPS surveys campus and removes abandoned bikes as they crop up — but instead of scrapping them, they put them back into the local community through their bi-annual auction. Tucked away from the ever-shifting elements inside the ground level of the ARC parking structure, the vault where the impounded bikes are held is opened the morning of the auction. A small bleacher and stage goes up and prospective buyers register and are allowed to examine the bikes, which range in all forms of disrepair, with some rolling on their own right while others limp up the ramp to the auctioneer. Once the viewing period closes, the bidding wars begin. “We get a whole range of people looking to buy. Some are students looking for a cheap bike [and] I usually get a few people who run bike shops in the Sacramento area that sell used bikes,” Takemoto-Weerts said. “The average price is between $40 and $50 —but it depends entirely on how much people bid.” In this spring’s auction, the first bike presented was a Peugeot sporting what appeared to be very broken brakes. It sold for $220 after an unprecedented escalation of bidding. Later, a lonely frame sold for over $100. These were the exceptional cases, however, as most bikes sold for much less. “They go for as cheap as two dollars, and you might get a bike for two dollars [where] the only thing good on it is a seat. But a good seat will cost you around $20 anywhere else, so that’s a deal.” Seeing the hidden values in a derelict bike is a talent held by experienced bidders, who were in no short supply at last Saturday’s auction. More than once, a concerned murmur swept the crowd as over and over, a bidder relentlessly outbid everyone else on a lot that didn’t seem like much. For most students casually shopping, such as first-year biochemistry major Ina Lagat and first-year environmental science major Dana Yu, the process is more straightforward: the goal is to find nearly whole bikes. “We both already have bikes but are looking [to upgrade to] road bikes,” Lagat said. Potential bidders are allowed to touch, examine and otherwise test bikes during the viewing period and record the ones they deem easy enough to fix. For Lagat and Yu, broken chains and popped tires were not deterrents, although both were content with walking away with nothing. “I saw three bikes that I wanted to bid on, but it’s okay if I don’t get them; I already have a bike,” Yu said. “I’m just so surprised at how many road bikes there are — they are in high demand.” And if a bidding war was to form between the two of them, Lagat yielded. “She can have it if it comes down to that!” Other students come into the auction with more determination. “I’m looking for a bike that’s functional, or nearly so. I check to see if it works, or if it doesn’t, if it has issues that are easily fixed,” said fourth-year biological sciences major Sina Azadi. “I’ll ride a functional girl’s bike. I don’t care if it has flowers on it, I can rock anything. It’s less likely to be stolen if it looks like that.” Azadi was certain that he didn’t want to go above his $50 price point, but realized that the spirit of bidding could get the best of him. “I can get caught up, sometimes my ego gets in the way. I also may end up paying too much, because I’m still waking up,” Azadi said. Along with the community benefit associated with recycling used bikes, TAPS receives monetary incentive to continue auctioning. “The revenue from the bike auctions is a major source of funding for our bicycle program, which is entirely self sufficient,” Takemoto-Weerts said. For those worried that a bolt-cutter happy employee will be targeting their seemingly-abandoned bike next, comfort is found in TAPS’ purposefully slow process of getting a bike up onto the auctioneer’s block. “We make a concerted effort to contact the owners of the bikes that are registered, to see if they had misplaced their bike, or if it was stolen and now we’ve found it, or if they lost the key to their lock and they don’t know about our free lock cutting service,” Takemoto-Weerts said. First, the abandoned bikes are checked for obvious signs of disrepair and age, then they are marked with a notice signifying that the bike has been identified as abandoned. “[In determining if a bike is abandoned] typically, if a bike sits there unused long enough, the tires lose air, rust forms, if it hasn’t rained a lot, dust collects on them. With bike parking locations near trees, leaves will blow into the parking area and get stuck in the wheels. We also look for things like missing parts [due to theft],” Takemoto-Weerts said. After a number of days, the abandoned bike’s lock is cut and it is impounded. This point, however, signifies only the beginnings of the attempts to find the owner and return the bike. “If the bike is registered, I send an email to the owner and a postcard to the address they registered as their home address, in case they had graduated or left the school. We also try to identify any stolen bikes that we pick up. For every bike we impound, we write a description of the bike, its license number and serial number, and we send that information to the police department,” Takemoto-Weerts said. From there, the information is run through the statewide database of stolen bikes. “If a cop in Chula Vista pulls over some lowlife riding without a light, and they run the number and the bike is stolen, it gets recovered. A few days before the auction, I send that list again to the police department for the bikes that are to be sold and they run them a second time — just in case the owner reports their bike stolen after we impound it,” Takemoto-Weerts said. HANNAH KRAMER can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Photo by Anna de Benedictis.

Each year, the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program selects 1,000 students, 11 of whom are in UC Davis’ Class of 2016.

Provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the students receive unmet need and self-help aid funding throughout their years at a university of their choice, and the program also offers graduate school funding for continuing Gates Millennium Scholars in certain areas of study. According to their website, the goal of GMS is to “promote academic excellence and to provide an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant need to reach their highest potential.”

Although consisting of a lengthy application process that included eight essays, many of the 11 sophomore recipients said the outcome was definitely rewarding.

“From the class I came from there were a lot of really outstanding GPAs and a lot of studious people that weren’t awarded it,” said Lilia Moncada, a second-year animal science major. “The way I see it is what you wrote in those eight essays had to stand out in some way. I think they’re looking for individuals who have gone through a lot of hardships and have found a silver lining and just stuck to it no matter what.”

Originally from Arizona, the scholarship determined whether Moncada would attend an in-state university, or her top choice, which was UC Davis.

“It most definitely changed my life,” Moncada said. “Thanks to the scholarship I got to come here, if it wasn’t for that I probably would’ve stayed in Arizona.”

Moncada’s hometown, Nogales, Ariz., was recognized for having the most Gates Scholars in the U.S. Though there were only two her year, Moncada said that in years before there have been up to 10 recipients.

“Usually there’s a lot of applicants since it’s such a normal thing to get it at our school,” Moncada said. “I had so much hope, but then when I saw people getting denials I thought oh, maybe it’s not as easy.”

Moncada said finding out she had been awarded the scholarship was one of the most exciting moments of her life. She said that her friends were receiving rejection letters, but when Moncada’s arrived it was a package instead.

“And the moment I see it’s not an envelope and instead a package I started crying, my mom started crying and my grandma was there, she started crying — everyone started crying. We were so happy,” Moncada said.

Another recipient, second-year civil engineering major Brandon Brown-Maddox, believes GMS’ mission is to recognize underrepresented students.

“I feel like they basically went to find the unrepresented students who don’t necessarily have the resources that others do have,” Brown-Maddox said. “There are a lot of minority students who have the potential to do certain things but they can’t go to school because they don’t have the money for it.”

Brown-Maddox works to reach out to high school students who might qualify as Gates Scholars.

“When I talk to these students some of them have 4.0 GPAs but they don’t want to go to college because they don’t think they can afford it,” Brown-Maddox said. “So I think the people that put together the scholarship — Bill Gates and those involved — they know that there are all these brilliant students who can really contribute to the world but don’t necessarily have the funding to do so.”

Brown-Maddox was involved in various community service organizations in high school that proved his leadership abilities, including the Boys and Girls Club and the Business Academy.

“People that have gone through stuff, they’re more likely to want to help other people,” Brown-Maddox said. “The thing with this scholarship is that they want a leader who’s gone through stuff, and has been able to get through it, because they’ll be able to give back to other people.”

A third recipient, second-year biological sciences major Alexis Reyes, said she had heard about the scholarship previously from her uncle who worked at a school in Compton, Calif.

“My uncle’s a teacher in Compton and it’s not that great of an area,” Reyes said. “One day he was telling me about this student that went to Compton High School and won the Gates Scholarship and he told me, ‘You should do it when you get to that point in your life!’ And I did and I ended up getting it — I was surprised because it’s like a two to four percent chance of winning.”

Reyes not only founded the Red Cross Club at her high school, but she was also captain of her cross country and track team, an active member of the National Honor’s Society and participated in an internship at Kaiser Permanente.

“They’re looking for people who are going to be strong leaders,” Reyes said. “They want those who will make impacts in their communities whether it’s at your own university or in the workforce in the future.”

Reyes said she’s also had the chance to meet and be inspired by many other Gates Scholars.

“I met the guy from Compton that my uncle was talking about; this past winter break I helped him out at his conference,” Reyes said. “These kids from Las Vegas came and we were telling them how to pursue their education. I feel like right now the scholarship is helping me speak publicly and try things outside of my comfort zone.”

Second-year communication major Willa Kurland is yet another Gates Scholar from the Class of 2016.

“I think the scholarship shows that even from any background there are resources available for you and there are ways you can learn and grow and do really big things,” Kurland said. “You have to reach out and be willing to put yourself out there and take chances. For me, it shows me I do have leadership abilities, and I’ve always had a drive to help other people and this just eliminates any other financial worries I would have otherwise.”

The year she applied, there were over 40,000 applicants with only 1,000 receiving the scholarship.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you’re just like, wow there are 40,000 people applying and I guess I’ll apply but I can’t really expect that much. But it was worth it,” Kurland said.

The scholars also have the choice of becoming “ambassadors”: helping other hopeful recipients with their application and essays.

“I signed up to be an ambassador, and one girl I talked to applied and actually received it last year,” Kurland said. “I feel like it’s an inspiration to do everything that you can because you’ve been given so much opportunity by receiving this scholarship.”

In November of their first year at UC Davis, all 11 Class of 2016 recipients attended a mandatory conference in San Jose, Calif. where they participated in various workshops, listened to motivational speakers and got a chance to meet other Gates Scholars.

“It was really inspirational,” Kurland said. “Because at the beginning of your freshman year you’re like, ‘I’m at this giant school, I don’t know what I’m going to major in,’ so it was just cool to meet everyone and be inspired by all the new things that you learn.”

ELLIE DIERKING can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Photo by Rosa Furneaux.

First-year Harley Litzelman, who is double majoring in American studies and sociology and minoring in education as well as working as a legislative aid for the ASUCD Lobby Corps, was chosen to be this year’s student speaker at the annual TEDxUCDavis event.

TED, an online video nonprofit that aims to spread ideas, is not directly involved with managing TEDxUCDavis. Instead, a small group of students were responsible for setting up the event, only needing to get a stamp of approval from the TED company.

This year’s event, themed “Pause or Press Play,” was held on May 4 at the Mondavi Center featuring talks from 10 speakers, each lasting about 20 minutes.

“We feel sometimes you need to pause and have further consideration. Then there are times you just need to get it over with and just do it,” said Cory Warshaw, who is a recent graduate from UC Davis with a degree in biology and the curator of the event. “We take our theme as a real question. We don’t think that you need to press play or pause all the time.”

Warshaw said that they decided to go with the Pause or Press Play theme because they felt it was a more earnest idea than more traditional conference themes like inspiration and innovation.

However, inspiration and innovation were not absent from the talks. Danny Nou, the ergonomics program administrator at UC Davis, talked about the design of user-friendly interfaces and products. Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician and educator who currently serves on the California State Assembly, advocated for a new health care system.

Perhaps one of the most well-received speakers at this year’s event was student speaker Litzelman, who went into detail about his critiques of the current educational system.

“For 13 years of education, and then college, our first and longest exposure to a public institution is tyranny, fear and obedience,” Litzelman said. “Then we come out of that and we are supposed to be democratic citizens and understand checks and balances.”

His piece is titled “A Case for Student Citizenship,” and the gist of his talk was that the core of a democratic society is the participation of all its members. He said that the first exposure that many children get to society is through the school system. He believes that while students are attending school, they are encouraged to curb their opinions and remain submissive. In the future, he hopes that schools will become places where students’ voices are valued, better reflecting the values of democracy.

Apparently this topic of student citizenship is one that Litzelman has been chewing over for a while. While he was writing as a columnist and later as an editor of his high school’s newspaper, it was an issue that he delved into frequently.

“Almost every editorial tangentially involved this idea that students aren’t involved,” Litzelman said.

Because of this, he said that the topic of student citizenship seemed like the natural option for his TED talk. However, various students have expressed surprise that a freshman landed the role.

According to Sonam Mahawar, who is the head of the Speaker Selection Committee and a third-year economics and sociology double major, the selection process is a long one.

“Our whole team was sort of involved in selecting Harley as our final speaker,” Mahawar said.

First, students were asked to submit a one to two-minute video. According to Mahawar, they received about 15 submissions this year. Then the pool was narrowed down to four students. Those four then had an additional audition before the pool was narrowed down to two people. The final two students were asked to give five-minute versions of their talk and from there the committee made its final selection.

“We select the person who has the best idea and the best presentation,” Warshaw said. “We weren’t aware Harley was a freshman. He had the best idea, so we chose him.”

According to Mahawar, the reason they include a student speaker in their event is because they want to represent the diverse variety of the Davis community. While the majority of the other speakers are already distinguished in their fields, he said that a student speaker allows for the audience, consisting of a great number of students, to see that they don’t have to be accomplished in a field to have a great idea.

“Though Harley doesn’t fit into that category,” Mahawar said. “He’s already a lobbyist. He’s already really accomplished.”

The primary trait that they look for in speakers, including in non-student speakers, is passion. Warshaw said since most of the audience members are being introduced to a topic for the first time, passionate presenters are a must. Infectious passion encourages the audience to pay attention and be just as interested in a topic.

“Yes, we are looking for ideas worth spreading and yes, we are looking for great innovations,” Warshaw said. “We need people who can convey their passion for a project.”

Though the next TEDxUCDavis event is still some ways away, they hope that more people will apply for the student speaker position.

“Not all the UCs have a TEDx organization,” Mahawar said.“It would be nice to have more people submit applications just because it is such a great opportunity.”

LEYLA KAPLAN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Photo by Katie Lin