The College of Liberal Arts has two new additions to the Yell Leader family — Nathan Kyle Drain ‘23, a communication major, and Thomas Greve ‘24, a philosophy major.
Texas A&M University has been a part of Drain’s life for as long as he can remember. As a child, he loved going to Aggie football games and hearing the cheers of the 12th Man throughout the stadium. When it came time for him to decide where he wanted to go to college, he knew exactly where he belonged.
“Whether it was being a kid and coming to the Texas A&M football games or my middle name being Kyle after Kyle Field, I always knew that I was coming to A&M,” Drain recalled. “I’m a third-generation Aggie, but none of my family was in the Corps, so that was kind of my Aggie story and the way I wanted to come to A&M. I wanted to do something different from my family, but I still wanted to go to my dream school.”
Greve, like Drain, was also enchanted by the high energy of Aggie football games. After expressing his aspirations of joining the military to his father, Greve’s father encouraged him to check out what the Corps of Cadets had to offer. Greve applied to both Texas A&M and the Airforce Academy. When he didn’t get into the latter, he wasted no time embracing being an Aggie.
“One of my favorite Aggie memories was before I came to A&M,” Greve recalled. “It was while I was in high school and it was the day the Airforce Academy declined me. It was actually on Muster. I remember being a little sad I didn’t get into the academy, but also happy that I was going to be able to be an Aggie. My dad was like, ‘Okay, the best way to start this is by watching the Muster ceremony.’ That was the COVID-19 [virtual Muster], so we watched it from our living room on Zoom.”
Service is a core function of being a Yell Leader at Texas A&M. Midnight Yells and football games are only a small percentage of the events Yell Leaders participate in. With upwards of 300 events booked each year, they stay busy. Drain and Greve said this is the best part of being Yell Leaders.
“Seeing the impact and the responsibilities that the Yell Leaders have on the student body, whether that’s leading the traditions at Texas A&M or embodying the spirit of Aggieland — it’s something that I knew I owed to Texas A&M and I thought this was going to be the best opportunity to give something back to the university,” Drain said. “[Yell Leaders] make people feel welcome at A&M and they’re the first and the last impression for some people at Texas A&M, and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to make sure that people feel welcome here at Aggieland, so I was really passionate about going for it.”
Greve echoed Drain’s sentiment for his new role.
“I’m extremely passionate about A&M,” Greve said. “I don’t want A&M to be just another SEC school, and I think the way we do that is by keeping tradition alive. I think I’m in a very unique and good position where I can help do that. I can’t think of a better position than Yell Leader to encourage and lead the student body in keeping the traditions alive. What it means to me is the ability to serve, and the way I plan to do that is by continuing to uphold the traditions and encouraging them to spread throughout the university.”
Drain and Greve also both said that their liberal arts classes have been a huge help with pursuing their highly esteemed positions. Although they are different majors from each other, both have found value in the liberal arts curricula they have taken as students. Both feel their classes have prepared them for presenting themselves and interacting with people, a crucial part of the Yell Leader position.
“Public speaking was a really, really big part of the process,” Drain said. “A lot of my communication classes just deal with speaking in front of the class and having the confidence to, rather than plan everything out that you’re going to say, take a deep breath and trust yourself. I think communication has really helped me in the aspect of being confident and speaking in front of a lot of people. It’s been a really important part about the job.”
Greve said his liberal arts educational experiences at Texas A&M prepared him for the Yell Leader position by providing experience in working collaboratively.
“They do an excellent job of allowing people to engage with others,” Greve said. “No matter what you’re doing, you’re going to be interacting with other people, and the liberal arts program and a lot of the classes allow you to not only engage with your peers really well, but learn how to see other people’s perspectives. Whether you’re learning psychology, or you’re seeing different brain functions that cause certain behaviors, or whether you’re learning communications and how to properly debate, or philosophy and different methods of thinking, it’s all about being able to effectively engage with your peers. I think, especially going into the military, that’s a tool that is going to be very useful for me. You’re going to interact with people. That’s just part of life. I think the liberal arts courses are applicable in so many different fields of life.”
Drain and Greve have expressed their excitement to start their new roles as Yell Leaders and lead Texas A&M’s 12th Man. As their predecessors pass along the yells and traditions taught by those before them, Drain and Greve hope to represent the university’s core values using the skills they have gained as liberal arts students.