Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: File - The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

Mark Gold, a senior biomedical engineering major from Palestine, Texas, said that he does not foresee a career in politics resulting from his campaign for Student Body President.

Instead, he explained his motivation to run for SBP as a passion to give back to a school and community that has given so much to him. Rather than politics, he said he tentatively wishes to pursue a field within medicine similar to that of his father's, ophthalmology. With ophthalmology, or the study of the eye, Gold said he hopes to become a surgeon.

Gold said he hopes to take his profession abroad, another idea garnered from family history. Gold has visited Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Northern Egypt while accompanying his father on his annual trip to the Middle East to perform cataract surgeries.

Gold said he would like to pursue a similar career, but called the chance to run for SBP "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give back."

Gold's platform includes seeing ideas that are on the table through completion. Such ideas include 24-hour dining services, more bus covers, more maps with bus routes and seeing that Evans Library is open around the clock.

Pivotal to his campaign is Gold's initiative to create an international career day. Such a program would be a two-way event, geared toward both domestic students as well as international students. Domestic students who have global interests could find the resources, education and connections necessary to pursue such markets. Similarly, international students could find equal resources, education and connections to better understand the domestic culture and nuisances of the American job market.

Growing up, Gold played football on the same high school team as the famous Adrian Peterson, who is the running back for the Minnesota Vikings. However, his passion was baseball and his initial interest in A&M originated with the sport.

He is the middle child of five siblings. In addition to his father being a doctor, his mother is a geometry teacher. He has two older sisters, Ruth and Liz, who are former A&M students. He has a younger brother, John, who is a punter for the University of Texas football team, as well as a younger sister, Bekah, who will be an allied health major and A&M Class of 2012.

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