People of Pluckers: Rebecca Houston






"As a child I always wanted to help kids that were in similar situations as myself, I wanted them to feel like they could confide in me the way I did with a teacher. My goal was to teach children both inside and outside of the classroom. I am now a full time 3rd grade teacher with KIPP Houston Public Schools as well as a full time graduate student. Oddly, Pluckers fits into my schedule perfectly as I am a workaholic and hate being bored. Working as a trainer you face many of the same challenges that I do within the classroom, like how to clearly communicate things with different people. Both of my jobs allow me to interact with others and show my goofy side as well as educate those around me."

People of Pluckers: Whitney Curry






"I started with Pluckers almost 7 years ago as a server but moved to the kitchen because food has always been my passion. I've been in a kitchen with my mom and grandmothers for as long as I can remember. Cooking is my love language, it’s how I take care of people. Working in a kitchen is also a huge stress reliever for me, there's something so therapeutic and gratifying about cooking something people love and seeing them happy because of it. I read a lot and it is fun finding different things to make and trying out new forms of cooking. Pluckers has given me an opportunity to be a part of something much bigger than just cooking for people. While opening stores I'm more of a behind the scenes person but it's a good feeling knowing I've put together a well-run kitchen and helped be a part of their success."

People of Pluckers: Juan Quintero





Working at Pluckers as a vegan raises a lot of eyebrows for a lot of people. When I first became vegan I changed as a person. For one, I dropped 45lbs but I also noticed a lot of things in my body were feeling better that I hadn’t realized felt bad in the first place. With the ingredients we have at Pluckers I’ve learned to make a lot of weird dishes through modifications. I’ve had employees try to go vegan, although it is not for everyone I’ve seen people do meatless Mondays or try to cut back the meat in their diet. I think seeing me work at Pluckers these past few years has made people realize that it is not impossible to be vegan.



People of Pluckers: Nic Hawk



"Being on The Voice was one of the most stressful situations I will ever be in. I lived in Los Angeles for a little bit after the show ended and the more time I spent there the more I realized the show taught me a lot about what I want in life. I don’t necessarily need to be Beyoncé, I just want to be successful enough that I have everything I need in life. Right now I am focusing on family, me, and my fiancé. We are getting married in March, and working for Pluckers allows me to save extra money in between singing gigs. After being on national television, I learned that any job you have is about selling yourself. You want to sell where these guests are eating, and Pluckers is a restaurant I can really get behind. I think that is what makes me stay, I came into work today and I saw that I was working with people that I genuinely enjoy spending time around."

People of Pluckers: Ashley Parraz

People of Pluckers: Ashley Parraz



"In January 2012 I got in a very bad car accident where I was extremely lucky to be alive, I broke both legs and shattered my heel/ankle. Not being able to walk I had to move back home to El Paso after moving to Austin and beginning my work at Pluckers back in 2007. Pluckers always told me I had a job when I came back and throughout my recovery my GM would continue to send me shift notes, and keep me in the loop at all times. As hard as it was I pushed myself to walk again as my goal was to get back to Pluckers. If it wasn’t for the care of Pluckers I probably would not have moved back to Austin but I’m glad I did as I met my girlfriend Kim and continued to move up within the company. From not being able to walk to where I am now it amazes me how far I’ve been able to get and I owe a lot of my success to Pluckers for always pushing me."

Student Led Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign Changes UT Culture

AUSTIN- In late March, Lauren Martinez decided she had heard enough about sexual assault on college campuses. She wanted to do something—but what? The first step, for her, was awareness. She tweeted, “No more ‘they were asking for it.’ Break the silence and pledge to stand up against sexual assault,” using the hashtag #NotOnMyCampusUT.

Martinez was tapping into the University of Texas at Austin’s version of a national movement to raise awareness about campus sexual assault started at Southern Methodist University. The student-led movement at UT has spread rapidly through social media including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where its page has been liked 1,804 times and received attention from MTV and USA Today within a week of its launch in late March. Campaign organizers are working with other awareness groups and university orientation programs in order to make the movement part of UT for years to come.

Ellen Cocanougher, 21, is a junior biology major and president of UT’s Not On My Campus campaign, or NOMC. Cocanougher teamed up with William Herbst, 21, and Edwinn Qian, 22, on getting the movement started as her position in the university panhellenic board inspired her to focus on risk management and safety.

“Sexual assault awareness is a cause that I have always been extremely passionate, for so many of my friends have been personally affected,” said Cocanougher.

The UT Counseling and Mental Health Center reports that one in five women are sexually assaulted while in college. Cocanougher could not believe that a large campus like the University of Texas had never had a student-led movement like NOMC to introduce the conversations of sexual assault.

The three students began their process by reaching out to students and taking the names of those who were interested in getting involved.

“We had over 100 people volunteer to help us get NOMC started, which was very motivating,” said Cocanougher. With this new manpower, the founders began the outreach side of the campaign, “We put extra efforts to reach the big student leaders, athletes, and UT administrator because we knew that these were people that others looked up to.”

Participants spread their message quickly through social media, posting pictures with “not on my campus” written on their palms. Cocanougher felt that creating NOMC’s social media presence was the easiest step, as NOMC provided their community with an easy way to get involved. Currently with 1606 pledges as a campaign, Cocanougher believes that the student’s strong involvement proves that NOMC was a movement that they had been waiting for.

Interfraternity Council vice president of greek relations and NOMC founder William Herbst said the campaign gives fraternities a chance to break negative stereotypes often portrayed.

“With all the negative media attention on Greek culture and how fraternities promote rape culture, I wanted to gather the fraternities on campus to show how we fraternity men want to stand up to sexual violence,” said Herbst. “The next step is to get fraternity men to act as mentors for incoming freshman.”

Now that NOMC has ended the silence surrounding sexual assault, they are taking the steps towards igniting a change in culture by creating a constitution and developing a structure that the organization can move forward with.

“We should be leaders & champion this campaign,” said U.S. Olympian and World Champion Decathlon Trey Hardee who tweeted his support. Hardee is a former Longhorn that has helped raise awareness for NOMC by tweeting to his 17,000 followers.

“Longhorns have a long history of recognizing and getting involved in social justice issues—Not On My Campus is no exception,” said director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Noël Busch-Armendariz. “This student-driven campaign will bring further student involvement, awareness, and education to our campus—undoubtedly this leads to a safer Longhorn community and learning environment.”

NOMC will be working with counseling and mental health services, Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, Safe Place, and other Austin community resources. The organization plans to develop an effective way to define and inform the campus of what constitutes as sexual assault and what constitutes as consent, as the definitions are often blurred.

NOMC is hoping to involve the New Student Services in implementing sexual assault educational programs during orientation for freshmen.

We have to educate incoming freshmen about campus resources and how to handle certain situations as a potential victim and as a bystander,” said Herbst.

NOMC has now been spreading their ideas and success to any college that wants to start their own campaign to fight against sexual assault. “Our generation has a big voice and is courageous enough to use it. A huge problem with sexual assault awareness is that no one wants to talk about it,” said Cocanougher. “Our generation is willing to break the silence.”



Austin Mobility Committee Renews Taxi Cab Regulations

Austin, TX- Austin’s mobility committee decided Wednesday to renew existing taxicab regulations rather than negotiate new rules that would include ride sharing services.

Austin’s taxicab regulations were set to expire this year. Taxicab owners argue that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft should be held to the same standards they are. Ride-sharing services disagree, saying their internal regulations provide enough security. The council decided it needed more time in order to bring both parties under a standard set of rules and to see what state lawmakers decide, and so renewed existing laws for just one year.

“I don’t think it is fair that the ridesharing services don’t have to go through the same requirements that my drivers do,” said taxicab owner Brad Ricker, who owns 42 taxicabs argued during Wednesday’s meeting. “What I am asking for today is parity. Make ridesharing services do the same thing we do, same vehicle, background check, oversight for the insurance, whole nine yards.”

Austin resident Joseph Eily argued at Wednesday’s meeting that Uber’s background checks allowed a Houston man who served 14 years in prison on drug charges to work for the company.

“Uber’s background checks include county and federal checks, they regularly check their drivers to make sure that we aren’t putting our passengers in an unsafe situation,” said Uber driver Phil Van Hoek. Uber’s website states that their checks are, “often more rigorous than what is required to become a taxi driver.”

The difference in regulations has caused a need for the city to reevaluate their taxicab ordinance. The council was able to agree on renewing existing amendments of the taxicab ordinance for a year as it gives them time to deliberate before having to commit to a ten-year renewal without missing any expirations.

The Council will further be deciding on amendments such as hours on duty, dispatch acceptance, accessible service performance measures, and deciding the need for additional or specialized taxicab permits in the upcoming months.

The Council is planning these readings with the knowledge that the power to control ride sharing services may be taken out of their hands by the state with the House Bill 2440.

The House Bill 2440 would have ride sharing services become a state of Texas job opposed to a city one. The bill is being carried by state Rep. Chris Paddie and was left pending at the House Transportation Committee on Thursday due to concerns of ride sharing background checks.

“The irony is that the city of Austin does not want the state to have the power, but the locals of Austin do not want the city to have the power either,” said Council Member Don Zimmerman. “We want local control, leaving it up to the people to choose how or if they want to use ride sharing services opposed to taxi’s.”

“I don’t support additional regulations on ride sharing services,” said Zimmerman. “Looking at Blockbuster as an example, their business model was eclipsed by advancement in technology. My concern is that taxi companies will go in a very similar way if they do not change their business model.”

“If there has to be a decision, I think that taxi’s should go in the direction of ride sharing services instead of ride sharing services having to comply with the regulations that taxi’s have to,” said Zimmerman.

The Mobility Council will take action on proposed ordinance and amendments on their April 23, 2015 meeting.