The Trinity Perspective - Summer 2021 by Trinity University

SUMMER 2021

Go with the Flow Duo creates smart water bottle lid

A Sense of Discovery by Madison Semro ’21

EMMA MASK ’20 Semmes Distinguished Scholar in Science As a biology major with a concentration in cellular and molecular biology, Emma Mask ’20 began her research career at Trinity in a chemistry lab studying the Dib1 protein. Emma then interned at Texas Biomedical Research Institute as a sophomore, studying virology and immunology. What began as an eightweek internship later turned into an honors thesis and full-time job once she graduated from Trinity. At Texas Biomed, Emma has studied Zika virus and HIV. She uses gene expression data to examine how differences in gene expression could affect how a host’s immune system responds to infection. She hopes her research can give scientists a better understanding of molecular immune responses and can have applications for developing treatment and cures. “When I first started at Trinity, I thought, ‘I’m here to learn science,’” Emma says. “But Trinity taught me that, and how to do science. [My courses taught me] how to think like a scientist, not just know things that scientists know.”

The Trinity Perspective magazine offers a glimpse into the many ways Trinity University prepares students to lead lives of meaning and purpose. Trinity is known for its stimulating, resourceful, and collaborative environment, filled with students who want an education that instills confidence, inspires curiosity, and ignites change. Flip through these pages to see for yourself!

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Trinity University is a private, residential, co-educational institution in the heart of vibrant, intercultural San Antonio. Trinity offers its 2,500 undergraduate students a hands-on education rooted in the liberal arts and sciences that integrates conceptual and experiential learning, emphasizes undergraduate research, and develops strong leadership skills.

Ver MAS, Ser MAS Mexico, the Americas, and Spain program is transforming Trinity students by Jeremy Gerlach

t’s entirely possible to spend four years at Trinity and still be a stranger to the vibrant Hispanic and Latinx world surrounding campus. Wondering what you’re missing out on? Think “MAS.” Trinity’s Mexico, the Americas, and Spain program (MAS) connects the University to the cultures, experiences, academics, and growth opportunities within this dynamic field. Being part of MAS is best explained not by what you study or where you go, but rather by what you do. Students discover new worlds thanks to 30 interdisciplinary faculty who teach subjects ranging from film studies to international business. Students connect with business opportunities in Spain and ecology field work in Costa Rica, thanks to MAS’s groundbreaking series of international study programs. Students intern with nonprofits and NGOs working to advocate for issues that affect Latinx peoples. Students attend the Álvarez seminar, which brings artists, activists, and visionaries to campus for a dynamic lecture collection. “Trinity is a natural place for a program like MAS to happen,” says Spanish professor and MAS director Dania-Abreu Torres. “Not just because of our location in San Antonio, but also because we are smaller, because we are a liberal arts institution. We work directly with students on their personal and

professional interests, so when they go out into this world, it’s not just about building skills or looking for a job—it’s about finding a meaning, a purpose.” What I Say is What I Mean When MAS first led Thomás Peña ’22 out into the world, he had trouble finding the right words. In his second year at Trinity, Thomás—a Roma, Texas, native who is majoring in finance as well as business analytics and technology—began a MAS-funded internship for the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. The Esperanza, a local nonprofit and hub for social justice activism, assigned Thomás as a canvasser on San Antonio’s largely Spanish-speaking West Side. Thomás worked as part of The Esperanza Center’s anti-gentrification coalition, “Mi Barrio no se Vende” (“My neighborhood is not for sale”). He went door to door, informing citizens on how they could address rising rent prices in their area. “The first time I went to someone’s door, it was nerve-wracking,” Thomás says. “I’m stuttering, I can’t even roll my r’s. The people can sense how nervous I was, and that made it worse. But after the fourth or fifth time, it became natural.” Thomás came to Trinity from a town that sits just adjacent the Mexico-U.S. border. In San Antonio, just minutes

Thomás Pena (second from right) found a wide range of opportunities for community organization and activism at the Esperanza.

from Trinity’s campus, he found an array of sights that reminded him of these colliding cultures. “On the West Side, there’s this richness of Mexican culture I had no idea existed. I go there and I get this sense of ... being; of being in Mexico, of being in the [Rio Grande] Valley,” Thomás says. “It’s not a sense of division but a sense of difference, almost directly when you cross neighborhood lines.” Thomás connected to these various communities and has brought these ties back to campus with him. Now, when Thomás talks, campus takes note. “My professors, my friends, they’ve told me I’ve become more confident,” Thomás says, “but I think a better way of describing that is, now, what I say is what I mean.” I Fell in Love With Myself Maria Arteaga ’22 had never seen anyone visibly excited to learn she is Mexican— that is, until she spent a semester with the people in Madrid, Spain. “I’d be walking down the street, or eating in a restaurant, or just talking to people, and they’d stop me like, ‘You’re

Mexican, aren’t you? That’s so amazing! Teach me this phrase,’ and then they would try to learn or mimic the way I said things. It was so interesting to see this whole love they had for my culture,” Maria says. “You start to think, ‘Hey, if someone else loves my culture this much, I can love it too.’” A human communication and Spanish double major from McAllen, Texas, Maria got a scholarship through MAS that let her spend a semester studying in Madrid, in classes led by MAS faculty. She explored Spanish culture in Madrid and surrounding sites, lived with a host family, interned for an NGO, and created lesson plans for a local elementary school. Returning to Trinity, Maria’s greatest shift in perspective hasn’t even been about the MAS world or her potential career in education: It’s been the way she sees herself. “That’s what that study abroad experience was about: pushing my own boundaries, my beliefs, my perspectives: everything about who I am,” Maria says. “I fell in love with the city of Madrid, but I also fell in love with my culture. I fell in love with myself.”

Maria Arteaga ’22 poses by a Roman aqueduct near Madrid, Spain.

Go With the Flow

2020 Stumberg champion Sapphire creates smart water bottle lid by Jeremy Gerlach

Whether you’re a casual hiker or an elite athlete, you can’t wait until thirst sets in to start hydrating. But how do you accurately keep track of your water intake? You could purchase an expensive smart water bottle that tracks it for you. Or, coming soon, you could simply upgrade your existing bottle with a smart lid from Sapphire. Sapphire, created by Tara Lujan ’22 and Zachary Taylor ’20, is a water bottle lid with patent-pending technology that tracks water consumption automatically and displays the amount of water you consume on a small screen on top of the lid. The lid also connects wirelessly to devices such as phones and smartwatches and will be compatible with major water bottle brands. The product took home the $25,000 grand prize in 2020 from Trinity’s annual Louis H. Stumberg New Venture Competition, a year-long pitch contest run by Trinity’s entrepreneurship program that gives five Trinity startups a shot at $25,000. Tara, a business administration major from Austin, and Zachary, who majored in computer science and now works as a software engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are both eager for their business to take its next steps forward. “There are lots of niche, popular products in this space. But Sapphire isn’t competing with smart bottles,” Zachary says. “We’re the only retrofit solution in the market. So if you’ve already got a $50 dollar bottle you love so much that

when you dropped it down the Grand Canyon, you hiked for four hours to go get it back—we let you keep that bottle, we just make it better.” Tapped Out From the beginning, Tara and Zachary had envisioned Sapphire as a “smart bottle.” But, as the team discovered, that market was already tapped. Creating something unique, Zachary says, would be the key to developing a product that would succeed both at the Stumberg Competition and beyond. “We started thinking, why make an entire bottle?” he explains. “We can be the first smart lid. And that’s both a design and a business choice. Now we can make one really good product that fits multiple bottles instead of having to custom-make different products.” It also means the group will potentially be able to license the product to existing companies rather than scaling up independently, which would have had the team, as Zachary puts it, “us pulling our hair out before we’re 25.” Armed with a plan, the group ordered sensors and electronics and started putting Sapphire together. Support System The team received a $5,000 infusion of seed money from the Stumberg Competition’s opening round, which came in handy with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The duo would

have normally used Trinity’s MakerSpace to build a prototype of the smart lid, but since Sapphire couldn’t get back to campus due to the pandemic, the team used their funding to purchase their own 3D printer and do prototyping in-house. All Stumberg Prize finalists also get a spot in the summer accelerator program, which comes with 10 weeks of additional funding for team wages and invaluable business and advising crash courses in concepts such as accounting, website design, and financial plans. Participants get direct feedback on their startups from seasoned alumni entrepreneurs and industry movers and shakers. Sapphire also took advantage of Trinity’s Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), which connects entrepreneurs to San Antonio mentors who help them promote the long-term growth and sustainability of the venture. “They’ve been a phenomenal help with us,” Tara says of their VMS mentors. “You get super actionable, unbiased advice from them. They told us to loosen our vision, enough to consider different possibilities.” Next Steps Right now, Tara’s vision is set on honing the Sapphire prototype, preparing for beta testing, and meeting with potential investors. “Seeing our product in peoples’ hands is going to be fantastic,” she says. “As an entrepreneur, you have an idea, but making your product and seeing it work well—that’s everything.”

left Zachary Taylor ’20 and Tara Lujan ’22 teamed up to develop Sapphire.

Music professor Joseph Kneer, D.M.A., conducts Trinity’s Symphony Orchestra in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall in 2016.

Designing Harmony Trinity engineering students design an acoustics solution for Ruth Taylor Recital Hall by Madison Semro ’21

Engineering isn’t just about math or physics—it’s about tackling problems head-on. “Engineering is applying science to solve problems,” explains Darin George, Ph.D., program assessment officer and design administrator for engineering science. “It’s a constant learning process.” At Trinity, future engineers start taking design courses from the moment they arrive on campus. The design sequence

is an eight-semester sequence, meaning Trinity engineers are learning how to solve problems, hands-on, for the entirety of their engineering science education. “To say that this is an engineering degree only tells part of the story,” shares Ethan Weiss ’21, an engineering science major. “It’s really a problemsolving degree in science.” The design sequence culminates in a year-long capstone project in which

Senior design students ran simulations to see how different component placements would affect the sound on stage at Ruth Taylor Recital Hall.

students work with community partners to solve a wide variety of problems. This past year, students built specialized cat collars, designed an organic waste solution for Mabee Dining Hall, and more. One group of students—Naim Barnett ’21, Corbin Hartung ’21, Alex Love ’21, and Ethan—worked on a project suggested by the director of Trinity’s symphonic orchestra. Because Ruth Taylor Recital Hall was primarily designed for lectures and small concerts, the stage in the hall has some spots that overly project sound and other spots that poorly project sound. To address this issue, Naim, Corbin, Alex, and Ethan spent the past year designing a system of components made of materials that can either absorb or reflect sound, with George as their faculty adviser. The students first built a simulation of Ruth Taylor Recital Hall that allowed them to test a variety of materials for a relatively low cost before committing to the materials they would use to build their components. This past semester, they then built each component based on the results of their simulation.

The group also worked with outside acoustics experts to help with the design process. “It’s not only knowing the ways in which you can amplify, the ways in which you can diffuse, the ways in which you can reflect sound. It’s knowing the actual space, what this acoustic property can do, what is the purpose of it in this space,” Ethan explains. “We’re not making one thing; we’re making three or four, maybe even five, large components that interact with the space and each other. And they all have different material properties,” Alex adds. “There are so many more factors that come when you’re making a system rather than a single piece.” Ultimately, their goal was to design a system that increases people’s enjoyment of music. “We can try to make what signifies that we have succeeded at the project specific and measurable,” Alex says. “But, at the end of the day, we’re just trying to make the space sound good.”

above Professor Darin George, Naim Barnett ’21, Corbin Hartung ’21, Ethan Weiss ’21, and Alex Love ’21 Zoomed throughout the semester to discuss their project.

McAllister Little Leaguers listen to the national anthem with the Trinity softball team as in February 2020.

Buddy Buddy

A McAllister Little Leaguer runs through the high-five tunnel with Gina Monaco ’21 at a Trinity softball game in March 2020.

Trinity softball player founds nonprofit mentoring program by Robin J. Johnson

Gina Monaco ’21, an outfielder for Trinity Softball, grew up in San Antonio surrounded by professional athletes who spoke at her school and led her through drills at summer camp, teaching her along the way that sports can be a platform for something bigger than herself. “I saw athletes using their platform to give back to their fans and young athletes, and I remember always being amazed by their kind-heartedness and their ability to not take their position for granted,” says Gina, a communication major also minoring in both sport management and film studies. This early inspiration became Gina’s motivation to found Trinity Buddies, a nonprofit mentoring program that uses softball to foster growth on and off the field. Through Trinity Buddies, Gina and her teammates work with the McAllister Park Little League—the same league Gina

played in as a child—instructing skills camps and hosting the kids as honorary players at Trinity softball games to give them an experience of a collegiate athlete. “One goal of Trinity Buddies is to show the kids that they can dream of being college athletes, but also that sports aren’t the only thing—there are plenty of things (they can do),” says Gina, whose most recent skills camp, held before the pandemic, saw 80 participants. “We express to them that hard work goes into whatever they do, and as long as they go for it, they can achieve it.” As part of Trinity Buddies, players from Trinity’s softball program also speak at local elementary and middle schools about positive self-talk, healthy choices, and their journey to becoming collegiate student-athletes. “Some of them didn’t even know that you could play college softball or you

could have a female coach,” Gina says. “For young girls who are looking for role models, hopefully they find one in us.” When the pandemic started spreading, Gina put the Little League camps on hold but still held online talks at schools. As part of the NCAA’s United As One campaign, Trinity Buddies partnered with the Trinity Student Athlete Advisory Council to support homeless families in the same school district Gina attended. Student-athletes from every Tiger sport sold silicone Trinity Buddies bracelets to fans and held other fundraisers, raising thousands for these families. Gina says none of this would have been possible on her own. “You’re only a leader if followers follow you,” she says. “Trinity Buddies would be nothing if my teammates weren’t invested, and if kids and families didn’t think we cared about them.”

Interested in Becoming a Tiger? Apply Early! Applications open for first-year students applying for the Class of 2026 on August 1, 2021, via the Common Application, the Coalition Application, and Apply Texas.

Experience Trinity University It’s important to take the time to visit the college campuses you’re interested in—there’s no better way to get a true sense of what it’s like to be a student there. Trinity offers both in-person and virtual visit experiences for prospective students. In-Person Campus Visits The Office of Admissions is open this summer Monday through Friday (excluding major holidays) for morning and afternoon campus tours. Trinity is following strict safety protocols. Campus tours are held in small groups and take place primarily outdoors. Everyone on campus must wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Virtual Campus Visits Live virtual campus visits allow prospective students and family members to visit Trinity virtually for an information session and campus tour on most Thursday afternoons. Hosted by an admissions counselor and current students, these sessions provide an opportunity to discover the same information you would hear when visiting Trinity.

Campus Tours: Monday–Friday 10:00–11:15 a.m. 2:00–3:15 p.m.

Explore all visit options at gotu.us/visit.

Virtual Trinity In Focus Virtual Trinity In Focus programs are open to all prospective students and their families. Hear from current students about their experiences and learn more about admissions, financial aid, and scholarships. Upcoming Dates: May 15, 2021 July 17, 2021

The College Search An experience for the whole family The college search can be a fun and exciting time for students and families. Students get to celebrate their academic and co-curricular accomplishments and reflect upon their experiences as they chart their journeys forward. Throughout this process, we encourage future Tigers to discover new interests, grow existing passions, and become empowered citizens of the global community. Seek support from your friends and family along the way. They can help you with your essays, be another set of eyes and ears on a campus visit or virtual tour, and guide you through the tough decisions that come along with the many opportunities in your future. Find information specific to parents and families at gotu.us/parents.

9:1 student-to-

QUICK FACTS

faculty ratio 97% of faculty hold doctoral or terminal degrees

Private, residential, co-educational, undergraduate-focused Founded in 1869 6 minutes from San Antonio International Airport Located in America’s 7th largest city

minutes from downtown San Antonio

125 acre campus

located in a residential neighborhood

2,512

undergraduates from 48 states and 57 countries 6% international students A D M I T T E D S T U DE N T P ROF IL E Fall 2020 Entry Term

3.73

31.1

1381

3.6–4.0 grade average

29–33 mid 50%

1310–1470 mid 50%

average GPA

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