The Trinity Perspective - Fall 2021 by Trinity University

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Advocate for Education Trinity alumna sets out to improve schools statewide

Winning Culture by Jeremy Gerlach

At Trinity, research is so much more than something you put on an application: It’s rewarding and stressful. It’s something I’ll carry with me the rest of my life.

LINDSEY PENG ’21 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

Lindsey Peng is used to winning. An all-SCAC conference defender for Trinity soccer and a biology major on the pre-med track her senior year, she also won a prestigious $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. But amid all the accolades, Lindsey says Trinity’s academic and athletic culture mattered during tough times, too. “I got injured as a junior, and then the pandemic hit,” she says. “But I was lucky to be surrounded by people who were there for me.” Lindsey worked with Head Coach Dylan Harrison and Trinity sports medicine to return to the top of her

game. “I had our trainer on speed dial. At Trinity, people are checking in with you constantly.” In the classroom, Lindsey says biology professor Jonathan King’s research lab “had been like a family here.” “Undergraduate research opportunities are just so rare in large schools,” Lindsey says. “If science is something you’re interested in, look into the research opportunities here. This is the one place that I felt I grew the most as a student. At Trinity, research is so much more than something you put on an application: It’s rewarding and stressful. It’s something I’ll carry with me the rest of my life.”

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 handson education rooted in the liberal arts and sciences that integrates conceptual and experiential learning, emphasizes undergraduate research, and develops strong leadership skills.

2021 Stumberg Competition startups carry momentum into the fall by Jeremy Gerlach

Have you ever wanted to create your own solution to a big problem? Try launching a startup—it’s what we do every year at Trinity. One way to fast-track your business is through Trinity’s Stumberg New Venture Competition, where five promising startups get selected each spring to compete for a $25,000 grand prize at the finals in the fall. In this year’s preliminary round, startups Commuv, MicroLev, New Works SA, Notch ESports Suppliers, and Wakescoot all took home $5,000 in seed money and moved on to the Summer Accelerator phase of the competition. This 10-week phase gave the members of these five teams summer housing, access to alumni consultants, business crash courses, and salaries for team members. This fall, the teams will reconvene for the final round, with $25,000 in grand prize money at stake. “We believe very strongly in our students at Trinity—students from diverse backgrounds and diverse disciplines who are committed to build new ventures to solve real-world problems,” says Luis Martinez ’91, director for the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “All of our teams deserve an investment and an opportunity to build something real, because they have what it takes to make real change in the world today.” The promise of the 2021 field wasn’t limited to the finalists—in an unprecedented move, the competition also awarded $1,000 to each of the seed teams that weren’t selected as finalists: PartySafe, Ecospace, Neram Textile Recycling, AllFor1, and Ventura, LLC. Find out more about the businesses the five Stumberg finalists are building—these are all run, founded, and dreamed up by students just like you!

startups founded through Stumberg Competition (23 still active)

84%

of companies launched by Tigers are still active

MicroLev Josefina Hajek-Herrera ’22, Bene Snyder ’22, and chemistry professor Ryan Davis MicroLev exists to provide the most accurate and cost-effective aerosol research technology for scientists while seeking a more sustainable future. This optical equipment company serves to improve the understanding of the critical roles that aerosols play in our everyday lives by providing accurate and more innovative aerosol research instruments using their technology to levitate single droplets in a contactless environment.

10%

of Trinity students, from 44 majors, participate in the entrepreneurship program

$350,000+ awarded to student startups through Stumberg Competition

Commuv Jalen White ’23 and Michael Marquez ’22 Commuv aims to make traffic stops simpler and safer. The startup’s software connects police officers and drivers through short-range technology and mobile applications, reducing the need for direct contact during traffic stops.

Notch Esports Suppliers George Wiggam ’22 Notch Esports Suppliers is a subscription-based service that builds and supplies high schools and colleges with updated gaming computers and the necessary equipment for schools to start and maintain an esports program. Subscription bundles include providing computers, monitors, peripherals, and any other products that are tailored for a school’s individual needs with affordable and unique pricing models.

New Works SA Wren Ramos ’23, Scarlett Patiño ’23, and Anthony Tresca ’22 New Works SA provides the San Antonio community the ability to create fun, accessible, original theater productions that enrich and reflect contemporary culture. New Works SA offers classes and performance opportunities to create and engage with brand new theatrical productions, while giving aspiring creators the opportunity to learn and build simultaneously.

WakeScoot Cannon Starcke ’24, Carson Byrd ’24, Ryan Arnold ’24, and AJ Townsend ’24 WakeScoot aims to add nuance to water sports by allowing for new tricks and a unique experience on a boat. Using a new kind of lightweight water scooter, WakeScoot creates more enjoyment for beginners as well as experienced water sport enthusiasts by adding variability, functionality, and options for exploration to a dynamic field of athletic entertainment.

Accessible Education Trinity alumna wants to improve schools statewide by Jeremy Gerlach

Access to education, according to Diana Long ’21, can be the difference between a community healing or hurting. Diana, a sociology major from Edgewood ISD in San Antonio, knows this firsthand. As she heads off to graduate school with the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education this year, she eventually wants to work at the state level on educational policy and finance that will make an impact on her home district. “I come from a school system, Edgewood ISD, that fought for equal funding rights (in Edgewood ISD v. Kirby in 1984) more than 30 years ago,” Diana says. “I want to work in policy, doing work that affects schools on a state level, because it’s been 30 years, but not much has changed. This hits home for me: Education is really powerful.” Thanks to her Trinity experience, Diana is closer to achieving this goal than she ever imagined just a few short years ago. The daughter of two Spanish speakers, Diana Araceli Rios Long and Tomás Long, who immigrated to the United States just before she was born, Diana grew up speaking Spanish. She started learning English in grade school and became fluent in both before discovering Trinity. Diana was a participant in Trinity’s Upward Bound program, a college readiness initiative for underrepresented high school Melody Rodriguez—MC Photography

above Diana Long (center) was raised as a Spanish speaker and English-learner by her parents, Diana Araceli Rios Long and Tomás Long. (Photo courtesy of Melody Rodriguez—MC Photography) top right Diana Long presents a research project from her summer with San Antonio Healthy Start, an advocacy group for new mothers. bottom right Long interned with the Martinez Street Women’s Center during her time at Trinity.

students, which led her to an internship in a Trinity biology laboratory and eventually helped introduce her to life at Trinity itself. Trinity’s Summer Bridge programs, held two weeks before New Student Orientation, helped her weather the initial transition to college life. Students such as Diana get to learn about study strategies, tech and library resources at Trinity, time and task management skills, and more direct sources of support: “They literally bought my books for me,” she says. As a first-year, Diana actually considered transferring out of Trinity, where she struggled in STEM classes, and initially felt embarrassed asking for help from professors. But she soon discovered the full depth of Trinity’s community of support. Diana was also convinced to stay by Upward Bound director Simone Carnegie, one of her mentors, and by discovering Trinity’s unique Latinx leadership program, where professors Rita UrquijoRuiz and Juan Sepulveda helped her develop leadership skills, connect with her Latina/o peers, and learn how to be an ally with marginalized groups. “You make amazing connections with that group of people,” Diana says.

And not only did she find the strength to succeed in the classroom, her confidence grew to the point where she was able to make a difference off campus as well. Diana has interned with the Healthy Texas Mothers Coalition, where she provided resources to new mothers in the community, with the goal of helping lower the infant mortality rate. She also interned with the Martinez Street Women’s Center, where she learned a lot about the community and the struggles women face when navigating the health care system. Diana also spent her 2020 summer working through a summer research experience with the McNair Scholars program, conducting a study on best funding practices for English-language learners under the guidance of then education department chair Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos. “I never imagined that when I came to Trinity, I’d be working one-on-one with the head of our education department,” Diana says. “It’s a tremendous opportunity that I’m so grateful to have. Dr. JiménezCastellanos is an expert in school finance, and he’s well-known across the country, especially in the California system. And

I had access to his professional and academic mentorship last summer.” Diana and Jiménez-Castellanos conducted an extensive literature review to determine the best approaches to direct English-language learning funding for school districts that did not meet various federal progress indicators. “I feel like I’m making a tangible impact,” Diana says of her research, “and I loved seeing how we merged this research into practice.” As a senior, Diana went on to publish an honors thesis, “Battling two Pandemics: the intersection of Covid-19 and systemic racism in San Antonio schools.” It explores how the coronavirus pandemic has pushed students of color out of schools due to external factors such as the need for multiple streams of income, and it argues for the development of a more culturallycompetent curriculum. “I didn’t know it was possible to do research outside of a science laboratory,” Diana says. “But at Trinity, I found out that sociology, the humanities, it’s all about research. Graduate school is all about research. And now look at me—I’ve defended a thesis.”

Thomas Lauerman and Mark Lewis (left) skate at Trinity’s Center for the Sciences and Innovation.

On a Roll

Computer Science gives Trinity grad some well-rounded momentum

by Jeremy Gerlach

Thomas Lauerman ’21 didn’t come to Trinity to write computer code in some dank basement lab by himself. He came here to unleash his problem solving and creative skills, line up a job as a Google software engineer, and rollerblade across campus with his favorite computer science (CS) professor, Mark Lewis ’96. “I wanted a school with a good computer science program,” Thomas says, “but the well-roundedness of Trinity, that’s what I felt would give me an edge.” The moment that really sold Thomas on Trinity was meeting Dr. Lewis on his first campus tour. Dr. Lewis is hard to miss—in addition to being a key CS professor, he’s a towering, dominant presence at Trinity’s noon pickup basketball games, rocks a mean ponytail, and glides on both indoor and outdoor roller skates.

“When I think of a software engineer, or at least what I used to think, was a dude sitting in a dark room, coding away all the time,” Thomas says. “But when I met Dr. Lewis on my first tour, he embodied everything that I wanted to become in the field: He was a skilled communicator and just a friendly person.” At Trinity, Thomas enjoyed challenging CS classes, but he also took design and sketching classes in the art department that helped him grow as an app designer. He got top-notch interview coaching and experience doing collaborative work that eventually played a key role in him getting both a Google internship and now a full-time position. “We think of CS as an individual field, but if you want to work for a big company, you’re going to end up working with a team. At Trinity, they’re so good at preparing you for that,” he says.

Fortunately, Thomas had a secret weapon during his application process: Lewis’ Technical Interview class actually spent an entire semester covering interview prep for CS jobs, which are notoriously intense. “Interviews in our field are pretty rough,” Thomas says. “You go through multiple phases before you ever speak to a person, and you’re basically ‘shotgunning’ your resume until you hear back, which luckily I did from bigger companies like Amazon, Twitter, and Google.” Thomas says the most valuable thing he took from his time at Trinity are his friendships. He’s also going to miss rollerblading with Dr. Lewis: “I don’t think I would have roller skated with any professor, anywhere else, except for Trinity.”

Invest in Yourself Trinity’s Student Managed Fund puts undergraduates in charge of big-time stock portfolios

Students present during the Student Managed Fund class in 2017.

by Jeremy Gerlach

For the Trinity seniors who run the University’s Student Managed Fund, there’s more than $9 million on the line. No pressure. But if you’re a finance major at Trinity’s AACSB-accredited School of Business, this is the type of high-stakes decision-making that aspiring analysts and investors sign up for. It’s a highly-selective team of 20 Trinity finance students, coming together to manage a diverse portfolio of investments. Since its founding in 2000, Trinity students have grown the Student Managed Fund (SMF) from its original $1 million seed into a portfolio of more than $9 million. What does it take to manage more than $9 million in stocks? Trinity alumni Michael Edmonson ’21, Thomas Kasierski ’21, and Bryce Pidgeon ’21 say it’s all about avoiding the myths surrounding investing. These recent Trinity grads helped run Trinity SMF, the absolute peak of the finance major. They made reallife decisions about which of the fund’s stocks to hold, sell, or acquire in the University’s portfolio. “One of the misconceptions I had was that you always had to be an active investor to do well,” Michael

says. “But passive investing is considered to be one of the better options for many people who don’t have hours and hours to sit behind a computer.” “I thought I knew a lot before coming to the SMF,” Bryce adds, “but I still had plenty of room to grow my investment skills.” Over the course of two semesters, the SMF group covers a wide range of finance topics, becoming fully fluent in the language of finance, gaining experience in financial modeling, and managing multiple people and processes. But the true draw of the class is the applied experience itself: The class separates into pairs of “bears” and “bulls” who conduct in-depth research into potential investments: the “bear” is responsible for arguing against investing in a company, and the “bull” argues in favor. Working through a series of stocks, every pair gets experience making financial presentations to the entire team, which then votes and works out a strategy for the entire multi-million-dollar portfolio. Michael, for his part, drew the bear position for Costco—a company that has benefited from the buy-everything

This career field is so competitive, and the SMF is just such a difference-maker. – Thomas Kasierski ’21

mindset of the global pandemic. “That was hard for me because I actually love Costco,” Michael laughs. “But all stocks have bear and bull cases. I had to go through the numbers, news articles, looking for the worst-case scenario, and that’s a valuable skill you still need to have.” As Thomas moves into his new position as an analyst for business valuation company Mercer Capital—where he’ll also work towards CFA certification—he says there’s no better tool to have coming out of college than experience with the SMF. “At each job interview I’ve been to, the SMF is the first thing I get asked about, more than anything else,” Thomas says.

Choose your own path Majors

Accounting African American Studies American Intercultural Studies Ancient Mediterranean Studies Anthropology Applied Chemistry Applied Physics Architectural Studies Art Art and Art History Art History Arts, Letters, and Enterprise Astronomy Biochemistry Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Biology Biomathematics Business Business Administration Legal Studies Business Analytics and Technology Chemistry (BA & BS) Chemistry (teaching certification) Chinese Chinese Studies Classical Languages Communication Communication Management Comparative Literature Computer Science Computing as a Second Major Creative Writing Data Science Earth Systems Science East Asian Studies Economics Engineering Science English Entrepreneurship Environmental Studies Ethics Film Studies Finance French Geosciences German German Studies

58 61 6 MAJORS

GRAD

MINORS

PROGRAMS

ADVISING

an option to create your own major

PROGRAMS

Grad Minors Programs

Majors

Global Latinx Studies Global Supply Chain Management Greek Health Care Administration Health Care Administration Executive History History of Philosophy Human Communication Human Resource Management Interdisciplinary Second Major International Business International Studies Latin Leadership Linguistics Logic of Philosophy of Cognition Marketing Mathematics Mathematical Finance Medieval and Renaissance Studies Museum Studies Music Music Composition Music Performance Music Precertification Neuroscience New Media Philosophy Philosophy of Art Physics (BA & BS) Political Science Psychology Religion Russian Scientific Computing Sociology Spanish Sport Management Studio Art Teaching Theatre Urban Studies Women and Gender Studies Pre-Law Advising Pre-Med and Health Professions Advising

Grad Minors Programs

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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

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125 acre campus

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2,512

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1407

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average GPA

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