The Trinity Perspective - Spring 2023

Researchers Belong Here Students answer questions and question answers alongside faculty in all fields

Researchers Belong Here

Your creativity, curiosity, and questions belong here.

At Trinity University, students answer questions and question answers. As No. 53 in U.S. News & World Report’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Projects category, our state-of-the-art facilities, dedicated faculty, and academic and financial support provide students with the tools and opportunities they need to express their creativity and cultivate their curiosity. Working

alongside faculty rather than for them, Trinity students become active members in their fields of interest, finding their place within them just as they have found their place at Trinity.

See how our students are exploring the answers to their questions through their innovative creative projects and research.

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!

Get Connected

Join the conversation: Facebook: @TrinityUniversity

Twitter: @Trinity_U and @TrinityU_Admiss

Instagram: @trinityu and @trinityuadmissions

Have a question for a current student?

Email your questions to our current students at AskATiger@trinity.edu

Have a question for an admissions officer, faculty member, or other staff member?

Email us at admissions@trinity.edu and we’ll get it answered.

THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS

Trinity University

One Trinity Place San Antonio, Texas 78212 admissions@trinity.edu

www.trinity.edu/admissions

1-800-TRINITY

About Trinity

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.

Strength to the Consumer

Stumberg startups aim to improve physical and financial health

by Jeremy Gerlach

At Trinity, entrepreneurship makes you stronger.

That’s the pitch for a pair of student startups that took home $25,000 each as grand prize winners of the 2022 Louis H. Stumberg New Venture Competition, Trinity’s premier entrepreneurship incubator. Meet Range Rehab, the inventors of a physical therapy device that improves your shoulder’s range of motion, and ReCap, the inventors of a spending-habit app that aims to strengthen your financial health.

What excites Anthony (AJ) Bishop ’22, finance major and co-founder of Range Rehab, is the feeling of making a difference for people who’ve been overlooked. “I feel like I’m actually helping people, because most physical therapists see knee, hip, and back patients, with shoulders being less common,” he says. “There’s not as much innovation in that shoulder space, so I’m excited to help bring that innovation to it.”

The ReCap team is co-founded by engineering science majors Joey Hersh ’24 and Alexandra Garcia ’24, business analytics and technology major Max Hightower ’24, and neuroscience major Ashwin Ramesh ’24. This group wants to help its customers get rid of the anxiety that comes with trying to build savings.

“We want users to stop feeling like they have to count every single cent in their bank account,” Joey says. “We see so many of our friends becoming anxious spenders, stressing about finances. We want to increase their financial literacy and give them confidence in their decisions.”

Both teams made significant strides during the summer accelerator portion of the Stumberg Competition. After advancing from the preliminary seed round of the competition in the spring, each team received $5,000 in seed money—but that was just the beginning. Over the summer, the teams also received free housing, wages for up to 40 hours a week for four employees, crash courses in business

workshops and seminars, and invaluable connections within Trinity’s highly developed network of alumni and San Antonio’s rapidly growing startup scene.

“I personally think Trinity way undersells the prize package for making it to the finals,” Ashwin says. “It’s not just $5,000 for your company—there are far more important aspects, like housing. We wouldn’t have been able to live in San Antonio [over the summer] otherwise, so that was critical. The stipend also meant that we were able to really treat ReCap like our job, and we didn’t have to have secondary priorities.”

For ReCap, the unsung hero of the summer period was the fact that the competition was sponsored in part by Amazon Web Services, an IT management services division of the company. The team received thousands of dollars in Amazon Web Services credit, which was important “because our entire company essentially runs on Amazon Web Services,” Ashwin says.

The summer accelerator period was also crucial for both teams to refine their products going into the final round of the Stumberg Competition. Range Rehab used the summer to perfect its two-arch design with more comfortable materials and tested it by sending free trials to local

We want users to stop feeling like they have to count every single cent in their bank account.

physical therapists. The updated design and free trial process successfully proved Range Rehab’s effectiveness and demand in the market to the final round judges. Now, thanks to its $25,000 grand prize, Range Rehab is planning on moving forward with covering its FDA registration fee and expanding the stock of its product.

Meanwhile, over the summer the ReCap team honed its app by focusing on a more roadmap-style layout that gives users step-by-step guidance for achieving their saving goals. The app now relies heavily on receipts from past purchases to help suggest similar but more affordable products to help reduce spending.

“We are so grateful for this past summer and the opportunities that this program has provided us,” Joey says. “It has been amazing to have a safe space to fail and build ourselves back stronger and to have the resources to turn our vision into reality. This isn’t the end of our journey—it’s the beginning—and we’re

top Andrew Koob ’22 demonstrates Range Rehab’s shoulder rehabilitation device. bottom AJ Bishop ’22 discusses how Range Rehab perfected and tested their device.

so grateful and lucky to get the chance to start.”

left to right Alexandra Garcia ’24, Ashwin Ramesh ’24, Joey Hersh ’24, and Max Hightower ’24 present their pitch to the judges at the final round of the 2022 Stumberg Competition.

Shakespeare Is Here

Paloma Díaz-Minshew ’24 connects with her roots through Borderlands Shakespeare

by Jeremy Gerlach

There have been times in the life of Paloma Díaz-Minshew ’24 when she’s felt like the only Mexican-American “theater kid” in the world.

But at Trinity, as part of English professor Kathryn Vomero Santos’ “The Bard in the Borderlands” project and the Mellon Initiative Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Paloma is working to amplify the voices of playwrights who’ve transformed Shakespeare’s stories into

depictions of life along an area commonly referred to as La Frontera, or the U.S.Mexico Borderlands.

“This is my dream,” says Paloma, a global Latinx studies and English double major who hails from Dallas but has family with roots in Mexico and San Antonio. “When Dr. Santos invited me to join the project, I said, ‘Wait—you mean I get to talk about Borderlands politics, immigration, and also theater and Shakespeare? Yes, please!’”

This project is a perfect example of undergraduate research at Trinity, which supports rigorous scholarship and discovery in the fields of the humanities with the same fervor that it does the social sciences and STEM fields.

The culmination of this research project—launched back in 2018 by Professor Santos, Ph.D., and her colleagues Katherine Gillen, Ph.D., and Adrianna Santos, Ph.D., from Texas A&M University-San

Professor Santos (left) and Paloma Díaz-Minshew ’24 analyze a Shakespeare adaptation together.

Antonio—is an upcoming publication called The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera. It’s an open-access book that contains previously unpublished plays, each re-envisioning Shakespeare in the context of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. This project has already earned the team a prestigious Collaborative Research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.

The plays that Professor Santos and students like Paloma are exploring go beyond merely revamping Shakespeare: Each adaptation represents a transformative storytelling process. Imagine Romeo and Juliet, set in Los Angeles during Día de los Muertos, with Juliet coming from an upwardly mobile Mexican-American family seeking to assimilate into Anglo culture and Romeo as an undocumented immigrant. Or imagine another version

of the famous play set in the Rio Grande Valley, in which the central couple meets at a farm workers’ protest, not a party.

For Paloma, these interdisciplinary glimpses into Borderlands culture have been invaluable, especially in the context of her global Latinx studies major. A relatively recent addition to Trinity’s academic offerings, this major offers students an analysis of the Latinx experience that spans languages, the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

“One of the reasons I actually came to Trinity in the first place was because I was going to get to learn about my identity, my community, and also get credit for it through my global Latinx studies major. That’s super cool,” Paloma says, “but getting the chance to put that together in conjunction with my English major for this project has been an incredible opportunity, especially since I want to go into academia and get a Ph.D. in Chicano

studies. This work has definitely helped to put me on that path.”

The importance of this research, Paloma continues, is not just about the existence of any one of these plays individually.

“Building a Shakespeare anthology like this means being able to bring these plays together,” Paloma says. “In the Borderlands, we are creating our own space, and now, in this anthology, we’re letting the world know about that space.”

And, ultimately, one of these plays might end up in the hands of the next Paloma.

“As a Mexican American, there were a lot of times during this research that I would be reading things and just start crying because seeing yourself accurately represented—that’s something that doesn’t happen often,” she says. “Getting into this research, getting into this world, and realizing, ‘Of course there are other MexicanAmerican theater kids!’ I was never exposed to that before this research.”

Paloma Díaz-Minshew ’24 read a variety of Borderlands Shakespeare adaptations and related texts during her summer of research.

One of the reasons I actually came to Trinity in the first place was because I was going to get to learn about my identity, my community, and also get credit for it through my global Latinx studies major. That’s super cool!

Trash to Treasure

Claire Sammons ’24 discovers why sometimes the surface is deep enough

by Jeanna Goodrich Balreira ’08

Claire Sammons ’24 has always been interested in archaeology but never imagined she’d find herself doing handson excavation as a college sophomore. As an anthropology major from Spring, Texas, Claire recalls being enamored with historical sites while on family vacations over the years. Now, she’s scouring the surface of the campus she calls home, eager to explore remnants of the past that have turned up in her own backyard. Trinity University’s rich history as a limestone quarry, municipal dump, and liberal arts college has left traces both below and on the surface of campus. Claire began investigating the University’s past after a fellow student, Carter Nicol ’25, accidentally discovered pieces of ceramics on campus. The pair rushed to Jennifer Mathews, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, to share their discovery. Professor Mathews

was just as excited as Claire to dive into archaeological fieldwork close to home.

During the height of the pandemic, students had fewer hands-on experiences since digs and excavations shifted online to virtual field schools and online internships. “So, when Claire walked into my lab with pictures of artifacts and said, ‘I have to know what these are!’ I thought, ‘If she’s really interested in this, right here on campus, then let’s go for it,’” Professor Mathews says.

And that’s the norm at Trinity. Students don’t just contribute to the research of their professors. They ask their own questions, and, with the support of their faculty mentors, they are provided with hands-on experiential learning opportunities to explore the answers to those questions.

While Professor Mathews and Claire are putting together pieces of these artifacts in the anthropology lab, they’re also turn-

ing to Trinity’s Special Collections and Archives for materials that might help connect their artifacts with the land. When they came to the archives looking for information on the dump site, University archivist Abra Schnur, MLIS, led them to a faded copy of a tract map from 1917. From there, Abra uncovered several more materials and resources to aid in the development of the project’s timeline.

“It’s been such a great experience,” says Claire, who is turning her semester of surface collection into her senior capstone project. “We’re uncovering a past, even if it’s just through a baby doll foot or a broken piece of glass, and this past reminds us that there’s so much history connected to this site. It wasn’t just a field that they put a school on.”

Claire says it’s important to recognize what the land was, so we can help the next generation of inhabitants steward it into

above Claire Sammons ’24 examines a glass artifact in the sunlight. right Professor Mathews presents a rare fully intact artifact.

We discover history, and we take it back to the lab to clean it. This is the field work I dreamed about doing when I came to Trinity. the future. “There’s history here,” she says, “with the battle of the Alamo, the Spanish missions, and before all that, Native American lands. This project makes these connections, so we can acknowledge the site that we are on.

“We hear so much about these grand events and these grand people in history that the ‘regular’ people are left out. This is the perfect opportunity to tell the story of the folks that lived normal lives in San Antonio in the 1800s to early 1900s,” Claire continues. “It’s a mundane history, but it’s a human history. And it’s so incredibly important to learn about the everyday people that were alive here, that were living here, that were throwing away their garbage here. It tells us so much about the land that Trinity is on, about our ancestors, and about the people we can learn from.”

Claire plans to make her capstone available to anyone who seeks access. She and

Professor Mathews will again enlist the help of Abra and others in Coates Library to create a searchable set of sources, including 3D scans of diagnostic artifacts, photographs, and research reports, as well as to make the physical artifact collection itself available for public study.

Until then, Claire is content with collecting the trash that is the treasure map to the University’s past. “We go out, dig in the dirt, and have fun,” she says. “We discover history, and we take it back to the lab to clean it. This is the field work I dreamed about doing when I came to Trinity, and I hope everybody has an opportunity like this—to do what they love.”

above Claire Sammons ’24 washes and sorts collected fragments in the anthropology lab.

Catherine Terrace ’19

Areas of Advising: Biology, Biochemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Health Professions, Neuroscience, and Physics

Michael Leach M’13

Areas of Advising: Liberal Arts, Health Professions, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Charting Your Course

Jennifer Reese

Areas of Advising: Engineering Science, Health Professions, Mathematics, Mathematical Finance, and programs in the Michael Neidorff School of Business

Trinity’s team of advisers help undeclared students plan their path to graduation

Regina Romero

Areas of Advising: Biology, Biochemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Health Professions, Neuroscience, and Physics

With hundreds of courses to choose from, dozens of programs to major in, and a whole slew of new vocabulary to learn, the switch from high school to college academics can be dizzying. Enter Trinity University’s Office of Academic Advising. Led by the office’s director, Lapétra Bowman, Ph.D., the team of five dedicated academic advisers begin guiding new students through Trinity’s curriculum before they even step foot on campus.

Lapétra Bowman, Ph.D. Director of Academic Advising

Trinity’s academic advisers serve as a touch point for incoming students and as a resource for students registering for classes and taking on the process of exploring and declaring their major. Once students declare their major, they transition from working with an academic adviser to receiving guidance from a faculty adviser in their academic area of interest.

Katie Welch ’18

Areas of Advising: Engineering Science, Health Professions, Mathematics, Mathematical Finance, and programs in the Michael Neidorff School of Business

At the heart of Trinity’s advising work with students is the concept that picking a major is not picking a career but rather a vocation. It is an opportunity for students to ask questions about what is meaningful to them, their personal values, and how they align with their academic decisions and pathways. While each adviser has curricular specialties, it’s OK not to know what you want to study yet! The advisers are all well-versed in Trinity’s entire curriculum and can help guide you no matter where you are in your academic journey.

ADMITTED STUDENTS

TIGER FRIDAYS

Admitted students and two guests can attend a Tiger Friday preview day on campus, designed exclusively for future Tigers. You’ll meet fellow admitted students, get your questions answered by current Trinity students and faculty, and take a sample class for a preview of the academic experience.

Upcoming Tiger Fridays

March 24, 2023

April 14, 2023

April 21, 2023

Registration closes the Friday one week prior to each event. Can’t make it to a Tiger Friday? Explore additional options for admitted students to visit at gotu.us/AdmittedTigers

Experience Trinity University

It’s important to take time to explore 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 visit experiences for prospective and admitted students. Visit our campus in sunny San Antonio, or take a virtual campus tour online.

Explore all visit options at gotu.us/visit.

TRINITY IN FOCUS OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, July 8, 2023

8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

INFORMATION SESSIONS AND CAMPUS TOURS

Trinity’s student-led campus tours and sessions with an admissions representative are available most weekdays and select Saturdays during the spring, including Spring Break, and most weekdays during the summer.

ADMISSIONS INTERVIEWS

Juniors: This summer, get a head start on the application process by meeting oneon-one with an admissions representative virtually or in person in your hometown. Admissions interviews provide you with the opportunity to distinguish yourself in Trinity’s competitive applicant pool and learn more about the admissions and scholarship process. Schedule your interview at gotu.us/interviews

VIRTUAL TIGER CONNECTIONS

Admitted students have an opportunity to get in-depth information about Trinity’s academic disciplines directly from faculty and connect with current students to learn more about the Trinity experience.

Join Us for Tiger Connections

Saturday, April 1, 2023*

* Register by Thursday, March 30, 2023

Space is limited for Tiger Fridays and Virtual Tiger Connections. Explore your options and register early at gotu.us/AdmittedTigers

3.79 mean GPA unweighted 4.0 scale

mean: