St. Ed's University Magazine — Spring 2022

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ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Defying the Odds 50 YEARS OF EDUCATION AND OPPORTUNITY THROUGH CAMP

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Spring 2022

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Coming Home to St. Edward’s President Fuentes celebrated her first Homecoming on the hilltop — and the first since the pandemic — with members of the Royal Court. The weekend combined virtual events with outdoor and COVID-safe indoor gatherings. Hundreds of alumni cheered on the men’s and women’s basketball teams, fired up their grills for game-day tailgating, and launched a new tradition: the Homecoming parade. The event was the last Homecoming held in February, as future celebrations will be in October.

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BEST & BRIGHTEST

At the Intersection of Art and Advocacy Painter, aspiring lawyer and immigrant activist ‘Murphy’ Yanbing Chen ’21 harnesses the power of art and law.

BY ROBYN ROSS

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AN OIL PAINTING in the Fine Arts Gallery depicts a woman and child burdened beneath the weight of all their belongings. Its color palette is dark, but a mysterious glow illuminates the two figures, banishing the shadows to the corners of the frame.

Overhead, a mobile-like assemblage of translucent vellum hangs from the ceiling.

The tracing paper is covered with a montage of railroad maps, images of trains, the words “at home” and “homeless,” and the identification and deportation documents of Chinese laborers who worked on the American railroads in the 19th century.

The vellum is light and opaque, while the painting’s dark hues and heavy-laden subjects feel far weightier. But the two are linked in their depiction of life as an immigrant or part of a diaspora, says “Murphy” Yanbing Chen ’21, an Art major who created the installation for her senior exhibition. The project also has an autobiographical element.

“All works are essentially self-portrait,” she says. “These works are all related to my experience as a migrant and as somebody who kind of came out of nothing.”

Chen grew up in poverty in Yunnan Province in southwestern China. Her mother and her father are partial ethnic minorities, Jingpo and Mongolian people, who concentrated near the border with Myanmar. As a child, Chen often stayed with her grandmother while her mother earned a law degree to improve the family’s condition.

Chen’s grandmother taught her how to draw, and her mother sometimes took her to a children’s art studio, where she experimented with acrylic painting.

Chen took an art history course before coming to the United States and initially applied to East Coast liberal arts colleges to continue studying art and art history. Deferring her acceptance, she decided to stay with family friends in Alpine, Texas, for a year and establish her own painting studio.

In Alpine, Chen immersed herself in the gallery scene and, for academic credit, became an exhibition assistant at the Chinati Foundation in nearby Marfa. She took more art history courses at Sul Ross State University and, for the first time, studied oil painting.

After realizing that Texas offered as many opportunities as the East Coast, she transferred to St. Edward’s in January 2019.

In Associate Professor of Art History Mary K. Brantl’s classes, Chen encountered the idea that all artworks are more than simply aesthetic endeavors. Every painting, drawing or sculpture is a product of the context in which it was created: the political and social environment, the artist’s relationship with other artists, religious ideas, market pressures and the prevailing philosophies in the art world.

This idea of context radically reshaped Chen’s approach to art. For her senior thesis exhibition, she decided to combine a painting with an installation that would provide context about related labor and migration issues. Her project focuses on the stories of Chinese immigrants who built the railroads of the American West in the 19th century.

Until her junior year, Chen was planning to study art history in graduate school. But then, in Summer 2020, a Trump administration policy made international students enrolled exclusively in online courses — the only option at many universities during the pandemic — subject to deportation.

The policy was later rescinded, but Chen realized that while art was powerful, she needed more practical tools to advocate for members of minority groups and immigrants. She started law school last fall at American University Washington College of Law, located in Washington, D.C. — a school recommended by her mentor, Brantl.

A career in law offers Chen the chance to work on behalf of underrepresented communities. She could pursue poverty law, intellectual property or environmental and cultural preservation, such as cultural repatriation, the return of looted cultural artifacts to their country of origin. Although she hasn’t yet chosen a focus, her career will be shaped by her personal missions: To be responsible. To live lightly on the earth, avoiding overconsumption. Ultimately, she wishes to give back to people who helped her, like her mother, her friends in West Texas, Brantl, Professor of Art Hollis Hammonds and other faculty in the Visual Studies Department, and many other professors who guided her journey at St. Edward’s.

“I want to do law because I have to learn the system in order to change it,” Chen says. “Through my art and my writings, my research and my future legal works, I want to change life for the better for people around me.”

Editors

Kat Braz Frannie Schneider Art Director

Helen Elliott Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Christie Campbell Designer

Kathia Ramirez Photographer

Chelsea Purgahn Writer

Robyn Ross President

Montserrat Fuentes, PhD

On the Cover

In 1972, St. Edward’s University was among the four original schools granted federal funding to establish the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society agenda. Over the program’s 50 years, nearly 2,900 students have participated in CAMP at St. Ed’s.

St. Edward’s University Magazine is published by the Marketing Office for alumni and friends. ©2022 St. Edward’s University. Opinions expressed in St. Edward’s University Magazine are those of the individual authors and do not reflect the views of the university. Inquiries to the Editor: editor@stedwards.edu.

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In rotoscope animation, used in the Amazon Prime original series Undone, artists turn filmed footage of live actors into animation by drawing over each frame of film on a digital tablet. Annie (Bradley) McCall ’08 managed a team of animators who drew thousands of images for the show working for Minnow Mountain, part of Austin’s rapidly expanding animation scene.

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF AMAZON

AUSTIN IMPACT

Building Character Frame by frame, alumni make their mark in Austin’s growing animation scene.

BY ROBYN ROSS

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WHEN 28-YEAR-OLD Alma, the protagonist of the Amazon Prime original series Undone, gets into a serious car accident, her world changes. She begins to communicate with her dead father and discovers she can travel through time and see into other dimensions. In one scene, she runs down a hospital hallway toward a second version of herself as the hospital dissolves around her.

Filming such scenes with live actors would have been an enormous challenge. Instead, the story is told with rotoscope animation, which seamlessly blends the realistic and fantastical elements of the plot. “Animation was the best way to create Alma’s character and see the world through her eyes,” says Annie (Bradley) McCall ’08.

McCall drew thousands of images of Alma for the first season of Undone, which was released in 2019, and managed a team of animators who drew the second season, released

this spring. She is one of three St. Edward’s alumnae who have worked for Austin animation studio Minnow Mountain, part of the city’s rapidly expanding animation scene.

Minnow Mountain specializes in rotoscope animation, in which artists turn filmed footage of live actors into animation by drawing over each frame of film on a digital tablet. The resulting characters appear hand-drawn but clearly resemble their real-world counterparts (in Undone, actors Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk).

The same technique is used in Austin director Richard Linklater’s new movie Apollo 10 ½, about a Houston boy’s fascination with space exploration. Hailey J. Strader ’19 worked as a character animator on the film in 2020, drawing more than 9,000 individual frames featuring the protagonist’s family. Both McCall and Strader’s work was coordinated by Rachel Dendy ’06, Minnow Mountain’s line

producer, who works with the company’s co-owner to budget and schedule projects.

All three alumnae majored in Theater Arts, a field that, like animation, runs on collaboration and creativity. This year, St. Edward’s launched an Animation major that will prepare students specifically for careers in the industry. Although technical skills and artistic talent are important, program director Robert Denton Bryant says a liberal arts education gives animators an edge by helping them become thoughtful storytellers, not just masters of visual effects.

“Liberal arts classes teach you about the human condition so you can form thoughts and develop something to say that you can then express in animation,” Bryant says. “Our students learn how to be inspired by life and history and the world around them rather than simply by stuff they watched growing up.”

PURSUITS

Ready for the Real World

Internship experiences prepare Hilltoppers to launch their careers.

BY ROBYN ROSS

Jurisprudence, Nominations and Public Education.

Her virtual congressional internship:

Michelle Flores ’22, Political Science Her internship at the Texas Capitol:

Flores worked full time in the office of state Sen. Cesar Blanco, who represents her hometown of El Paso, during the Spring 2021 legislative session. As a legislative aide, she focused on bills moving through committees including

In Summer 2021, Flores completed a remote internship with U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico.

Flores called the internship, managed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, “the perfect learning experience because you really spend a lot of time learning about the intersections between your own personal identity and public policy.”

Why she wants to run for office:

“It shows other young women like me — first-generation Mexican American women — that it’s possible. I’ve fallen in love with the process of hearing constituents’ stories, learning from them and using them to help create effective change.”

Christoph Hoermann ’21, Finance Why he switched gears after interning at Ferrari of Austin: Hoermann has

always loved cars and got to help with a test-drive event in Midland as part of his internship with Ferrari. Ultimately, he realized he enjoyed the finance-related tasks more than he liked selling cars.

Why he woke up at 5:30 a.m. all summer: In Summer 2021, Hoer-

mann interned with a J.P. Morgan Private Bank office in South

Florida. He woke early every morning to read The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times before work to be prepared for “market drills” — quizzes about financial headlines.

His chosen field: The J.P. Morgan internship showed Hoermann he could handle the long hours and intense focus that finance requires. He accepted an offer to work for the company full time after graduation.

“ ... I’ve fallen in love with the process of hearing constituents’ stories, learning from them and using them to help create effective change.”

MICHELLE FLORES ’22

Andrew Mueller ’22, Acting His cross-training: In

addition to acting and directing, Mueller managed the box office at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre and worked on lighting for shows.

While searching for acting jobs, he can use these marketable skills.

What he learned from the pros: Through

the St. Edward’s partnership with Actors’ Equity Association, Mueller worked alongside professionals on the stage. After rehearsals for his favorite show, the comedy A Flea in Her Ear, the Equity actors would stop him in the hallway and offer tips about which jokes were working

and which needed improvement. “It was really nice to hear that feedback from professional actors and to learn about comedy from working alongside them,” he said.

What he’s doing next:

As a senior, Mueller took a professional preparation course in which he had headshots taken,

polished his résumé and built a website.

One assignment required him to research the theater opportunities in another region of the country. Mueller discovered that the Denver–Boulder area has a vibrant professional theater scene and decided to move there after graduation.

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MY HILLTOP

Programmed for Adventure Software engineer Sabur Khan ’22 seeks the occasional adrenaline rush to offset his intense studies.

BY ROBYN ROSS Khan rides a motorcycle to campus. “Every twist of the throttle releases some adrenaline, and that keeps me happy,” he says.

WHEN SABUR KHAN ’22 first considered a career in software engineering, his professor and mentor John Mulholland weighed in: “There’s a lot more to it than just coding.”

The process of designing a product or web application involves people skills, such as interviewing customers, and deep thinking away from the computer. Because Khan values work-life balance and variety, his professor’s insight helped him decide to major in Computer Information Science and concentrate on software engineering.

Khan witnessed the importance of people skills during his summer internship at cloud computing company VMware, an opportunity he found through the St. Edward’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (i4). The i4 partners with companies working on projects related to the fourth industrial revolution, which merges the physical, digital and biological spheres, and offers paid internships funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Khan had numerous virtual meetings with his mentor, colleagues in the department and even the CEO. The experience required him to overcome his natural introversion.

“Pushing myself into uncomfortable experiences in my internship helped me open up more as a person and become more communicative,” he says.

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It paid off: VMware offered Khan a full-time position after graduation.

Khan is interested in backend software engineering, which focuses on the structural side of web applications. He’s learned backend engineering fundamentals through an Advanced Java Bootcamp course offered

by Netflix and 2U Inc. in partnership with St. Edward’s. “It taught me a lot of hands-on skills and industry-standard tools,” Khan says.

He’s also completing, with a partner, his senior project: a guide for prospective investors that compiles financial information from the web about companies on the stock market.

The project marries Khan’s ongoing interest in business with his major in Computer Information Science.

To let off steam, Khan works out at the gym, plays soccer in a men’s league and goes hiking, especially on the Barton Creek Greenbelt near downtown and the Brushy Creek Regional Trail near his house. He’s also a bit of a thrill seeker. He rides a motorcycle — “a mood-booster,” he calls it. And on warm weekends, he’ll go cliff jumping with friends at nearby Inks Lake State Park. The adrenaline rush is an antidote to the long hours he spends studying.

“I work so hard,” he says, “and in these moments I can let everything out and feel free.”

Working out helps Khan maintain his mental and physical health. “It helps me stay grounded and feel good about myself,” he says.

Work-life balance is important to Khan and influenced his decision to major in Computer Information Science.

Khan learned backend engineering skills in the Java programming language by taking an Advanced Java Bootcamp offered by Netflix.

Netflix partnered with select HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions to offer the courses at no charge to students. Khan learned industry-standard tools he can use in his career.

Khan and his senior project partner, Kaytlyn Guerrero ’22, are creating a guide that helps beginning investors learn about different companies on the stock market.

Through i4, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, Khan interned with the cloud computing company VMware.

Hiking, cliff jumping and playing soccer and basketball add variety to Khan’s days and help him get fresh air.

Khan’s summer internship at VMware was a success: the company offered him a full-time position in its Bay Area office after graduation.

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TAKE ON YOUR WORLD

A CLIMATE CONVERSATION How two alumni are taking action for environmental justice.

BY ROBYN ROSS ILLUSTRATION BY ISRAEL VARGAS

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS Dave Cortez ’06 and Miguel Escoto ’19 both grew up in El Paso and majored in Political Science at St. Edward’s. Cortez lived near a polluting copper smelter for part of his childhood and later fought to keep it closed.

He went on to work for the Sierra Club and in 2021 became the director of its Lone Star Chapter, which serves Texas.

Escoto returned to El Paso after graduation and co-founded a chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led campaign to stop climate change and create green jobs.

He also is a field associate for Earthworks, which monitors emissions from oil and gas infrastructure facilities.

We sat down with these two leaders in the climate justice movement to find out what motivates them and what’s next.

What does “justice” mean in the context of climate activism?

Cortez: Environmental justice is about fighting back against things that are imposed on a community that it didn’t ask for, like a smelter or a coal plant or a pipeline. The community is burdened with the consequences, such as chronic illness and healthcare expenses, which tend to disproportionately impact folks of color or working-class folks.

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Escoto: It’s about communities not having autonomy over the air they breathe and the water they drink.

How are your organizations trying to change those power structures?

Escoto: It’s a two-part equation. You have to focus on the people who are in elected office, but you also have to organize popular movements to hold those politicians accountable.

Cortez: The environmental movement in Texas is completely saturated with policy experts and legal minds — whom we need — but we haven’t invested enough in mobilizing ordinary people. Our organizations need to reflect together on how to reach the people we’re not reaching.

What is your personal contribution to this movement right now?

Escoto: I apply my training from St. Edward’s in every campaign because they all necessitate creative writing and using rhetoric in a way that resonates effectively.

Cortez: I’m 38, and this movement is dominated by folks in their 60s and 70s or older. My job is to open the doors as quickly as possible to people like Miguel who are the next generation of leaders in this work.

LIVING THE MISSION

In Practice The Community Counseling Clinic gives MAC students valuable experience and increases access to mental healthcare.

BY ROBYN ROSS

THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC has taken a toll on

the world’s mental health, as people cope with grief, isolation and uncertainty about the future.

“We’re going through a collective trauma right now, and the pandemic has made everyone’s problems worse,” says Assistant Professor of Counseling Kerrie Taylor. But the mental healthcare that could help is often financially out of reach.

The St. Edward’s Community Counseling Clinic is helping to fill the gap. The clinic, which Taylor directs, allows Master of Arts in Counseling (MAC) students to complete their practicum — 40 hours of supervised counseling — under the guidance of professors before they continue with internships in the community. It also offers affordable therapy for Austinites.

From its launch in January 2020 to the end of the Fall 2021 semester, the clinic served more than 250 clients, who can return for as many sessions as they need and pay a maximum of $20 per session.

Many pay nothing.

Taylor and her colleagues have transformed the former health clinic in East Hall into individual therapy offices outfitted with comfortable couches, soft lighting and cameras that capture video of the sessions

with clients’ permission. Students review the recordings of their own sessions with an eye toward improvement, and faculty supervisors review footage of higher-risk appointments and provide individual students with constructive feedback.

For instance, Taylor says, one student habitually took copious notes during sessions, which meant she missed her client’s nonverbal cues. Watching the video footage with her student, Taylor pointed out those missed cues and encouraged the student to work on listening in the moment instead of looking at her notepad.

Because the clinic is designed as a lab, faculty supervisors support students who want to pursue specialized training and offer guidance for implementing it.

“It’s a good balance between support and autonomy,” says Mary Moore MAC ’21, who worked in the clinic for three semesters. She underwent training in complicated grief therapy to help one of her clients get “unstuck” and process her grief in a healthy way.

“My professors challenged me as a student clinician to go out and get whatever that client needed — and it worked,” Moore says.

“The clinic has been invaluable because of the freedom to pursue continuing education and the confidence that it gives you when you’ve executed a new protocol successfully.”

Supporting the Community Counseling Clinic A generous gift from the Charles and Betti Saunders Foundation will expand the number of MAC students who can complete their practicum at the clinic.

The Saunders family includes Ian Smith ’03, MAC ’05, who has his own Austin counseling practice.

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Transforming Transportation In the Civics Lab, students learn how to influence public policy — in the real world, in real time, using their own voices.

BY ROBYN ROSS ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGUS GREIG

ON AN OVERCAST OCTOBER afternoon, nine students in the inaugural Civics Lab class boarded the Capital Metro 801 Northbound bus next to campus.

“How many of y’all have ridden the bus before?” their professor, David Thomason, asked after they’d found their seats.

“I’ve taken public transportation in other cities I’ve visited, but not in Austin,” Psychology major Amie Calhoun ’21 said, and several in the group nodded. “I have a car, and I don’t live near a bus stop, so it’s never been on my radar.”

Every few blocks, the bus stopped to accept a cluster of passengers. From her window seat, Political Science major Desi Tsacalis ’24 took in the colorful storefronts of South Congress Avenue as she imagined where the passengers were going — some

to dinner with friends at a fancy downtown restaurant, some to work in that restaurant’s kitchen. The bus was an equalizer.

Everyone traveled at the same pace and could observe the same scenery.

On South First Street, the bus slowed as it crossed the river and passed the jagged copper-and-glass façade of City Hall. A block later, the group disembarked and headed east. Soon, pop-up tents flanked by red sail-shaped flags heralded their destination: an outdoor open house with the leaders of Project Connect, a major public transportation expansion whose initial $7.1 billion investment Austin voters had approved in November 2020.

Thomason and the students dispersed among the representatives of the Austin Transit Partnership, the organization ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

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“This class forces people out of their comfort zone, because we’re going out and experiencing the real world.

It’s not just theory.”

NIKO SMITH ’23

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overseeing Project Connect’s implementation. Calhoun found Jackie Nirenberg, the partnership’s director of community engagement and involvement, whom the class had interviewed on Zoom two weeks earlier. “We want to advocate for the interests of college students in this plan, today and in the long term,” Calhoun explained.

Nirenberg waved over the project’s CEO and chief architect.

Tsacalis studied a map of the planned light rail network, a web of colored lines splayed across the city. Nicole (Seligman) Taliaferro ’12, a community engagement coordinator for Capital Metro, approached, extending her hand. “The youth population of Austin will determine whether public transportation is widely accepted,” Taliaferro said, “and your generation cares so much about sustainability. Y’all are in a really important position to influence this.”

An hour later, the group crowded onto the packed 801 Southbound. Back on campus, they debriefed. The buses had been efficient, on time and surprisingly full.

The knowledge the class gained from their first Austin bus ride was worth any anxiety they’d felt boarding or finding their seats.

There had to be a way to use the experience to reframe other car drivers’ perception of public transit.

“If you haven’t done it before, riding the bus can be a bit daunting,” Political Science major Niko Smith ’23 later reflected. “This class forces people out of their comfort zone, because we’re going out and experiencing the real world. It’s not just theory.”

The Civics Lab was designed to help students from all majors move their understanding of public policy beyond theory and into the real world. Thomason, an associate professor of Political Science, patterned the course after his Legislative Process and Lobbying class, in which students choose a bill to support and visit the Capitol to advocate for its passage. The Civics Lab also teaches students how to research an issue, then nudges them off campus to interact with decision makers. Thomason acts as a guide, but students choose the topics and set their own goals. The course is an example of the university’s emphasis on experiential learning, in which students conduct research and solve problems in the community, not just the classroom.

“This is a project-based, practical class, and it’s a lab, not a lecture,” Thomason told his 20 students on the first day of class.

“You’ll learn civics by doing it.”

Civics, Thomason explained, is “any social or political interaction where you’re seeking avenues for influencing and enhancing the public good. I follow the political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville’s argument about ‘self-interest, rightly understood,’ meaning, you can’t understand what other people think unless you interact with lots of people in different ways. And if you do that, you realize it’s in your own self-interest to address social problems.”

“Doing civics” is different from studying government. It combines the cerebral work of researching an issue with the action of showing up at the right meetings and offering well-informed policy solutions. Unlike politics, which can connote divisive partisan posturing, civics is data- and solutiondriven and ultimately nonpartisan.

“In civics, it doesn’t matter what your political label is,” said Political Science major and Civics Lab student Michael Baumgartner ’22. “It’s about returning to the roots of the role of the informed citizen in a democracy.”

In the second week, the class chose a topic — college students and public transportation — and decided to focus on transit access and affordability. Teams would tackle the issue from different angles: government relations; outreach; podcast production; marketing and social media; and research. The students learned that the proposition that funds Project Connect passed with 58% of the vote. They studied the Project Connect website and discovered that the Orange Line, one of the first two light rail lines to be built over the next decade, would run right by campus. But detailed planning for that rail stop was years in the future. For now, the class decided to advocate for St. Edward’s to offer free bus passes for students.

But would students use them? To understand their classmates’ transportation habits, the group distributed a survey that asked, “If you live off campus, how do you get to school?” and “How often do you use public transportation?” Meanwhile, the government relations team identified key staff at Capital Metro and Project Connect and through Thomason invited Eric Bustos ’12, the government affairs adviser for Capital

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“We need to emphasize the connection between transit and sustainability.”

DESI TSACALIS ’24

Metro and the Austin Transit Partnership, to visit the class via Zoom. After explaining the Project Connect plans for expanded bus and rail service, Bustos focused on St. Edward’s. “It might be worth looking at whether the university could promote riding the bus and eventually light rail to reduce demand for parking,” he offered.

Tsacalis shared the survey data with him. “Right now, 60% of students who’ve responded to our survey are driving to school,” she said. “And 80% say that if public transit were more accessible and affordable, they would use it.”

Bustos followed that up with an invitation to the Project Connect open house and suggested they meet the project planners.

After the open house and their eye-opening bus ride, the groups decided on their next steps. Baumgartner and Tsacalis met with Liz Johnson, the St. Edward’s director of 16

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government and community relations, to pitch the class’s ideas: free bus passes for students, staff and faculty; electric scooter docking stations on campus; and partnering with Project Connect to develop the former El Gallo property, which St. Edward’s now owns, as the Orange Line stop. Though the latter two ideas would take longer than a semester to evaluate, the students learned that the university already offers fully subsidized bus passes for campus residents and discounted ones for commuters and employees.

Tsacalis realized that the class’s “access and affordability” argument was missing the mark when it came to their fellow Hilltoppers. Her friends outside the Civics Lab seemed to think, like she had, that public transit was great — for other people.

Their own cars were too convenient. If St. Edward’s students already had a bus stop at the edge of campus and access to free bus passes, what would motivate them to try transit instead of driving?

Taliaferro’s words about young people and sustainability echoed in Tsacalis’ head. In the next class, she suggested the Civics Lab shift gears and focus on the environment.

“We need to emphasize the connection between transit and sustainability,” she explained. “The best way to engage young people in public transit is to give them a reason to care. Being a young person, knowing what we value, it’s pretty clear to me that that reason is the environment.”

“Why don’t we do an op-ed?” Thomason suggested. “We could submit it to Hilltop Views and the Austin American-Statesman.”

On Sunday, Nov. 14, Tsacalis opened the Statesman’s website to find her first published opinion piece, written in collaboration with Thomason: “Transportation choices matter in the fight against climate change.” Skimming the screen, her eyes landed on their call to action: “The Civics Lab is asking you to rethink your relationship with transportation in terms of its

FREQUENT STOPS efficiency, affordability and sustainability.

We think it’s time for Austinites to get serious about our own transportation choices.”

The piece announced the lab’s last major initiative for the semester — Topper Transit Week, a challenge to their fellow students: Use public transit at least once during the last week of November. Post a photo of yourself on the bus, your bike or your scooter and hashtag it #toppertransit. Come to the first home basketball game, and we’ll hold a drawing at halftime.

The class’s marketing and social media team created a logo for the scoreboard screen, promoted the event on Instagram and Twitter and printed stickers — showing Topper riding a bike — to distribute on campus. Tsacalis and others solicited donations of prizes from nearby businesses.

When class met the Wednesday of Topper Transit Week, a slightly bedraggled Thomason reported on his personal transit challenge. Monday, he’d ridden his bike to the bus stop, then taken two buses to campus.

All good. But Wednesday, when he returned from lunch on Congress Avenue on an electric scooter, he discovered that the campus perimeter was geofenced to exclude scooters, and the meter in the scooter app wouldn’t stop running. By the time he returned the scooter to the street, the 1-mile ride had cost $13.

“It was painful,” Thomason said. “But sometimes that’s part of the process of learning. Maybe tomorrow night at the basketball game we show up and only three people are there. That’s OK. This is a lab, and it’s an experiment, and we’re learning.

And a lot of things happen when you just show up.”

email addresses for 100 people, Political Science major Alex Diaz ’22 pointed out. Next semester’s Civics Lab — which the students and Thomason agreed should continue working on transit — could use the list to launch an e-newsletter.

But first, Thomason wanted honest feedback. What, he asked, had they learned, and what could he do better next time?

“I learned how to send formal emails and ask for meetings,” offered Smith. “How to network effectively — like figuring out who to talk to at a reception and how to join the conversation without interrupting. And that you have to change your pitch depending on who you’re talking to, like people at Capital Metro versus students here.”

Thomason nodded. “Know your audience,” he said. “It’s not just an idea that’s important but how you sell it.”

Pedro Smaniotto Aizza ’22 suggested the Civics Lab needed a recognizable visual identity: “It was obvious that having a strong brand and using it consistently can take the project a lot farther,” he said. “We saw that it was hard to get students on board if they didn’t know what Civics Lab was. I’m a Graphic Design major, and this experience of creating a brand for Civics Lab is exactly what I want to do in my career.”

Calhoun noted that she’d gotten a second interview with a City Council member’s office because of the civic engagement activities on her résumé.

Now that Thomason had piloted the Civics Lab, he would teach it again in the spring. He posed a question: Would anyone be interested in registering for the course again and acting as a mentor for the new group of students?

Several people raised their hands, including Baumgartner, Smith and Tsacalis.

“What’s missing sometimes in political Two weeks later, over last-day-of-class pizza, science is creativity,” Tsacalis said.

“Normally we talk about policy … but the the students reflected on their experiment. best political movements and the best social Topper Transit Night at the basketball game change always happen when people are had been a qualified success; as the Civics creative. This course helped me realize beLab representatives had set up their table cause of how many ideas we came up with outside the gym, they realized that only a that creativity is a larger part of political handful of people had used the hashtag to science than we normally talk about. enter the drawing. So they took Thomason’s advice and pivoted, asking fans to sign in as “In a democracy, it’s important that they arrived and giving a quick pitch about people feel they have the power to change trying transit. At halftime, they went to things,” she continued. “That’s the whole the floor and drew the names as the Civics purpose of this class: to show that you can Lab logo flashed on the scoreboard. It was dedicate a semester and meet once a week over quickly — but now they had names and and actually achieve your goals.”

Met with Transit Leadership In October, the students rode the Capital Metro 801 Northbound downtown to an outdoor open house hosted by Project Connect and the Austin Transit Partnership.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHELSEA PURGAHN

Proposed Bus Passes Students pitched the idea of university-subsidized bus passes to St. Edward’s leadership but learned a similar program already existed.

Changed Gears The class opted to shift focus to the environment to motivate students to use public transit.

Wrote Op-Ed An op-ed published in the Austin American Statesman implored readers to rethink their relationship with transportation.

Held Topper Transit Week The class challenged their fellow students to use public transit at least once during the last week of November.

Next Stop In Spring 2022, the class tackled the relationship between public transportation and food insecurity.

ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

17

years

50 CAMP of

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DEFYING THE

ODDS In the College Assistance Migrant Program, scholars found salvation, lasting friendships and a place to grow.

B Y N A N C Y F L O R E S ’ 03

I L LU S T RAT I O N S B Y I S R A E L VA R G A S

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I N AUGUST 1986,

life forever changed for Geronimo Rodriguez ’90. After finishing the strawberry and raspberry harvest season in the state of Washington, work in the Oregon potato fields beckoned. As migrant farmworkers, Rodriguez and his family spent much of the year traveling from their South Texas home to follow various crops and work in the fields.

On their way to Oregon, the Rodriguez family stopped in the small town of Mabton, Wash., where they kept a post office box. There sat an acceptance letter to the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at St. Edward’s University. Rodriguez had earned a spot, but classes were starting soon.

He rushed to a pay phone in a nearby grocery store with a handful of change and dialed the university’s CAMP admission counselor.

“I just got my notice,” Rodriguez said anxiously. “Can I still go to CAMP?”

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“ The future unfolded from this opportunity at St. Edward’s and the College Assistance Migrant Program. It gave me the skills I needed to transition from the fields of labor to the fields of education.”

GERONIMO RODRIGUEZ ’90

Rodriguez understood the significance of the moment, but he never imagined just how much his CAMP experience would shape the rest of his life. After St. Edward’s, Rodriguez earned a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. He served as counsel to the solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor, helping to enforce 140 labor and employment laws during the Clinton Administration. He’s now the Texas chief advocacy officer for Ascension Seton, one of the leading nonprofit and Catholic healthcare systems in the United States.

“The future unfolded from this opportunity at St. Edward’s and the College Assistance Migrant Program,” he says. “It gave me the skills I needed to transition from the fields of labor to the fields of education.”

CAMP was established by the federal government in 1972 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society agenda. That same year, St. Edward’s welcomed its first class of CAMP scholars under the leadership of President Brother Stephen Walsh, CSC, ’62.

Since then, nearly 2,900 students from migrant farmworker backgrounds have participated in CAMP at St. Edward’s.

To qualify for the federal program, a student must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, meet the university’s admission requirements and demonstrate that migrant or seasonal farmwork is the family’s primary source of income.

CAMP scholars are required to maintain good academic standing and are

supported in their efforts by a dedicated staff of tutors, counselors and financial aid advisers. Each year, the university invites about 35 students to be part of CAMP. The federal CAMP scholarship covers students’ first year of college: tuition, on-campus housing, a meal plan, medical insurance and a modest stipend for living expenses. Although the federal scholarship ends after the first year, the St. Edward’s commitment to CAMP scholars extends through graduation. The university covers tuition up to four subsequent years after any other scholarship or grant funding has been applied.

Many St. Edward’s CAMP scholars are in the first generation of their families to attend college and the program has been a springboard for careers from politics to public health. The university’s CAMP graduates have blazed trails on the hilltop, too. In 2020, Sonia Briseño ’98 became the first CAMP alumna to direct the program at St. Edward’s. Anabel Rodriguez ’14 recently became the first CAMP graduate to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees.

CAMP at St. Edward’s turns 50 this year and is recognized as the longest continuous program in the nation.

Esther Q. Yacono directed the program for 23 of those 50 years (1994–2017). In 1995, the Clinton Administration proposed budget cuts that eliminated federal funding for CAMP, sparking outrage among migrant education advocates who

rallied to save the program. During the 2014–2015 academic year, St. Edward’s did not receive any federal funding from the Department of Education. Alumni and donors raised more than $460,000 to help the program continue.

Through the decades, CAMP scholars have formed strong, family-like bonds that supported the launch of the CAMP Alumni Association at St. Edward’s.

Despite the specter of federal budget cuts and a global pandemic that threatened the program’s sense of community, the CAMP experience remains transformative. Often that transformation begins as soon as CAMP scholars arrive at Main Building’s iconic red doors.

LIGHTING THE PATH FORWARD Beginning the journey as a firstgeneration college student isn’t easy.

Iliana Meléndez ’07 remembers crying as she said goodbye to her parents and walked on to campus. “I was alone, and I was terrified,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘I can’t do this.’”

For many CAMP scholars, their first night on campus also marks their first time being away from family. Anabel Rodriguez traveled with her family from South Texas to Southern California every summer to pick grapes.

“In the migrant camps, we had one restroom and two tiny rooms where we all slept,” she says. “You’re used to being with family 24/7, and then at St. Edward’s you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh — I have a room?’”

Geronimo Rodriguez had doubts about success and experienced pangs of homesickness during his first night on campus. He didn’t grow up going to sleepovers. He’d never stayed anywhere without his family.

“I remember spending the first night at St. Edward’s underneath my blanket with a flashlight, looking at my high school yearbook of a few friends from South Texas for a sense of familiarity,” he says.

In recent years, CAMP at St. Edward’s started a new tradition: a candle-lighting ceremony held at the beginning of the year. Each candle’s flame symbolizes a new beginning, a path to transformation and a promise for the future. The tradition comes full circle at the CAMP graduation ceremony — an intimate event in addition to the university-wide graduation that is presented by the CAMP Alumni Association and the CAMP office — when graduating scholars light another candle to mark the completion of their journey.

CAMP classmates Juan Felipe Santos ’82 and Janet Wright-Santos ’82 fell in love at St. Edward’s and married in 1984.

Today, he’s a neurologist based in Corpus Christi, and she is the chief operating officer for the medical practice.

The couple says their commitment to social justice is inspired by their experiences at St. Edward’s.

50

years of

CAMP

IN THE FIELDS College is a world away from the settings where many CAMP scholars grew up, and the adjustment to campus life can be difficult.

After growing up migrating from Texas to the Northwest and harvesting everything from cucumbers to potatoes, Geronimo Rodriguez didn’t think college was possible for him. When he was in the seventh grade, his parents asked him to work in the fields full time and attend night school three times a week. It wasn’t what they wanted him to do, his mother told him. But it was what the family needed to survive.

At 7 a.m. one day in 1980, he watched his younger siblings and cousins board the yellow school bus without him.

“As the school bus is driving away, all I’m feeling are the doors of opportunity closing,” he says. Anger washed over him.

His parents promised that when he was older, they would help him go wherever he wanted. That’s when he began to dream of attending college.

Janet Wright-Santos ’82 grew up in Belle Glade, Fla., working in orange groves and radish, tomato and sugar cane fields with her parents and nine siblings. Dreaming big didn’t come easy for a Black child living on the poorer side of a town divided along racial lines. College wasn’t on people’s

THE HISTORY OF CAMP 50 years of highlights at St. Edward’s

1972

minds — and where prostitutes worked on the next block. “I could’ve been just like them or six feet under,” she says.

“CAMP saved me.”

College seemed like a way out of farmwork, but Wright-Santos didn’t tell a soul about her aspirations. She quietly researched universities on her own at the library and discovered CAMP. Her high school guidance counselor helped Wright-Santos apply to St. Edward’s.

To make it to college, Wright-Santos had to make a deal with her mother to work the fields every summer until she graduated. She fulfilled the bargain.

Her classmate Juan Felipe Santos ’82 arrived in Austin on the bus from Laredo with all his belongings in a brown paper bag. Santos grew up missing about five months out of the school year as he and his family traveled from South Texas to Minnesota, Wisconsin and other states to pick cucumbers or work in the sugar beet fields.

He’d dreamed of going to college but “it was such a distant dream,” he says.

“I didn’t want to voice it. I felt like if I talked about college, I was going to be so let down when I didn’t go, so I just kind of kept it in.”

Santos and Wright-Santos eventually fell in love at St. Edward’s and married in 1984. Today, he’s a neurologist based in Corpus Christi, and Wright-Santos

The federal Office of Economic Opportunity provides grant funds for the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) to four schools: St. Edward’s University, Pan American University (now part of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas), Adams State College (now Adams State University in Alamosa, Colo.) and San Diego State University.

is the chief operating officer for the medical practice.

Political Science major Vince Martinez ’24 says his migrant experience made him a stronger person. He remembers his family arriving to weed Arkansas cotton fields when the skies were still dark and the grass wet from dew. Weeding the peanut fields, he worked through pain on his hands and knees.

Sometimes it disappoints Martinez when people don’t understand that migrant farmworkers still exist. Too often people assume that all farm labor is accomplished nowadays by machinery. Not only are actual humans doing this work, he says: “I was doing it — just a couple of years ago.”

SHAPING LEADERS Through CAMP, scholars not only earn a college degree but also go on to inspire others. Martinez hopes to work in Washington, D.C., one day, perhaps as a senator. Maybe even as president.

“CAMP and St. Edward’s have shown me that it is possible for me to go to graduate school or law school,” Martinez says. “It’s like all these windows of opportunity are there for me. I didn’t know that was possible before.”

When Geronimo Rodriguez filled out his application to St. Edward’s, he wrote that he wanted to work at the intersection of policy, politics and the law.

2004

At St. Edward’s University, Dr. Gene Binder serves as the program’s first director; 100 students enroll. Of the original four schools, St. Edward’s is the only one to have continued CAMP uninterrupted to the present day.

1980

Federal oversight of CAMP is transferred to the newly created Department of Education.

1997

Enriqueta Cortez ’88 becomes the first St. Edward’s CAMP graduate to be recognized with the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

2001

Geronimo Rodriguez ’90 becomes the first St. Edward’s CAMP graduate to be recognized with the university’s Alumni Achievement Award.

2003

ABC World News Tonight features CAMP at St. Edward’s.

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St. Edward’s University pledges that no CAMP scholar will leave the university for financial reasons. As long as CAMP students maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher, they will receive tuition for up to four years beyond the first, which is federally funded. The St. Edward’s program receives the Texas Higher Education Star Award for closing gaps in student participation, student success, academic excellence and research.

2006

CAMP at St. Edward’s receives a Texas Aguila Award in Education, presented by the Aguila Awards Foundation to people and organizations that provide confidence and encouragement to the Hispanic community.

“I wanted to be able to influence these areas for people who looked like me, who grew up like me, who are like me,” he says. “I’ve been able to do that, and we need to do more.”

At Ascension Seton, he oversees multiple departments including one that identifies and provides services for survivors of human trafficking. He also led a medical response unit that provided more than 270,000 COVID-19 vaccinations throughout Central Texas in 2021.

He also serves as president of the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees. During his tenure, the mission of the school district changed to include providing all students the knowledge and skills to thrive in college, career and life. “And that is what I dreamed of in that field, working during the day and trying to go to night school,” he says. CAMP helped him flourish to his own fullest potential.

As a graduate student, Anabel Rodriguez began realizing her fullest potential when she took a research assistantship that focused on improving the occupational health and safety of dairy workers.

“I loved going out there to the farms,” she says. “Every worker I saw reminded me of my parents, my tíos (uncles), my cousins. When I saw the young girls working, I’d think, ‘Oh my gosh — that’s me.’” Rodriguez went on to earn a PhD

2010

Roxanna Rodriguez ’10 becomes the first St. Edward’s CAMP graduate to win a Fulbright.

She received sponsorship from the Israeli Ministry of Health to study Arabic and research the psychosocial effects of war at the University of Jordan.

2012

The St. Edward’s CAMP Alumni Association formalizes with a founding board of directors after CAMP’s 40th anniversary.

The New York Times runs a feature story highlighting CAMP at St. Edward’s.

from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and is now an occupational epidemiologist and assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health in San Antonio.

For Meléndez, now an associate dean of students at the University of Houston– Clear Lake, seeing the CAMP staff made up of individuals who “looked like me, sounded like me and were there to support me” made a significant impression.

Growing up in the Texas Panhandle, she’d never had a teacher of color nor felt the degree of love and support from the school staff that she felt from the CAMP team. Meléndez credits them with inspiring her passion for student affairs.

“When I think about the connections I want to have with students and the impact that representation had for me, I think about the CAMP staff,” she says.

PANDEMIC PIVOTS Briseño began as the St. Edward’s CAMP director in the fall of 2020. It was the start of the academic year, and classes were fully virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But she was determined to keep the new scholars connected. That meant delivering the programming — group meetings, counseling, tutoring and advising with success coaches — entirely online.

2014

Luci Baines Johnson ’97 and university Trustee Ian Turpin donate the largest single private commitment for CAMP, an endowment that expands students’ access to educational opportunities such as internships and research.

CAMP and St. Edward’s have shown me that it is possible for me to go to graduate school or law school. It’s like all these windows of opportunity are there for me. I didn’t know that was possible before.”

2018

VINCE MARTINEZ ’24

CAMP turns 50!

Nancy Flores ’03 becomes the first St. Edward’s CAMP graduate to receive the university’s Alumni Service Award.

2022

2017

Esther Q. Yacono, who led the St. Edward’s program for 23 years, retires. President George E. Martin announces the Esther Q. Yacono Honorary Endowed Scholarship during a university celebration of CAMP’s 45th anniversary.

“

Luci Baines Johnson ’97 and university Trustee Ian Turpin reaffirm their financial support of the Johnson -Turpin CAMP Enrichment Endowment established in 2014.

2020

Sonia Briseño ’98 becomes the first CAMP alumna to direct the program at St. Edward’s.

Sources: University Archives St. Edward’s CAMP office Alumni data

Bank of America selects St. Edward’s University for a $125,000 grant to support low-income students from underrepresented backgrounds and enhance educational opportunities for all students, including CAMP scholars.

50

years of

CAMP

Anabel Rodriguez ’14 recently became the first CAMP graduate to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees.

For Iliana Meléndez ’07, now an associate dean of students at the University of Houston–Clear Lake, seeing the CAMP staff made up of individuals who “looked like me, sounded like me and were there to support me” made a significant impression.

“We definitely saw the digital divide,” Briseño says. Some students, she says, had unreliable laptops or no home computer at all. Other students living at home lacked internet access. Some found themselves suddenly juggling caretaker duties for their grandparents, younger siblings or nieces and nephews.

Others had to earn money to support their families as their parents experienced job losses or reductions in hours.

“We tried our best to keep them engaged and let them know that if any concerns arose they could easily call us,” Briseño says. Constant communication,

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including text messaging, was key to maintaining those connections. “We made sure they heard from us every other day,” she says.

During the 2020–2021 school year, the program’s peer academic coaches — upperclassmen who ease the transition to college — served a vital role. Martinez, a sophomore in Fall 2020, served as one of these coaches. He’d been so motivated by his own peer academic coach during his freshman year that he wanted to give back.

A lot of the struggle for CAMPers who started college during the pandemic, Martinez says, was in forming

friendships and making connections outside of Zoom. As a coach, he talked to his CAMP mentee about everything from time management to nutrition habits.

“Despite all of the challenges that we faced, it’s extremely rewarding to see our students persevere, especially our 2020 CAMP class,” Briseño says. The end goal — seeing students graduate — keeps the staff pushing forward. “That’s going to help CAMP scholars with their upward mobility, and then they’ll have an opportunity to help themselves and possibly help their families as well,” she says.

As the first alumna to direct the program, Briseño identifies with CAMP scholars and their experiences. She grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, traveling to the Texas Panhandle with her family over the summer to weed sorghum fields, cut forage fields and harvest onions, tomatoes and cucumbers.

“Through this arduous labor, I learned the true meaning of a strong work ethic and making considerable sacrifices to guarantee a more prosperous future

for myself and my family,” Briseño says. “In those fields, I shared laughter, hopes, dreams, stories and tears with my family — and that’s something I would not change. As CAMPers, our experiences shape us and help us to embrace our pioneering spirit, courage and desire to thrive.”

LESSONS BEYOND THE CLASSROOM After decades of running a medical practice and building a life together, Santos and Wright-Santos say their commitment to their community, their patients and social justice is inspired by their St. Edward’s experience. Coming from humble beginnings, Santos worried he would be viewed differently than his campus peers. But the professors at St. Edward’s treated him and other CAMP students with dignity — something he says helped build his confidence as he pursued medical school.

When Wright-Santos arrived on campus, she was hesitant to open up about her migrant farmworker background.

“It was like, ‘How much of my life experience can I share with you? Am I going to be looked down upon?’”

Gradually, Wright-Santos says, her self-worth began growing thanks to teachers like Brother John Perron, CSC, who began teaching English at St. Edward’s in 1970. “I found my voice,” she says.

Geronimo Rodriguez has seen the program help students both find and strengthen their voices. He credits CAMP with giving students the courage to speak up in the face of injustice. The program helps create a more compassionate and just society by ensuring that migrant farmworker students gain a pathway to the middle class. “We need to continue to speak up for people who are not fully participating in our society,” he says.

Briseño’s own CAMP experience taught her the importance of selfadvocacy and seeking assistance when necessary. “Culturally, we’re not taught to ask for help,” she says. “We’re taught to figure it out by ourselves. But CAMP taught us that the faculty and staff at St. Edward’s are here to help.”

Over the years, the program’s family-like environment has made scholars feel like they belong.

CAMP by the Numbers

5

35

95

years of full tuition support are offered to CAMP scholars at St. Edward’s, the only school in the nation to do so

St. Edward’s CAMP scholars are selected each year

percent of St. Edward’s CAMP scholars are Hispanic, come from Texas and are firstgeneration college students

“CAMP allowed us to be ourselves,” Anabel Rodriguez says. She remembers seeing other first-generation students on campus wanting to hide the fact that they spoke Spanish or that their parents were immigrants. But she and her fellow CAMP scholars were proud of their heritage and openly discussed their migrant backgrounds.

“If you know who you are and are comfortable within your own skin, you will have more confidence to go after your dreams,” she says. “I feel secure in my identity because of CAMP — because I was given that safe space.”

ON THE HORIZON The power of CAMP reaches beyond its graduates. Meléndez, the higher education administrator, says the program’s impact extends to her students as well as her family.

“It’s changed my lineage forever,” says Meléndez, who’s working toward a doctorate in the Adult, Professional and Community Education program at Texas State University. “My family will no longer be able to say, ‘I can’t do that because nobody’s done it.’ I’ve done it.”

As she looks to the future, Briseño says financial sustainability is among her top priorities to ensure the legacy of CAMP at the university endures for decades to come. Continued funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the university is essential to the program’s future.

“When students are asked what their No. 1 challenge is to persist from one

year to the next, they will let you know that it’s financial hardship,” she says.

Although their tuition is covered through graduation, upperclassmen must secure funding for other expenses such as housing, books and meals. “We want to make sure that support continues for the upperclassmen.”

Martinez, the Political Science major, wants CAMP at St. Edward’s to be a beacon of hope for new generations. As a child, he would arrive at the Arkansas cotton fields and feel overwhelmed by the endless rows he’d have to clear of tall weeds. His father often told him he just had to make it to the end of the row.

Then, he’d be done and could tackle the next row.

“That’s kind of how I think of life’s challenges now,” he says. “It might look big and daunting. It might be difficult. It might be a stubborn task. But bit by bit, with the support of the people around you, you’ll get through it.”

Nancy Flores ’03 is a media entrepreneur and editor and publisher of Austin Vida, a digital Latinx news and culture site. She’s the past president of the St. Edward’s CAMP Alumni Association and was part of the CAMP class of 1998.

Join the celebration!

Check stedwards.edu/camp to learn about 50th anniversary festivities planned this year.

50

years of

CAMP

BY ROBYN ROSS

THE

Trailblazer MONTSE FUENTES BECAME A PROFESSOR TO HELP STUDENTS LIKE HERSELF ACHIEVE DREAMS THEY HADN’T THOUGHT POSSIBLE. NOW, AS PRESIDENT OF ST. EDWARD’S, SHE’S PAVING THE PATH FORWARD FOR THE UNIVERSITY.

PHOTO GRAPHY BY

CHELSEA PURGAHN

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M ontserrat “Montse” Fuentes has spent her life as a newcomer.

As a child, she moved frequently for her father’s military assignments; her academic career has led her from her home country of Spain to several different regions of the United States. Her experiences as a first-generation college student, an immigrant, a woman in a male-dominated field and a working parent have given her a deep empathy for those who lack a sense of belonging. As the new president of St. Edward’s, she has set the university on a journey to greater distinction that is inclusive of all.

Fuentes was born in Oviedo, Asturias, a lush, mountainous region near Spain’s northern coast. Although her family moved every two or three years, Fuentes consistently attended Catholic schools, reinforcing the commitment to service and community that her parents and parish churches had instilled in her.

Because neither of her parents went to college, Fuentes was determined to pursue higher education. She enrolled at the University of Valladolid, a public research university established in the 13th century. Torn between her loves for 28

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music — particularly piano — and mathematics, she decided to major in both. Fuentes sometimes struggled to navigate the unfamiliar higher education system, but faculty mentors nudged her toward life-changing opportunities to intern, conduct research and study abroad.

“I didn’t set out to pursue those opportunities, but they were presented to me because I had people who truly believed in me and cared about me,” she says. Years later, as a professor and dean, she offered the same confidence-building mentorship to her own students.

While studying abroad in Italy, Fuentes met visiting faculty from the University of Chicago’s department of statistics who recruited her to their graduate program. The experience set the direction for her life in multiple ways: Her second week in the United States, Fuentes met a man named Tom Patterson, who later became her husband.

After earning her doctorate,

she started teaching statistics at North Carolina State University, where she rose to full professor and served as department head. Along the way, she had a daughter and two sons.

The challenges of balancing an academic career with parenting three young children galvanized her to advocate successfully for parental leave. “One of the accomplishments I’ve always been proud of is my commitment to making work and family life more compatible,” she says. “One of the reasons I decided to pursue academic leadership opportunities was to make it easier for others in the future.” In 2013, North Carolina State recognized her with its Equity for Women award.

Fuentes went on to serve as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, a 30,000-student public university in Richmond, and as executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa. She also led the

research network for Statistical Methods for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, or STATMOS, a group of scholars leveraging statistics in service of climate science. Fuentes’ own research focuses on the environment, climate change and air quality, and the impact of environmental problems on human health and pregnancy outcomes.

Fuentes became president of St. Edward’s in July 2021.

After her years at large, public universities, she has embraced the chance to join a more intimate, mission-driven community. The mission of

“

“

St. Edward’s aligns with her own priorities: inclusion, hope, creating supportive relationships and promoting justice and equity. Fuentes is building on the work of her predecessors to position St. Edward’s as a destination university: one that offers a premier education grounded in social justice, and one where all students are connected with high-impact opportunities such as research, internships and study abroad. In addition to serving as president, she is a professor of mathematics and will teach statistics. She also will continue her research with

I didn’t set out to pursue those opportunities, but they were presented to me because I had people who truly believed in me and cared about me.

the support of a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

When she’s not working, Fuentes spends time with her husband and two sons — her daughter is a sophomore in college — and plays the piano.

Fuentes is a distance runner and plans to join a running club and train for a marathon.

For now, she recharges by running in the park near her house and doing yoga and Pilates.

Austin, she says, felt like home almost immediately because of its sizable Hispanic community and because its emphasis on being a green city reminds her of where she grew up. St. Edward’s, too, was a natural fit because of its student focus and its compatibility with her values.

“At other institutions, in other states, the first question I’ve always gotten is, ‘Where

are you from?’” she says. “I always have to overcome the sense that I don’t belong because clearly I’m not from that place. St. Edward’s is the first time I haven’t even gotten that question once. What people ask me is, ‘Why are you here?’ That tells me we’re here for the same reason: because we truly believe in the mission and values of the institution. It feels like this is where I belong.”

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The Making of a President

What she learned from marathon training

MARATHON RUNNER

Wisdom from her father

Being an expatriate and always being new to a school or community — not having a sense of belonging — has been challenging at times. But I draw on something my dad taught me when I was a child and we were moving because of his military service. He always said, L“ earn to adapt without losing yourself, and make sure you’re able to lead an authentic life.” I always try to lis ten and learn about the community while stay ing in touch with my core av lues.

MILE

26.2

-

Her favorites: Chicago and Toronto “because they were flat.”

On majoring in music and math

Music has always been my passion and how I express myself. But the logic in math helped me make sense of the world around me. So I pursued both subjects. They may be perceived as an odd couple, but they really come together in a ev ry natural manner. Music is all about harmonies, and the harmonic series is a mathematics formula. You need fractions to understand it, to be able to hold ev ry precisely to notes. There is actually a lot of math in music.

Why she calls statistics “the science of uncertainty”

Statistics helps you transform numbers and data into nk owledge that informs decision making. To make og od decisions, you must understand the uncertainty or potential error associated with your prediction. Statistics helps you not uj st to make a decision, but also to nk ow the level of uncertainty linked to it, which is indispensable.

WHAT’S ON HER BOOKSHELF

Breaking Bad News: 12 Essential Crisis Communication Tools

by Jeff Hahn Stars Over St. Edward’s: The SEU Theater Arts Program, 1962–1982

by Ev Lunning Jr., a retired faculty member in Theater Arts

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ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

On paying it forward

When I graduated from the University of Chicago and had great career opportunities in front of me, I asked my mentor, Michael Stein, what I could do to express gratitude for everything he did for me. He told me, “Just go and do for others what you think I have done for you.” Since then, I’ve been trying to be the type of mentor that he was for me.

Why she plays the piano after a long day at work

Music is still a very important part of who I am, even if I don’t play professionally. It’s therapy: It helps me focus, manage my emotions, channel my creativity and find balance. My favorite music comes from the 19th-century Romantic era, which encourages emotional expression: Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn and my favorite composer, Chopin.

My favorite piece to play is Chopin’s “Fantaisie-Impromptu.”

How earning two degrees prepared her for being a university president

I’m very organized and strategic with my time, and that’s a skill I developed when I was a double major. It was not easy to be studying two completely different fields, and on top of that, I had to practice the piano every day for three hours. So I had to figure out the best time of the day for me to do different activities, and that has served me well for the rest of my life. For instance, it required a lot of creativity to solve the problems in my college math courses, so I would read the questions and then play the piano. My mind would open, and I would be able to solve the problems afterward. These days, I know I do my best strategic thinking early in the morning, so I dedicate time to big-picture projects then.

Distance running teaches you discipline, endurance and the importance of being prepared. I’ve seen people get hurt without adequate preparation. I’m not fast, but I do have endurance.

On balancing family life and academic leadership

At North Carolina State University, where I held various leadership positions, I had many events to attend while my children were very young. Kids were not really expected at these events, but I decided to change the dynamics. I asked the chancellor if I could bring a child with me, and he always said it was fine.

He always welcomed that with open arms and celebrated the fact that I was bringing my family. That type of leadership was very impactful for me, and I’ve been inspired to continue working to make family life and academia compatible. People shouldn’t have to choose. We need to create opportunities for flexibility in our work that will make it easier to do both.

On playing in other people’s backyards

In my field, we say the wonderful thing about being a statistician is that you can play in everybody’s backyard. What that means is that you can follow your passion and use statistics with the most relevant problems in the discipline that interests you. My passion has always been nature and the environment because I grew up in the mountains, and I am invested in preserving water quality and the natural world. My research is linked to environmental problems and their human impacts.

PRESIDENTIAL PUPS

Fuentes’ family has two dogs: Greta, a young German shepherd, and Amber, a senior yellow Lab mix.

On the President’s Calendar In her first year at St. Edward’s, President Montse Fuentes has built relationships with students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Austin community.

Here’s a peek at where she’s been.

EVENTS

Leading the Fall President’s Meeting Answering questions for an Instagram Live under the Sorin Oak with SGA President Jae De Leon ’22 Delivering the welcome message at the “First to GOat” Festival, part of First Generation Scholars Week Participating in a Q&A with Staff Council Attending meetings as part of the Ballet Austin Board of Directors — and playing the larger-than-life character of Mother Ginger in one performance of The Nutcracker Co-hosting a Holy Cross Institute webinar, “Social Justice in the Holy Cross Tradition: Creating a World Where Love and Justice Prevail,” with Brother Richard Daly, CSC, ’61 Attending the back-to-school Welcome Mass

How she gets it all done

I schedule everything in my calendar — meetings, focused thinking time, meals, exercise.

If it’s not in the calendar, it doesn’t happen.

Every day I make sure to set aside time for strategic thinking so that I’m being proactive rather than reactive and helping the university move forward. I make sure I’m always prepared for meetings so the meeting is a good use of everyone’s time. I say no to some things. I make sure I have time to take care of myself by sleeping and exercising. And whatever I’m doing, I try to be fully present.

When I’m with my kids and I’m helping them with homework or preparing dinner, that’s my time with them, and colleagues know not to expect me to be available. And I have learned not to carry work with me wherever I go, either.

Her guilty pleasure

Reading. Anything that’s not scheduled in my calendar is a guilty pleasure.

HER FAVORITE AUSTIN COFFEE SPOT

Giving a talk as part of Ciencia sin Fronteras (Science without Borders) in the School of Natural Sciences during Hispanic Heritage Month Wearing her verde to an Austin FC game with members of the Alumni Association

Mozart’s Coffee Roasters on Lake Austin

On being the first Hispanic president of St. Edward’s

It’s a responsibility and a privilege, and I want to make sure that I’m leading by example. In a way, I represent the majority of our students since St. Edward’s is both majority-female and majority-minority. At the same time, because I don’t fit the stereotype of a university leader, there are still challenges ahead. My goal is to break down those barriers and make it easier for others who follow.

Enjoying performances of the Austin Orchestra Symphony and serving on its Honorary Advisory Council Cheering on the Hilltoppers at the “Battle of the Saints” basketball game against St. Mary’s University Attending A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Book Club Play at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre

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A Historic Inauguration The weekend of Feb. 25–26 was packed with events celebrating St. Edward’s and its 24th president.

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1. All Smiles

President Montserrat Fuentes leads the recessional following her inauguration and investiture at the Recreation and Athletic Center.

2. Giving Back

On Friday, a service project invited the hilltop community to decorate birthday boxes for Pop-Up Birthday, a nonprofit that celebrates the birthdays of children in foster care.

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3. A Call to Action

In her address, President Fuentes urged St. Edward’s and the city of Austin to work together to reduce inequities.

4. Family First

Fuentes hugs her husband, Tom Patterson, after receiving her presidential medallion from Steve Shadowen ’80, chair of the Board of Trustees.

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5. Round of Applause

Faculty clap for President Fuentes during the inauguration and investiture.

6. A Festive Day

Members of Ballet Folklorico perform as part of St. Edward’s 24th Presidential Inauguration festivities in Jones Global Event Center.

7. Toppers Up

President Fuentes and students gather for a group photo during a reception at the Munday Library.

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A Destination University for a More Just World

Over the past year, members of the St. Edward’s community developed a strategic plan to guide the university forward through 2027. The effort involved students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and administrators, and it builds on the university’s strengths and Holy Cross identity. The plan is an ambitious vision for continuing to elevate the quality of a St. Edward’s education while emphasizing justice, equity and a mutually beneficial relationship with the Austin community. It encompasses five goals:

Academic Excellence and Distinction

Achieve academic excellence and distinction through courageous teaching, research and creative work, and the development of relevant knowledge, skills and opportunities to connect to the world.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

Build a culturally inclusive and aware community that fosters diversity, equity and justice in the Holy Cross tradition and through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.

Vibrant and Inclusive Campus

Create a vibrant and inclusive campus that fosters Hilltopper pride and wellbeing through intentional investment in physical space, arts, athletics and multicultural, social and experiential programming where all students engage and thrive.

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Austin Impact

Engage local communities through transformative experiential learning, research, service and leadership experiences in pursuit of a more just world.

Infrastructure and Resources

Develop infrastructure and resources to achieve the strategic plan goals and ensure institutional sustainability.

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red doors STARTING UP: 3 TIPS FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS 1 Always ask your question, and don’t worry about sounding dumb. “You never know how common your question is.”

2 Embrace failure as an opportunity for growth. “If you take that and learn from it, you’re going to be that much more successful.”

3 You’re not alone. Small businesses have access to resources across the country — seek out your city’s economic development agency or SCORE.org for expertise and support.

TOP OF THE GAME

Ready to Launch

Barbra Boeta ’03 helps entrepreneurs who face barriers to building a successful business.

BY SARAH LINDENFELD HALL

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More than a decade ago, Barbra Boeta ’03 was working at a nonprofit that helps smallbusiness owners secure funding. After she sent one of her clients, a Spanish speaker who knew only a little English, to the bank, the client returned upset. The banker had asked him basic business questions, but used terminology that he didn’t understand — and that Boeta hadn’t thought to explain.

“He thought I set him up for failure. I set him up to look bad.

I felt horrible,” she says. “When I told him what the banker was asking in layman’s terms, he could list his numbers off the top of his head.”

It was a learning moment for Boeta, who has spent nearly two decades helping small businesses across Central Texas launch and flourish. And it was an inspiration for the next leg of her career: Educating burgeoning entrepreneurs

— especially those from marginalized backgrounds — about how to grow successful enterprises. Today, she is executive director of the Austin-based Economic Growth Business Incubator, an organization that offers training programs, one-on-one mentoring and bookkeeping support.

Boeta often works with women and minorities from low- and moderate-income backgrounds who have big dreams but little confidence they can achieve them. Boeta’s job is to show them how to bring their goals within reach and to ensure that they have the tools to be successful.

“Minorities, historically, haven’t had the ability to build wealth, and you build wealth through assets,” she says. “Through small-business ownership, they’re building their assets, things they’ve never had, which allows them

to provide their children with opportunities.”

Boeta arrived at the incubator in 2011 and took over as executive director in 2017.

Under her leadership, it’s grown from serving 250 individuals a year in 2017 to nearly 500 in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many small businesses to shift their focus from thriving to surviving.

Through it all, she draws on lessons learned at St. Edward’s.

Her Psychology major gave her the tools to understand how people think. The university’s personalized approach to education inspires the way she serves. She wasn’t just a number at St. Edward’s; her clients aren’t either.

“I want to make sure my clients know that they are going to call me and I’m going to know exactly who they are,” she says. “I’m going to be here to help them.”

HOPE IS A DISCIPLINE In the face of tough policy decisions and racial injustice, Brent Johnson ’12 maintains his optimism.

BY RACHEL ROSTAD PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE MORGAN

When Brent Johnson ’12 was 14 years old, he watched then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Johnson remembers thinking that Obama seemed like a new sort of entity.

“I thought, ‘Who’s this person who has captivated the world?’” Johnson says.

“That’s where my interest in politics started. We need systems and institutions that are composed of people who look like America.”

At St. Edward’s, Johnson studied Political Science, an interest he attributes in part to Obama’s inspiring presidential campaign and election.

Wanting to understand policy changes on a holistic level, he went on to earn a master’s degree in public administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Since then, Johnson has worked at the Department of Commerce, the Leadership Conference on Civil

and Human Rights and the Biden White House.

In 2021, he reached a turning point.

“I needed time to center myself,” Johnson says.

“I didn’t work for six months and wanted to think intentionally and strategically about what was next.”

The answer: A position as chief of staff at Civic Nation, an organization that empowers individuals and institutions to create a more inclusive America by leading grass-

roots efforts to support voting rights, racial justice, gender equality and immigrant communities.

“Issues of race and justice started to enter my mind in a real way,” he says. “A lot of it came to a head in the Trump years and as unarmed Black men were continuing to be killed by the police. As a Black man in this country, there’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about that.”

He takes comfort in the words of Vanita Gupta,

U.S. associate attorney general, who told him, “Hope is a discipline.”

Johnson sees a lot that gives him hope. Just as he was inspired by Obama’s keynote address in 2004, he knows that a whole generation has been inspired by a new wave of minority leaders.

“These problems are not going to be solved overnight,” Johnson says.

“I want to continue working for organizations that are trying to make this country better every day.”

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Your Alumni Tool Kit If you love being a Hilltopper and want to stay involved with the university, here’s how to get started.

BY MARLA HOLT

Give Your Time to Engage and Connect It’s easy to have fun (and keep learning) when you attend events and connect with your fellow Hilltoppers.

Check cal.stedwards.edu or follow @seualumni on social media to learn about upcoming events.

Participate in activities, both in-person and online Attend family-friendly events like the Hilltopper Holiday Mingle (meet Santa), Hoppy on the Hilltop (hunt for Easter eggs with Topper) or an Austin FC game.

Learn a new skill in the Hilltop Learning Series (topics include cooking and yoga; take one or teach one) or show off your knowledge at Topper Trivia Night.

Share your expert adulting skills with new grads in the virtual Alumni Leveling Up Series sponsored by University Federal Credit Union. Watch past sessions on the Alumni Association’s YouTube channel.

Return to campus for Homecoming, reunions and the Alumni Honors Ceremony.

Cheer on your Hilltoppers as they compete on campus or away.

Check gohilltoppers.com for your favorite team’s schedule — you can even livestream select games.

Attend a campus event if you’re visiting Austin or live in the area.

Theater productions, speaker series and Kozmetsky Center of Excellence forums are open to alumni.

READY TO GET STARTED?

Contact seualumni@stedwards.edu.

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Being engaged with St. Ed’s excites and inspires me to stay connected to the faculty, staff and administrators and has generated many alumni connections who have expanded my involvement in Houston and in different projects on campus.”

LAUREN HILL ’15

I want to continue to see St. Edward’s grow and be a top university. Because the university played such a crucial role in my development, I want to give back so other students can enjoy St. Ed’s as much as I did.”

Give your Treasure to Support and Sustain Your financial support is essential to keeping a St. Edward’s education affordable and accessible for all students. Gifts of all sizes ensure the promise of a Holy Cross education.

Learn more at stedwards.edu/giving.

JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ JR. ’98

Ways to invest in St. Ed’s

Give Your Talent to Network and Unite Your student experience, career expertise and guidance can be helpful to others. Volunteer to share what you know with the vast Hilltopper network.

Visit stedwards.edu/alumni/get-involved.

SHOW YOUR GRATITUDE

Contribute to the St. Edward’s Fund during the annual Thanks(for)Giving campaign in November in thanks for your own growth and development through a Holy Cross education.

Gifts are multiplied through challenge grants and matching funds.

GET LOUD AND PROUD

Love Blue, Give Gold is a two-day social media campaign that celebrates gifts of all sizes.

Every amount makes an impact. Follow #LoveBlueGiveGold to learn more.

KEEP IT NEAR AND DEAR

Support a cause that’s meaningful to you, such as the Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship, your school’s excellence fund, or a scholarship fund that honors a beloved faculty or staff member.

PAY IT FORWARD

Establish an endowment to provide permanent support for scholarships, professorships, department chairs or student research.

LEVEL UP

Ask your employer to match your gift; shop through AmazonSmile with St. Ed’s as the charitable beneficiary; advocate for grants from outside organizations; and encourage your classmates to give.

Six ways to get started Attend a college fair with a representative from the Office of Admission and share your St. Ed’s experience with prospective students.

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Mentor a current student. Impart your professional expertise, give advice on industry trends and discuss skill sets needed for success.

Share what you know at an on-campus career panel or a Topper Career Talk.

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Encourage a current student to apply for an experiential learning opportunity at your workplace.

Get involved with your local alumni chapter — Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston and San Antonio — or regional network.

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Become a Class Reunion ambassador. Your efforts can help create a meaningful return to the hilltop for you and your classmates.

I have chosen St. Edward’s as the primary recipient of my philanthropy because the university is an excellent steward of my resources and supports the values in education that are critical to me: Nurturing the whole student in the Holy Cross tradition of not educating the mind at the expense of the heart.”

ANGELIQUE MONTGOMERY-GOODNOUGH MLA ’06

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moments OF SERVICE

Cristobal Diaz ’22

Business Administration

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“Through Campus Ministry’s S.E.R.V.E. Austin program, I volunteered at Casa Marianella, a home for immigrants seeking asylum. Because I’m bilingual, I helped some of the residents with their court cases. Their stories about the circumstances they were escaping and their journeys to the United States were difficult to hear. When I first considered majoring in business, I thought it was just creating a product, selling it and making a profit. But after volunteering at Casa Marianella, I decided to become an entrepreneur with the purpose of giving back to the community and contributing to the wellbeing of society.”

Ruvi Jaimes ’22 Mathematics

OF USEFUL DISCOMFORT

“For me, what appear to be negative circumstances can always be a learning experience. I’ve tried to seek discomfort by putting myself in situations where I’m not entirely confident. I used to be super shy and I’m far from that now. It’s important to meet other people and maintain those connections both socially and professionally. I’ve become more confident at St. Edward’s by putting myself out there and trying to take advantage of all the opportunities.”

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Marketing Office 3001 South Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78704-6489 ELECTRONIC SERVICE REQUESTED

Lights, Camera, Hilltoppers!

The College Tour TV series recently filmed 10 standout students for its episode on St. Edward’s. Catch it on our YouTube channel.

“During my college search, I didn’t understand why small classes or relationships with professors were important. Now that I’m a tour guide, that’s what I love to talk about. The opportunity to do that on a national scale was way too good to pass up.”

MERIAM ELAWAD ’22

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