The Trinity Perspective | Spring 2016

SPRING 2016

Bright Ideas

Trinity student entrepreneurs and interns develop and innovate in the San Antonio community

The techniques that we develop here will continue to be used in this research after I graduate, which is an exciting and humbling thought.

Lindsey Ulin ’16

worldwide, so there is a significant

technique from scratch, seeing what

Phillips’ lab this year, Lindsey Ulin

Working in Prof. Kimberley

need for therapeutic intervention,”

worked and what didn’t and having

’16 is researching the effects of

Lindsey explains. “I’d done research

to go back to the drawing board. But

exercise on demyelinating disease,

before, but never from the very

it’s a good lesson, because research

such as Multiple Sclerosis, or MS.

beginning of the process. It’s been a

isn’t always straightforward. The

Her research is a continuation of a

hard task to develop procedure and

techniques that we develop here will

summer’s work in Phillip’s lab.

“Multiple Sclerosis affects 6 million people in the U.S., and many more

continue to be used in this research Read more about Lindsey’s research and other experiential learning and research opportunities on Trinity’s blog at gotu.us/undergradresearch

after I graduate, which is an exciting and humbling thought.”

The Trinity Perspective magazine is produced quarterly.

Through these pages, explore the many facets of life at Trinity University and get to know the faculty, staff, and students that call Trinity home. With the vibrant city of San Antonio as a backdrop, discover the many benefits and opportunities our community has to offer. Oh, and we may throw in our favorite restaurants around town for you to check out while visiting our 117-acre campus.

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ABOUT TRINITY

Trinity University is a private, residential, co-educational institution with an undergraduate focus. So, what does that mean for you? It means that we are a place that is here to focus on YOU. We connect you with the best possible resources, caring and engaged faculty members, committed staff members, and world-class students destined to have a positive impact on our community.

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Living Sport In

LONDON

Faculty-led study abroad course in London explores the history and influence of British sport

By Carlos Anchondo ’14

The newest Trinity University faculty-led study abroad program crossed the pond to London, England, this winter break. The course provides a comparison of the British and American sport systems and continues through the spring 2016 semester. Cross-listed as Business 3390 and Sport Management 3390, the course studies the economic, political, social, and cultural forces influencing British sport in juxtaposition to the American model.

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Taught by Jacob Tingle ’95, business administration professor and director of experiential learning, and Paul McGinlay, the Trinity men’s soccer head coach, the course examines club and team ownership, sport media, athlete development, revenue production, and the historical evolution of sport stadia. The class spent Dec. 27 through Jan. 9 experiencing the British sport landscape firsthand.

“Many British sports are the fathers or grandfathers of the most popular sports in the world,” Tingle says. “Whether it is cricket or rugby or soccer, a trip to London is the logical first step.”

In preparation for the trip, students were required to read Sport and the British: A Modern History by Richard Holt. Each morning

Many British sports are the fathers or grandfathers of the most popular sports in the world.

Whether it is cricket or rugby or soccer, a trip to London is the logical first step.

in London either Tingle or McGinlay delivered a lecture to students that related to the venues the group was visiting that day, in addition to a pre-lecture reading. The class toured the main headquarters of the British Broadcasting Company, the British Olympic Committee’s head office, The All England Club, Lords Cricket Grounds, and a host of other sites.

The group, comprised of 12 students in addition to Tingle and McGinlay, took in a match at Loftus Road featuring the Queens Park Rangers Football Club. The class also visited Wembley Stadium, the second largest stadium in Europe. Tingle calls Wembley “a historic site” that is a place students must experience in person.

“Whether we are talking about soccer,

tennis, or whichever sport, to be at a place and to touch the grounds, to talk to the fans who live the culture, that makes it so much more meaningful when students do the comparisons back home,” Tingle says.

Tingle also coordinated with alumnus Christopher Gaffney ’92 to give a lecture about the many aspects of urban culture associated with stadiums. Gaffney is the author of Temples of the Earthbound Gods, a professor at the University of Zurich, and the editor of the Journal of Latin American Geography. Back in the U.S., Tingle and McGinlay are tasking students to evaluate the impact of venues like San Antonio’s AT&T Center with their British counterparts.

Additional highlights of the group’s time in London were visits to Westminster Abbey,

Hampton Court Palace, Stonehenge, and The Tower of London. Students also had the opportunity to meet with British university students who are friends of Callum Squires ’17, a member of the Trinity men’s soccer team who is originally from London. Trinity students conducted interviews over dinner to talk about British sport culture in schools and society.

Unique opportunities such as engaging with British university students are just one reason Tingle knew the trip to London was worthwhile.

“There is something about experiencing that which you are studying that makes it so much more alive,” Tingle says. “This study abroad opportunity was a great chance to engage in the sport management world.”

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NoSo Pockets

NoSo Pockets creates affordable, custom pockets that customers stick onto their shirts using a permanent adhesive. Steven Oleksak ’17 and Austin Singer ’16 founded the startup through Entrepreneurship 2190, a course where they launched NoSo as an LLC. The duo hand-selects fabric to fill orders for not only the Trinity community, but outside customers as well. Oleksak and Singer built on majors in business, marketing, and accounting to make NoSo a success.

“The class kept us on track and motivated to meet our goals,” Singer says. “It helped us complete tasks, from carrying through big-picture ideas to the little details.”

The Laundry Crew

The Laundry Crew, founded by Michaela Hoffman ’18 and Edwin Manton ’18, developed a service to collect and launder the dry cleaning and laundry of Trinity students. Accepting TigerBucks, the campus currency, in addition to traditional forms of payment, The Laundry Crew received honorable mention at the Stumberg Competition and took home $5,000 in business consulting from James Brehm, founder of James Brehm & Associates.

VHT

VHT built an app-based platform that will serve as a virtual Child Life department for hospitals. To improve the quality of patient care as well as patient satisfaction, VHT’s app will collect and share structured data with physicians. The group has designed the app to be customizable to the patient’s age, disease class, procedure, and desired theme.

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Denify Health Solutions Denify Health Solutions produced a smartphone app for hospital nurses to use so that patient issues can be resolved in a timely manner.

Through this app, nurses will be able to prioritize and complete tasks, reducing patient wait times and minimizing their own stress.

James Brehm granted $5,000 for Denify to continue app development in the future.

Bright Ideas Entrepreneurship at Trinity allows students to take innovation to new heights At Trinity, entrepreneurship means creativity, ambition, and perseverance. As an undergrad, hit the ground running through the first-year entrepreneurship residence hall or participate in San Antonio’s 3 Day Startup. Take courses in the entrepreneurship minor, where professors from a variety of academic

Plova Chewing Gum Plova Chewing Gum secured the $25,000 grand prize for their hygienic chewing gum. Plova claims that their gum will whiten smiles by reducing plaque and bacteria missed by normal tooth brushing. The winning team plans to target their product to hotels, dentist offices, as well as the San Antonio military community. The Plova team consists of Cole Evans ’18, Thayer Selleck ’18, and Vikram Patel ’18.

“It feels indescribable to win. It’s rewarding to have our team effort recognized,” Evan says. “Next, we’ll place a new order of gum and focus on future goals as a team.”

disciplines will hone your leadership skills, business sense, and knowledge of finance, management, and marketing.

Join tomorrow’s leaders in the Entrepreneurship Club or as a competitor in the annual Stumberg Competition, where students develop real-world business opportunities and compete for a $25,000 prize. Meet this year’s Stumberg participants as they take their ideas from the classroom

Trinity’s academic rigor, along with its entrepreneurship program, has given me the opportunity to start a company with my closest friends, all while staying involved with a handful of extracurricular activities.

Thayer Selleck ‘18 BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP, NORTH BEND, OH

to the marketplace.

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Caileen Tallant ’16

COMPOSER Chemist Double major Caileen Tallant arranges an original score for Trinity’s Christmas Vespers

By Carlos Anchondo

A solemn hush filled the Margarite B. Parker Chapel as the 2015 Christmas Vespers service began. Members of the Trinity Choir, Voix d’Esprit, and Chamber Singers processed in a dignified line toward the altar singing “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” The Trinity community had come together for an annual holiday tradition.

As the service continued, one choir member eagerly awaited one carol in particular, a carol she herself composed.

Caileen Tallant ’16 premiered her arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter” at Vespers as the culmination of more than a month’s worth of writing and editing.

Tallant set the text of Christina Rossetti, an English poet, to music, using the lyrics as a framework to structure the piece. More than 120 students — sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses — brought Tallant’s hard work to life, something she calls a surreal experience.

“I could not believe that it was actually happening,” Tallant says. “During the call time before Vespers, we ran through the piece and I teared up because it was exactly like I had imagined it to sound in my head.”

A chemistry and music composition double major, Tallant was offered the opportunity to score a piece for Vespers after David Heller, chair of the music department, heard an earlier choral piece

by Tallant at an end-of-the-semester

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composition jury. Heller introduced Tallant to “In the Bleak Midwinter,” the chord progressions already forming in her mind.

Originally a poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter” was popularized as a Christmas carol by composer Gustav Holst in 1906. The text tells of the coming of Christ amidst a scene of desolate cold and snow. Tallant based the composition’s phrasing around climaxes in the lyrics, contrasting the unforgivable winter with the appearance of Christ.

As she wrote, Tallant considered the specific chamber style indicative of the Vespers service.

The piece’s debut at Vespers proved to be a nerve-wracking, yet ultimately gratifying experience for Tallant.

“I was incredibly vulnerable because my emotions went into writing the piece,” Tallant says. “To expose that to a bunch of strangers and to receive positive feedback

was a reassuring process and a sign that I can do this.”

Tallant came to Trinity from Aledo, Texas, with the intention of becoming pre-med.

She found that she truly enjoyed research, but also that she missed music and playing piano, a hobby since the age of seven. As a sophomore, Tallant began working toward a music major, taking courses in theory, music history, orchestration, a primary

I cannot tell you how much I have grown from when I started with Dr. Bondari to now. You can always get better, but now I see myself as a composer whereas before I was just a person who wrote music. instrument and more. She joined choir to fulfill an ensemble requirement and enrolled in private composition lessons with music professor Brian Bondari.

After she was asked to compose “In the Bleak Midwinter,” Tallant struggled to start writing and worried about making the piece perfect. Bondari reassured her, asking her not to put too much pressure on herself and to simply put pen to paper. Tallant concentrated on the act of writing and saw Vespers as the final reward.

“I cannot tell you how much I have grown from when I started with Dr. Bondari

to now,” Tallant says. “You can always get better, but now I see myself as a composer whereas before I was just a person who wrote music.”

Looking forward to her final semester, Tallant is preparing for her senior recital where she will be performing original works that she composed. She will conduct that recital, featuring a large chamber orchestra piece, and is contemplating a theme of love gone awry.

In addition to music, Tallant is studying a boxlike molecule and is testing the addition of more molecules inside the box.

The goal is to bind the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and to see how much the box can expand without distorting it and making it non-synthesizable. She is traveling to San Diego in March 2016 to present at an American Chemistry Society conference.

With the ultimate dream of studying how music affects the brain, Tallant is confident that both chemistry and music composition are in her future. Grateful for the support of both departments, Tallant has scored one harmonious double major with a bright, yet unwritten ending.

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Press Play Senior computer science student interns at streaming giant Spotify

I was honored to have this opportunity because I have loved music my whole life.

By Carlos Anchondo

Imagine you are a free Spotify user and you’ve just created a new playlist, but with only one track. You click the shuffle-play button and the next song plays with a similar style and sound. The suggestion is immediate and feels intuitive.

As a summer data engineering intern at Spotify in New York City, Campbell Compton ’16 helped write the back-end recommendation service for free users and worked on the functionality behind the shuffle-play button.

Compton is a computer science major from Bellville, Texas, who says he loved the culture at Spotify, where his coworkers were friendly and often travelled the halls via scooter.

Compton was a member of Lambda Squad, a team of machine-learning, data, and back-end engineers. He worked alongside two other interns who were graduate students from Stanford and Columbia.

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“I was honored to have this opportunity because I have loved music my whole life,” Compton says. “Spotify is such a cool company with a great work environment.”

At his internship, Compton primarily used the programming language Java, but says that Spotify also uses Scala, another language mainly utilized for general software applications, for their data pipelines and recommendation engines. Trinity teaches Scala to computer science students in their first and second semesters, one of the few universities in the United States to do so.

Mark C. Lewis ’96, professor of computer science, says that his department felt it important to teach its first two courses in the same language. He adds that Scala does a “good job” explaining the varied content from each introductory course.

During his 10 weeks at Spotify, Compton says he was able to learn extensively about the current state of the music industry. Interns

attended lunches twice a week where different departments would present on their field, from legal and human resources to engineering and advertising.

“It was neat because I was able to learn a little bit about everything,” Compton says.

“It was exciting to be at Spotify because music has always been a field I’ve been interested in.”

Another bonus for Compton were the Spotify Sessions, where artists such as Shaggy or Nate Ruess would perform for the office.

Compton adds that he was particularly glad he was able to intern at Spotify because it allowed him to compare this experience with a previous summer internship. His earlier internship was at a more corporate company where he was entrusted with “less exciting” responsibilities.

He says that the humanities side of Trinity played a “huge role” in why he got his internship and says that Spotify expressly looks for people who will fit into the company culture, even at the intern level.

Lewis adds that other computer science students have recently interned at Google, Amazon, the United States Automobile Association (USAA), Turner Logic, and various start-ups in the San Antonio community.

Do you know what the best way to determine if Trinity is the right school for you?

Schedule Your Visit Today The Office of Admissions is open daily (excluding major holidays and the University’s winter recess) for tours and information sessions. We’re also open most Saturdays during the academic year. In addition to our daily visit opportunities, we also have some special programs throughout the year.

Visit Trinity If there is one thing you take the time to do (other than completing your personal statement and finalizing your application), visit the college campuses that you are interested in. We encourage you and your family to try the food, meet the people, see the sights, and experience our beautiful campus and sunny San Antonio.

Visit Opportunities for Prospective Students SPRING BREAK VISIT OPTIONS | March 7-18, 2016 The Office of Admissions welcomes you to our campus during our Spring Break (or yours). During the Spring Break Season, we look forward to welcoming you to campus for a Campus Tour, Information Session, and the opportunity to meet with one of our talented admissions officers. If you have questions about Trinity (or the college search), we will get them answered.

EXPERIENCE TRINITY | Monday, April 4, 2016 (or as we like to call it, Square Root Day 4-4-16) A hands-on program that lets you engage with our faculty members and experience for yourself what it means to be a member of our community of scholars.

Take a Virtual Tour

Explore Trinity’s campus online at gotu.us/virtualtour

Visit Opportunities for Admitted Students and Their Families TRINITY 360 March 5, 2016 & April 16, 2016 The Trinity 360° program allows admitted students to meet their future classmates, sit in on sample classes, learn about academic, cocurricular, and social opportunities from current students (while your parents attend special sessions just for them) and speak one-on-one with Trinity professors.

RSVP online at gotu.us/visit.

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QUICK FACTS

75%

117

of students live on campus

-acre campus located in a residential neighborhood Private, residential, co-educational, undergraduate-focused Founded in 1869

minutes from downtown San Antonio

10 minutes from San Antonio International Airport Located in America’s 7th largest city

Apply Trinity University accepts both the Common Application and the ApplyTexas Application for undergraduate admission.

Learn more about applying to Trinity University online at

www.trinity.edu/applynow Both merit scholarships and need-based financial aid options are available.

Have a question for a current Tiger?

Send us an email at AskATiger@trinity.edu to get the inside scoop on student life at Trinity.

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9:1

student-to faculty ratio 97% hold doctoral or terminal degrees

2,353

undergraduates from 47 states and 60 countries 11% international students SAT Middle 50%*: Critical Reading: 570-680 Math: 590 - 680 Writing: 590-680 ACT Middle 50%*: 27-31 *Range identifies the middle 50% of Trinity’s enrolled students. 25% of enrolled students scored above this range; 25% of enrolled students scored below this range.