The Trinity Perspective | Spring 2017

SPRING 2017

Outside the Classroom Experiential learning is an essential component of a Trinity education

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How to Get an Internship Stories in Six Words

Charlie Stein ’18

Research is a really meaningful experience.

This project has made me not want to leave school so I can just keep doing research.

With the help of computer science professor Seth Fogarty, Charlie Stein ’18 has created a new domainspecific programming language (DSL) for mathematicians.

and acknowledge trademarks, and passed test cases before they were accepted.

What’s more exciting to Stein and Fogarty, though, are

With numerous proven practical uses for Stein’s research,

future improvements to the code. Since the program is

his hard work came to fruition in fall 2016 when the

now open source, anyone can access, use, and improve

language was published on CRAN, the Comprehensive R

upon the code to meet the needs of its users. The impact

Archive Network.

of Stein’s research will live on for mathematicians and

The process to have their language, “dsmodels: A

computer scientists alike.

Language to Facilitate the Creation and Visualization of Two-Dimensional Dynamical Systems,” published on CRAN is extensive. Stein and Fogarty completed documentation and examples for all the code, respect

Learn more about dsmodels on Github at github.com/trinity-automata-research/dsmodels.

The Trinity Perspective magazine is produced quarterly.

Through these pages, explore the many facets of life at Trinity University and get to know the students, faculty, and staff 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? 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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The History of Blue

Sasha Faust ’18 explores a pigment and uncovers painful family history

By Allyson Mackender ’17

When Sasha Faust ’18 began her research on Prussian blue, she never expected it to connect to a painful family history. Faust’s research, funded by the Mellon Initiative and supervised by Jessica Halonen, associate professor of art in the Department of Art and Art History, began with an interest in the color blue and its many meanings. It transformed into an impactful series that she titled “With Our Hands.”

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Discovered by accident in 1706, Prussian blue had an instant impact on the world of painting, but its influence reaches far beyond the art world. This compound was instrumental in the beginnings of photography and, though it can be used as an antidote to some heavy metal poisonings, it also led to the discovery and production of Zyklon B, the poison used in Nazi gas chambers. This perversion of the color blue served as Faust’s “interest, horror,” and artistic inspiration. The descendant of Jewish refugees pushed from their homes during the Nazi’s occupation of Poland, Faust decided she needed to explore the dark side of this influential compound.

While considering how her family history might inform her artwork, Faust recalled a treasured family heirloom: “When my family escaped, they were only allowed to take a few things with them,” Faust explained, “My great-grandmother brought two large, handmade, lace pillowcases.” These pillowcases provided inspiration for Faust’s series of cyanotypes created with handcrafted lace and lace embellished textiles once owned by her family members.

In order to create her pieces, Faust lays lace and other objects on paper that has been coated in mixture of potassium ferricyanide, ferric ammonium citrate, and water. This coating, after it is exposed to UV light and rinsed in water, results in the piercing shade of Prussian blue. An image of the object blocking the light

remains. Using a UV lightbox in Trinity’s art studio, Faust experiments with double, triple, and quadruple exposures. “When I first began, the process was exciting because I didn’t know what the pieces would look like until they were fully developed,” Faust explained. “Just a few seconds of additional exposure time in the lightbox can drastically change the appearance of a piece.”

Although Faust found it immensely rewarding to learn a new artistic technique she could share with the Trinity community at the end of the summer, she says the most meaningful part of her research process was its role in starting family conversations long overdue. Faust has always been interested in her family’s history and experience during the Holocaust, but was never sure how to bring it up. “It’s painful for my family members to talk about,” Faust said, “but my research gave me the push I needed to talk with my family, delve into our history, and use it as inspiration for my art.” The rewards Faust gleaned from completing this research make her excited about the possibilities for intellectual and personal growth that research projects hold for other humanities students. Summer research is interdisciplinary in nature, and Faust’s work incorporated not only studio art but also history, culture, and even chemistry.

It’s painful for my family members to talk about, but my research gave me the push I needed to talk with my family, delve into our history, and use it as inspiration for my art.

Allyson Mackender is a senior English major from Denver, Colorado. She is the author of Trinity’s Experiential Learning Blog at gotu.us/UndergradResearch and the editor of the Trinity Perspective at gotu.us/perspective.

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What is it really like to be an intern?

By Hailey Wilson ’19

I wondered this same thing before receiving an email from Professor Jacob Tingle, titled ‘I have an opportunity for you.’

Professor Tingle explained that he needed a management intern for the Arts, Letters, and Enterprise (ALE) minor/certificate program, which helps students in the humanities, arts, and sciences explore business and business administration.

I was sold. After a few more emails and phone calls, I was officially hired for the fall 2016 semester.

I imagined my days being filled with making copies, stapling packets, and managing emails. That’s what interns do, right?

This couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Trinity stresses this idea of experiential learning, but I never really understood exactly what that was until this internship.

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Over the semester, I was immersed in a ton of hands-on work, from attending faculty meetings to drafting marketing materials.

Having an internship on campus is unique; I can directly see the results of my work every day surrounding me. Also, internships are a crucial building block when it comes to drafting a résumé, so having this opportunity so early in my academic career helps set me up for success. Even though this is my first internship experience (and it won’t be

my last), I have had a blast. This experience has also opened my eyes and helped me realize that I love marketing, which changes my outlook on my future career plans.

Hailey Wilson is a sophomore from Phoenix who is majoring in communication with a minor in sport management. She is working toward one day being a lead anchor on ESPN.

Ready, Set, Intern!

Before graduating, 65 percent of Trinity students have held at least one internship. As students ready themselves for the workforce or graduate study, internships help develop critical skillsets to complement classroom learning. At Trinity, internship opportunities come in many forms.

We compiled a handy list to help our Tigers hit the ground running.

Start with Trinity’s Career Services, a comprehensive team that works with students as early as their first year to secure internships and jobs. Students are encouraged to bring résumés, curriculum vitae, and cover letters in for review. Career Services is a great place to develop those career-planning skills. @TUCareerService HireATiger.trinity.edu

Don’t miss the Arts, Letters, and Enterprise (ALE) program, which enables students to gain business literacy while pursuing majors in the humanities, arts, social sciences, or natural sciences. The ALE summer internship program places Trinity students at various San Antonio nonprofits to discover how their undergrad majors prepare them for careers in business, government, the arts, technology, and more. ● @TU_ExpLearning

Check out Students + Startups, a summer internship program organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This program connects Trinity interns with San Antonio technology startups and introduces students to the city’s vibrant entrepreneurship culture. Students + Startups operates in tandem with the 80/20 Foundation and Geekdom, two local nonprofit partners. ● @TrinityEntrep

FROM SAN ANTONIO TO SAN FRANCISCO AND BEYOND, TRINITY STUDENTS HAVE A VARIETY OF INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AT MAJOR LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES, INCLUDING...

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Six Trinity Student Writers Master

6 Words

When San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum was curating an exhibit of photographs that tell a story, organizers asked Jenny Browne, English professor at Trinity University and poet laureate for the city of San Antonio, to provide words for the images.

In turn, Browne invited students in one of her

creative writing classes to bring to life the commission from the McNay by writing sixword stories about the works of 17 photographers whose pieces appeared in “Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography” at the museum this winter.

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Drive to Succeed Trinity graduate accounting students tour San Antonio Toyota plant to get first-hand look at “just in time” business practices

By Susie P. Gonzalez

By the time a student reaches graduate school, field trips might seem irrelevant. But Amy Foshee Holmes, accounting professor at Trinity University, jumped at the chance for her graduate-level accounting class to join the San Antonio CPA Society to tour the Toyota plant in south Bexar County.

The students donned hard hats and left cell phones behind to ride a tram through the factory to see the plastics department, the trim line, and the final line where vehicles literally roll off the line. Along the way, a Toyota Texas tour guide explained how inventory is managed, how employees are nurtured, and how robots are incorporated into the assembly process.

Toyota embraces a “lean process” that features a “just in time” inventory with frequent deliveries by 21 suppliers of parts and equipment to minimize storage and maximize floor space for truck production.

Holmes said it was good for the students to be able to visualize a “lean process” since the concept is vital to the practice of accounting, especially in regard to cost and operations.

Students in her Advanced Managerial Accounting class also learned about nonfinancial measures, including sustainability, during the semester.

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“It was good to witness a great company like Toyota, to see its efficiency and production, and how employees are treated as a group,” said Chuck Kappmeyer ’16, ’17, who expects to receive his master’s in accounting in May. He has received an employment offer from the Deloitte accounting office in Houston and said his tour observations would be helpful in the business world.

Dennis Li ’17, a master’s in accounting student from Guangzhou, China, who also expects to graduate in May, said he was struck by the employment practices that apply to truck bodies mounted to rolling devices. “The workers have to be on top of things because the line doesn’t stop,” Li said. “They put in an intense workload and have to be precise. Time management is keenly important.”

Jorge Colazo, chair of the Department of Finance and Decision Sciences in Trinity’s School of Business, also visited with the class to share his experience of the Toyota factory, based on his position from 1994 to 2002 as production and maintenance manager of the Toyota plant in Argentina.

“When you tour a (truck) plant, it can be overwhelming,” he said. “There’s lots going on.”

It was good to witness a great company like Toyota, to see its efficiency and production, and how employees are treated as a group.

Colazo honed in on the Toyota pillar of jidoka, a Japanese philosophy that embraces quality in production and automatically stops work if a problem occurs. “It gives workers the autonomy, if they detect a defect, to stop the process so as not to pass defective products downstream.” This pillar of Toyota is coupled with the “just in time” concept of not having waste, which is understood as “anything that doesn’t add value in the eyes of the customer. It could be a waste of inventory, waste of movement, waste of overproduction,” Colazo said, explaining that is why Toyota works with a small inventory and has low capital needs.

The Toyota of Texas plant was announced in 2003. The first Tundra rolled off the line in November 2006, and the first Tacoma was produced in August 2010.

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

Visit Our Campus

VISIT OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADMITTED STUDENTS ADMITTED TIGER DAYS Admitted students are invited to attend one of four preview days designed exclusively for future Tigers. Tiger Friday and Trinity 360 programs allow admitted students to meet their future classmates, sit in on sample classes, learn about academic, cocurricular, and social opportunities from current students, and speak one-on-one with Trinity professors. Plus, parents can attend sessions designed just for them.

TIGER FRIDAYS

It’s important to take the time to visit the college campuses you’re interested in. There’s no better way to get a true sense of what it’s like to be a student. We encourage you and your family to visit Trinity University—meet the people, try the food, see the sights, and explore our beautiful campus and sunny San Antonio.

March 24

SCHEDULE YOUR VISIT TODAY

VISIT OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

March 31

The Office of Admissions is open Monday through Friday (excluding major holidays) for tours and information sessions and most Saturdays during the academic year. We also have some special visit programs throughout the year.

Spring Break Visit Options │ March 10 – 18, 2017

April 21 TRINITY 360

Saturday April 8

TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR Explore Trinity’s scenic campus online at gotu.us/virtualtour

The Office of Admissions welcomes you to our campus during our Spring Break (or yours). Campus Tours and Information Sessions will be offered late morning and early afternoon, with an opportunity to join us for lunch Monday through Friday.

Schedule a visit at gotu.us/visit.

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9:1 student-to

QUICK FACTS

faculty ratio

117

acre campus located in a residential neighborhood

97% hold doctoral or terminal degrees

Private, residential, co-educational, undergraduate-focused Founded in 1869 10 minutes from San Antonio International Airport Located in America’s 7th largest city

2,299

undergraduates from 47 states and 60 countries 11% international students

74% live on campus

SAT Middle 50%*: Critical Reading: 580-690 Math: 580 - 680 Writing: 560-600

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ACT Middle 50%*: 27-32

minutes from downtown San Antonio

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*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.