The Trinity Perspective | Summer 2015

SUMMER 2015

Sprouting Success INSIDE: MEET MITCH HAGNEY ’13,

ADVENTUROUS ENTREPRENEUR & FOUNDER OF LOCAL SPROUT

The Boston Globe described her voice as “elusive, delicate, silvery and persuasive;” The New York Times called it “a voice with considerable warmth.” Countless performances at concert halls, festivals, and iconic venues have elicited rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for this rising star—in a field this alumna could have never imagined.

Sarah Davis ’04 was awarded the 2014 American Prize in Voice in the professional art song/oratorio division. Davis recalls Trinity music history professor Carl Leafstedt encouraging her to “find a niche, to find what I love and do best in singing.”

She also credits Scott MacPherson, then-director of choral activities at Trinity, as a huge influence in her career and her life. “His dedication, his mentoring, his encouragement and his belief in me are all reasons I am the artist and person I am today.”

Trinity Alumni

At Trinity, I was encouraged to find a niche, to find what I love and do best in singing.

SARAH DAVIS ’04 Lyric Soprano & Winner of the 2014 American Prize in Voice

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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Have a question for a current student?

Email our current students your questions at: AskATiger@trinity.edu Have a question for an admissions officer, faculty member, or other staff member?

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

THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS Trinity University One Trinity Place San Antonio, Texas 78212 admissions@trinity.edu www.trinity.edu/admissions 1-800-TRINITY

ABOUT TRINITY

Trinity University is a private, residential, co-educational institution 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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Jeff Strain ’91 A Hunger for Design From an early age, Jeff Strain has been fascinated by the technology behind video games. For the creator of iconic industry games such as StarCraft, Diablo, Guild Wars, and World of Warcraft, the excitement has always been in the details.

This Temple, Texas, native discovered his collegiate home in Trinity and the city of San Antonio. He chose the University for its academics, its growing investment in the burgeoning computer science field, and the dedicated faculty and staff.

“There was the academic rigor to it,” says Strain, “and that was indicative of [Trinity] wanting to be at the forefront of what was going on, rather than what was safe.”

Strain honed his computer sciences skills under the tutelage of adviser and professor Maurice Eggen, who maintained a distinctive effort to include students on his publications. Like many Trinity students, Strain was pushed out of his comfort zone and benefited from Trinity’s emphasis on a balanced, comprehensive liberal arts education.

One class in particular that expanded Strain’s worldview was Classical Rhetorical Theory, a course which studied how Greek philosophers thought and developed arguments.

“Coming out of it, it felt like it was one of the most influential and transformative academic experiences that I’d ever had,” says Strain. “I loved it. Loved it. There was a structure to it, beyond a strict mathematical or engineering type structure…there was an emotional structure and a human structure that had a huge influence on me.”

A founder of companies ArenaNet and Undead Labs, Strain is undoubtedly a technology man. Yet, he cites his Trinity liberal arts education with being able to think inventively when dealing with situations outside the video game arena.

Strain recalls drawing from Classical Rhetorical Theory when recruiting potential employees to his company or pitching to investors. He acknowledges that specific course which enabled him to think creatively and engineer a favorable outcome.

The May 2014 Trinity commencement speaker, Strain is also a passionate advocate for small businesses and a great proponent of a liberal arts education.

“It gives you the tools to go on and do things that are innovative and push the boundaries of your discipline. For me, what it comes down to is exposure to other ideas, other ways of thinking.”

For Strain and many others, thinking outside the box is just one hallmark of a Trinity degree.

Watch Jeff talk about his Trinity experience at gotu.us/jeffstrain

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Coming out of it, it felt like it was one of the most influential and transformative academic experiences that I’d ever had.

Of students who graduated in May 2014

48% employed

43%

Emily Jorgens

full-time

4%

Kelsey Falcone

part-time

Tiger women score NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships

1%

serving in the military

Trinity seniors define what it means to be student-athletes

31%

Senior soccer players Emily Jorgens and Kelsey Falcone are making history. Jorgens and Falcone join the ranks of 34 other Trinity student-athletes who have been awarded scholarships through the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship program. Both women have earned a one-time scholarship of $7,500 to be used toward an accredited graduate program.

Across their collegiate careers, Jorgens and Falcone have amassed 113 goals and 131 assists. Jorgens has been named the Capital One Academic All-American of the Year two consecutive times, the only player to do so. Both Jorgens and Falcone have earned National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Scholar AllAmerica accolades.

After graduation, Jorgen plans to continue her studies in accounting

at the University of Texas at Austin for a masters’ degree in accounting. Jorgens recently completed an internship with the Dallas-based firm, Deloitte, and has been extended a full-time position upon completion of her graduate studies. Jorgens currently boasts a 4.00 GPA and received the Elite 89 Award in 2013, presented to the player with the highest GPA at the NCAA Championship semifinals and final.

enrolled in graduate school

Falcone, a double major in communication and biology, has a 3.63 GPA and will attend medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Falcone would like to specialize in either pediatrics or emergency medicine, but is interested to explore her options.

Through their academic achievements and athletic prowess, Jorgens and Falcone embody the definition of student-athlete.

8%

of

undergraduates go on to earn Ph.D.s the 2nd largest percentage in Texas

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Mitch Hagney ’13 A Hydroponic Green Thumb Mitchell Hagney spends the majority of his day inside a 40-foot shipping container. But don’t worry.

Hagney loves it there, where he tends to a growing number of hydroponic crops. He grows mint, Thai and Genovese basil, and other crops as a part of LocalSprout, a hydroponic farm partnership with San Antonio innovator Rackspace.

Looking at Hagney today, it’s hard to believe that he once knew very little about agriculture or the environment. The New Hampshire native grew up some 2,000 miles away from San Antonio and was recruited to Trinity based on his debate skills in high school. Hagney joined the ranks of Trinity’s awardwinning team, but soon realized environmental issues were a recurring theme in his debates, prompting him to leave the team and take action.

Hagney benefited from Trinity’s liberal arts curriculum, which required him to explore a variety of subjects, including an earth surfaces processes course with geosciences professor Thomas W. Gardner.

Although he did not receive the best letter grade, Hagney took away something more important.

“The class was shockingly useful,” Hagney says. “I understood why a mountain exists the way it does, how landscapes work. That was very cool.”

Making the most of the wide dearth of clubs available at Trinity, Hagney got his hands dirty. Literally. He co-founded Trinity’s first community garden, volunteered at the Children’s Shelter, began leading public outreach campaigns for Solar San Antonio, and served as president of Students Organized for Sustainability.

As he prepared to graduate with degrees in international studies

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and human communications, with a minor in geoscience, Hagney was approached by Rackspace co-founder Pat Condon and LocalSprout was born. The company provides ultra-fresh produce to area restaurants, including San Antonio’s Humble House foods, One Lucky Duck, Tuk Tuk Taproom, the Monterey, and local watering hole The Brooklynite.

Hagney’s sense of activism was nurtured by his international studies concentration, international environmental studies, which examines how humans’ impact on the environment can influence global economic and political development. Today, Hagney engages in the community through nonprofit VentureLab to tutor children about agricultural entrepreneurship and contributes to the San Antonio Food Bank with donations and educational outreach.

While Hagney remains far away from ‘the granite state,’ he has found a second home in San Antonio and says the city is ready for tremendous ecological and financial growth.

“You feel like you’re building something here, and not just your own business,” Hagney says.

As Hagney continues to build upon his Trinity foundation, the future is bright and the shipping container 100 percent pesticide and herbicide-free.

You feel like you’re building something here, and not just your own business.

Become an Entrepreneur at Trinity University

400 members and

counting! in TUNE (the Trinity University Network of Entrepreneurs)

1,336 Tiger alumni

have identified

themselves as entrepreneurs via LinkedIn

Check out Trinity University’s LinkedIn page at

gotu.us/linkedin Learn more about Trinity’s first-year, living-learning Entrepreneurship Hall at trinityentrepreneurshiphall.blogspot.com

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HOPE Hall charges forward The living-learning community HOPE Hall inspires its members to engage in thoughtprovoking service and to reexamine what it means to experience homelessness In the fall of 2014, HOPE Hall celebrated its third anniversary by welcoming 13 first years to the living-learning community, swelling its ranks to 51 service-oriented members. The hall’s name is an acronym for Homelessness Outreach Pursuing Education and reflects the core mission of its residents: to address homelessness in the San Antonio community; to build relationships through service; and to raise awareness about homelessness through academic study.

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Ben Whitehead ’15 makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a sandwich-making assembly line on Trinity’s quad. As part of its fall semester community service initiatives, HOPE Hall sent sandwiches to downtown homeless shelters.

HOPE Hall, the brainchild of Katie Ogawa ’14, now a medical student at the University of New Mexico, came to fruition after Ogawa’s experience on The Plunge, a faith-based week of service offered to incoming Trinity students. Ogawa saw the strong connections forged by the weeklong initiative and sought to create a like-minded residence hall dedicated to confronting homelessness head-on.

“I watched HOPE Hall go from an idea among friends dreaming in a dorm room to meetings with potential community partners, to a mission statement and learning outcomes, to the entire Murchison residence hall,” Ogawa says. “HOPE Hall is an incredible example of being able to turn a dream into a reality.”

Each week, HOPE Hall members dedicate a minimum of two hours to serving persons experiencing homelessness. The hall has seven community partners, from which students pick an organization and commit to volunteer there for the semester.

Jacob Hall ’15 is the hall manager for HOPE Hall, a residential life position that has allowed him to forge lasting relationships with all years of hall members.

“Building relationships— be it with my residents, residents I’m serving with, or the people that we serve—has been my favorite part of the hall,” Hall

says. “Relationships are such an important part of the experience.”

Hall credits his time in HOPE Hall with transforming his understanding of homelessness, saying that it is far too easy to stereotype someone experiencing homelessness, which rarely has just one face.

“There are many faces to homelessness,” Hall explains. “Many times it is people much like ourselves experiencing homelessness and serving makes you more empathetic for people going through hard times.”

Edwin Blanton, associate director of

Katie Ogawa ’14 speaks with hallmate Ben Whitehead ’15 and former Trinity president Dennis Ahlburg in the Parker Chapel garden.

To be a part of HOPE Hall is to be a part of a close-knit community that fosters growth, friendship, and opportunities. experiential learning and HOPE Hall adviser, says that the hall itself is a testament to the University’s ability to listen to its students and its commitment to the San Antonio community. “It speaks volumes that the university can help a vision become a reality,” Blanton says.

HOPE Hall has engaged students academically through first-year seminars, courses regarding service learning in education, and a sociology special topics course entitled “Homelessness.”

Blanton, who taught the first-year seminar in fall 2012 with biology professor Robert Blystone, said one of HOPE Hall’s strengths is its reflective nature, which encourages members to examine the service they’ve completed and what it means for them as global citizens.

“Students have the opportunity to give back but also to do so in a thoughtful manner,” Blanton says. “That ability to reflect allows someone to grow immensely as a person and to think and discover.”

Jay Stracke ’17 will serve as director of HOPE Hall for 2015-2016 and encourages prospective Trinity first years to join HOPE Hall for its “like-minded” members who share a passion and love for service.

“To be a part of HOPE Hall is to be a part of a close-knit community that fosters growth, friendship, and opportunities amongst all its members,” Stracke says. “First years committed to volunteering and community service would flourish on the hall.”

HOPE Hall looks to the future as some hall leaders discuss plans to develop the hall beyond the residential community and to

Jacob Hall ’15 reads a book to an elementary school child whose family had been affected by homelessness.

expand it into a larger student organization.

While these ideas are still in the talking stages, hall leaders say they do not want to limit service opportunities based on the number of available dorm rooms.

As for Ogawa, HOPE Hall’s honorary matriarch, she is full of gratitude for the students who continue to serve and for the staff members who guide them. She is proud that the mission of HOPE Hall continues to remain the same.

“I would love to come back for my 10-year reunion and still see HOPE Hall going strong,” Ogawa says. “I hope that members of the hall continue to strive to build meaningful relationships with one another and those they serve.”

By Carlos Anchondo ’14

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Valerie Alexander ’90 Natural Born Wonder Woman A journey that started with a small trifold pamphlet led Valerie Alexander to Trinity before she started conquering the world As a high school senior in Indiana, Valerie Alexander had a difficult decision to make. Like thousands of other students across America, this senior was preparing to select her collegiate home and had narrowed her search to a final two schools.

Yet Trinity was not among them.

“At that point, it was basically between Stanford and Duke,” Alexander says, “but then, out of the blue, I received a small trifold pamphlet from Trinity which read, ‘There’s a small college in Texas that requires its students to be intellectually curious, alert, driven, ambitious… and that’s just to get in.’”

Alexander’s interest was piqued. Shortly after, Alexander, a national merit scholar and the school salutatorian, flew to San Antonio for a campus visit. She took one look around the campus and knew: Trinity was the place for her.

“I wanted to be at a school that was telling me that they were going to hold me to a higher standard,” Alexander recalls. “Trinity was academically challenging in a good way.”

Alexander discovered her major and minor, economics and environmental studies respectively, through the Trinity curriculum, which required

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students to explore a wide variety of course offerings and different ways of thinking. For Alexander, what started as merely satisfying requirements turned into a lifelong interest in both subjects.

A member of the soccer team, a leader in the student mentor program, a member of Sigma Theta Tau, and founder of the San Antonio office of the Princeton Review, Alexander also graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Taking full advantage of all the opportunities Trinity had to offer, Alexander says it was something about Trinity that made it all possible.

“Trinity allows you to do a lot of things at once,” Alexander says. “I don’t remember being that wiped out or that busy.

There was just something about Trinity that enabled all of that.”

After graduation, Alexander earned an M.S. in environmental economics and a J.D. from UC Berkeley. Unable to resist the rush of the dot-com boom, Alexander began practicing law as a corporate securities lawyer who specialized in initial public offerings.

Alexander quickly became an indispensable asset, drawing upon what she calls the most important skill that she ever learned at Trinity: the ability to write well.

“The writing skills that Trinity requires of people are so valuable in life,” Alexander says, referencing both her first-year seminar and an “unbelievable” writing class with English professor Victoria Aarons. “It doesn’t matter whether I’m writing for the Huffington Post or

I wanted to be at a school that was telling me that they were going to hold me to a higher standard. on Facebook, my ability to craft a logical argument so exceeds the norm and that is one hundred percent from Trinity.”

Following a successful law career, Alexander went on to become a venture capital consultant, an investment banker, an executive at two media start-ups, and an accomplished screenwriter. Most recently Alexander has begun touring conferences and giving speeches about happiness as a second language, the subject of her multiple books.

A naturally confident person, Alexander says it was at Trinity that she truly found the skills and goods to make it all possible. She says that her ability to try and succeed at so many different and varied careers was enabled by a liberal arts education. “Anything you wanted to learn, you could

have learned,” Alexander says of Trinity. “Anything that you want to learn, you have access to.”

Alexander, now a long-time Los Angeles resident, looks forward to returning to the skyline campus in October for her 25-year reunion, remembering the personalized attention professors gave students and their deep investment in the community.

“You could literally get to know the dean of students,” Alexander says, recalling her delight at attending Coleen Grissom’s legendary Christmas party as a senior. “You could get to know your professors, who would attend intramural games or invite you to Seder.”

Her only regret while at Trinity? Not taking more classes than she did.

Apply Now! AUGUST 1, 2015

Applications open for first-year students applying for the Class of 2020

May 18, 2015

Daily Summer Visit Schedule Begins Information Session & Campus Tours from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Visit Campus 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.

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.

Trinity In Focus Saturday Visit Program Trinity In Focus open house programs are open to all prospective students and their families. This program is an excellent opportunity to discover the many opportunities available to students who study and live at Trinity University.

UPCOMING DATES: June 27, 2015 September 26, 2015 November 14, 2015 January 30, 2016 February 13, 2016

The College Search:

An experience for the whole family The college search is a fun and exciting time for students and families. Students get to celebrate their academic and co-curricular accomplishments and reflect upon their experiences as they chart their journeys forward. Here at Trinity, we value the college experience, and that experience begins with you.

Throughout this process we encourage future Tigers to discover new interests, to grow your existing passions, and to become an empowered citizen of the global community.

To help you do this, we encourage you to ask your friends, family, and parents for help. They can help you with your essays, be another set of eyes, ears, or taste buds on a campus visit, and can help you through the tough decisions that come with every pro-and-con list you can think of.

Resources for parents and family are available online at new.trinity.edu/ future-parents-families

Consider learning from one of our very own Tiger Moms, Marni Jameson, on the Trinity Perspective blog at thetrinityperspective.blogspot.com

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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-tofaculty 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.