Intermission

Dear Readers,
As of yesterday, The Roar published the last story of Spring 2018. We had yet another successful season, thanks to the wonderful work of 15 student reporters: Victoria Abad, Emily Bae, Lauren Bagg, Paige Johnson, Samuel King, Sophia Mohr, Jacob Rossitter, Ruthie Rubin, Sophia Scearce, Marina Schweitzer, Breton Smith, David Smith, Julia Weis, Sarah Wysocki, and Joy Yauger.

This season we published 47 news stories, and the very first season of our new podcast, The Story Behind Stories.

We want to say a hearty "thank you" to all of our sources and readers. Thank you for your time, support and attention.

Have a wonderful summer and we will be back in Spring 2019!

Coates Center Undergoes Major Makeover

By Sarah Wysocki

The Coates University Center is blockaded by giant boards and largely inaccessible. Behind those boards is a busy construction site. In a couple of months, when these boards are removed, a brand new Coates Center will emerge.

An imminent result of this multi-million dollar renovation is relocation of several university services. Counseling Services will move to where Student Involvement currently resides, in the west wing of Coates. Student Involvement will be relocated to the first floor of the current bookstore, where the new Diversity and Inclusion Office will also reside.

The bookstore itself will move to the lounge area where the mail center used to be. The Center for Experiential Learning and Career Success (CELCS) will stay where it is, but will expand to encompass the current second floor of the bookstore: the textbook area.

Fostering Inclusion: Students and Staff Discuss Legacy of Rev. Stephen Nickle

By Ruthie Rubin

The Rev. Stephen Nickle is retiring from Trinity University at the end of this month, after 18 years of service as the university chaplain.

Nickle and his wife, Catherine Morell-Nickle, the beloved coordinator of Student Accessibility Services here at Trinity, will be moving to Tacoma, Washington this summer.

After the move, Nickle plans to spend the summer exploring his new home of Washington and spending time with his children who live on the West coast. In the fall, he will go back into the role of a student at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center, where he will have a year long residency in a clinical pastoral education program. He will be learning how to have a chaplain/pastoral presence in a hospital setting, working with patients, their families and care takers.

Trinity’s Center for International Engagement Helps Students Engage the World

By Julia Weis

Berlin, Germany. Seoul, South Korea. Budapest, Hungary. Evan Chambless, 21, has wanted to study abroad in all three of these places. After a two-week trip to Berlin through Trinity’s political science department her freshmen year, she was determined to find the opportunity to go studying abroad for a full semester.

So she went to speak with staff at the Center for International Engagement (CIE) of Trinity and, with their consultation, worked out a plan to study abroad for a semester during her senior year.

Chambless is one of many Trinity students who was able to go study abroad with the help of CIE. The center, launched in the summer of 2015 as a part of Trinity's Trinity Tomorrow Strategic Plan, is making an effort to push Trinity students to expand their knowledge of the world through the classrooms, other campus activities, and studying abroad.

Jennifer Henderson: Journey of Following Passions

By Marina Schweitzer

People told her she would never work in Washington DC again, but Jennifer Henderson was determined. The determination helped her land another DC job that she thought might actually help people.

Henderson brought that same kind of determination to Trinity University in 2002, when she joined the faculty in the Department of Communication. Sixteen years later, she has become a full professor and the department chair, and has taught an array of classes including mass media, media law, media ethics, advertising, and communication capstone.

Developing Real Life Skills, Starting with Cooking on a Budget

Left: Trinity students chopping and preparing their salads
Right: Chef David Terrazas demonstrates how to properly hold and use a knife
(Photos by Joy Camp)

By Joy Yauger Camp

A trill of excitement permeated the air on a Thursday in February, as 25 Trinity students gathered around two sets of rectangular tables in the San Antonio Botanical Garden indoor/outdoor cooking facility. Chef David Terrazas, head of the Culinary Health Education Program for Families at the Botanical Garden, informed students of the menu for the evening.

This cooking event, organized by Trinity University Residential Life Assistant Director Rachel Boaz, was created as part of a larger initiative of teaching students financial literacy. Boaz, a Trinity graduate of 2010, said her intent was to “prepare juniors and seniors for their transition out of college.” One of such skills is to make meals on budget.

Stressed and Sleep Deprived, Trinity Students Need Some Help, and the University Tries to Provide It

By Bret Smith

The finals of spring 2018 ended just a week ago, and students can leave behind all the stresses and anxieties, for now. While the finals are over, health issues are not.

Surveys done by Trinity University have shown that physical health issues involving tobacco and alcohol use, as well as mental problems like sleep deficit, anxiety, stress, and depression, are among the health issues facing Trinity University students.

Sleep difficulties and stress in particular have become major mental health problems on campus and they tend to go hand in hand. Trinity students have to juggle a heavy study load from professors, high expectations from their parents, their self-imposed expectations to succeed, and their social life.

Trinity University Launches Planning Campaign for 150th Anniversary

Trinity's values, such as "Discover, Grow, Become," will be
highlighted during the 150th anniversary celebration. (The Roar photo)

By Marina Schweitzer

Trinity University is taking stock of the present and looking to the future in planning for celebrating her 150th anniversary.

The steering committee for the celebration is co-chaired by Angela Breidenstein, professor of education, and Jacob Tingle, director of Experiential Learning. The committee has launched a community-oriented planning campaign to help decide what the sesquicentennial celebration is going to look like. The year-long celebration will begin in January of 2019 and go through December. The university was founded in 1869.

The committee is intentional in not taking an approach of telling people what should happen for the sesquicentennial. Instead, “we chose a more constructivist community based organic approach, which is to say what does the community think we should recognize, honor, question, and celebrate," Breidenstein said. "That’s why we have done this campaign rather than saying here are the events. We want it to be really inclusive and far reaching and get people involved.”

Trinity’s Engineering Program Is Making International Impact, One Water Barrel at a Time

Daniel Dahlinger is one of the engineering students at
Trinity who work on the water barrel project (Photos by Paige Johnson)

By Paige Johnson 

The Engineering Science Program at Trinity University is drawing international attention for its humanitarian work in South Texas.

The project involves creating and monitoring sturdy water barrels along the boarders in the desert of South Texas, to provide fresh water for those who travel in that area. Many of those traveling through South Texas are migrants from Latin America, fleeing danger in their home countries. Journeying across the desert is extremely dangerous, and the fresh water saves lives.

“When this project idea was presented they mentioned that most of the migrants crossing the border and drinking from these barrels were from Honduras and El Salvador,” said Andrea Zavala Handal, who worked on the project and graduated last year. “I am from the small country in the center of Central America, Honduras, and therefore I wanted to help my own community out.”

To Jaywalk or Not To Jaywalk? The City Vista Debate

By Sophia Scearce

It’s 9:00 a.m. The mid-morning traffic has hit its peak for the day, as cars whiz down Hildebrand Avenue unassumingly during their morning commute. At 9:15, a flustered student emerges from the City Vista apartment complex, running late for class.

As he approaches the road, he takes one look at the traffic and quickly launches himself off the curb. He dashes across the two-way, four-lane avenue when it is clear for this one second. Once he reaches the green lawns of Trinity’s campus, he hurries off, continuing about his daily routine without a second thought.

Everyday, students living in City Vista, located on the corner of Hildebrand and Devine, must cross the traffic bustling Hildebrand in order to get to classes. This section of Hildebrand is curvy and hilly, making it hard for drivers to see very far down the road. This seemingly short walk across Hildebrand to campus, however, has students taking two different routes: crossing at the newly installed crosswalk right at the intersection of Hildbrand and Devine, or jaywalking across the street further west down Hildebrand.

Advocating for Women in STEM at Trinity

Women's History Month posters in CSI, showing important female scientists (Photo by Victoria Abad)

Frances Stone. (Photo courtesy of Frances Stone)

By Victoria Abad

Frances Stone is just 20 years old but already a legend at Trinity, as “the pinnacle of women in STEM.”

Stone is a junior studying physics, heavily involved in dance, community service and academic extracurricular activities (she is an algebra tutor). She is also the only female student in her major in the class of 2019. However, without facing many adversities of being a minority in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), she has found support and encouragement in the Trinity community.

As the only woman in some of her classes, she has witnessed first-hand the under-representation of females in STEM fields. “It’s something I’m definitely always aware of,” said Stone. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in 2017 only 30 percent of STEM degree holders were women.

Trinity Rugby: Stepping Up the Game

By Samuel King

The sun began to peek out of the clouds as the president and captain of the Trinity Rugby Club, Dayton Ames, set up the field in preparation for an entire day worth of games.

“I was very anxious for the whole event,” said Ames, a junior at Trinity. “I was excited for the opportunity to represent Trinity University, but we have never played in a tournament with stakes so high before.”

This was Saturday, April 28, when Trinity University Rugby hosted the Lone Star Conference 7’s tournament. Ten collegiate rugby teams from round Texas competed at the Wheatley Sports Complex on the east side of San Antonio for the conference champion through a round robin tournament. San Antonio Rugby Club sponsored the event.

Joseph Shotland: From Playing to Coaching Basketball at Trinity

By Emily Bae

Coach Joseph Shotland is a Trinity University alumnus whose life has been largely about the game of basketball. In 2010, he came to Trinity University and walked onto the basketball
​court to be a shooting guard. He described his role as bringing energy to the team. He graduated with a Bachelors in English in ​2014 and later graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching at Trinity University.

Knowing that he could not play basketball forever, he still wanted to be a part of the sport. One of his favorite aspects of basketball is the team component and he enjoyed the leadership qualities needed for basketball. He therefore thought of coaching.

Shotland approached Cameron Hill, head coach for Trinity women’s basketball, in his junior year of college and asked if he could help with the team.​

Simone Washington: Brings Activism to Trinity’s Campus

Simone Washington, center, was key in organizing Trinity's
involvement at the March for Our Lives in San Antonio.
(Photo by Julia Weis)

By Julia Weis

If you’re a student involved on Trinity’s campus in some way, then you probably have run into Simone Washington at least once. The sophomore is active in the Student Government Association (SGA), Black Student Union, and Trinity Progressives. She has been active on campus for as long as she’s been at Trinity.

Washington, 20, organized Trinity's first ever Activism Fair as a part of the university's celebration of the Martin Luther King Week. The fair, held on January 18, showcased about a dozen activist organizations from San Antonio, such as MOVE San Antonio, RAICES and Haven for Hope, encouraging students to volunteer off-campus.