Class of ’21 Making Their Mark

After graduating from Trinity, Ryanna Chouman ’21 completed the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), intensively studying Mandarin through a virtual program based in Taiwan. In October, she relocated to Taipei, Taiwan, where she met her language partners and teachers from the CLS program in person and began the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship program.

Through this program, Ryanna studies Mandarin and Taiwanese at a local university and interns at a newly launched international media and news platform called TaiwanPlus. “The international office environment that I’m immersed in here has challenged both my professional skills and my language skills in a way I never could have anticipated,” she says. “I really enjoy living in Taiwan, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for the future when my scholarship concludes in September.”

Ryanna says her time at Trinity made embarking on side projects and other experiential learning opportunities feel very natural. “I’ve found that my varied past work experience with non-profits, INGOs, and government organizations prepared me well for the media and journalism industry, despite my lacking specific experience in the sector,” she says. “It also feels great to be complimented on my writing, research, and Chinese skills at the office. I owe all of that to Trinity.”

Since last August, Diego Carrisalez ’21 has been volunteering with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), a federal program that engages 18- to 24-year-olds in team-based national and community service for 10 months in the U.S. His role as the health and wellness coordinator for his team in Vicksburg, Mississippi, has him leading physical training sessions and engaging the team in mental wellness activities.

“AmeriCorps NCCC has provided me the opportunity to travel around the country and gain a firsthand perspective on core issues plaguing underserved communities outside of San Antonio, where I have lived the entirety of my life,” he says. Diego has assisted with general upkeep of a youth camp in West Virginia, recruitment of volunteers and donors at a blood bank in Delaware, providing disaster relief services to those affected by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana, constructing affordable housing in Kentucky, and more.

For most of his undergraduate career, Diego was the logistics coordinator for Trinity University’s Volunteer Action Community (TUVAC), which he says cultivated his appreciation for community service. “From cooking meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House to playing bingo with patients at the San Antonio State Hospital, my volunteer experiences with TUVAC allowed me to reflect on my own privileges and mold my worldview while addressing issues in the local community,” he says. Additionally, Diego gives special thanks to Katlyn Alves, M.Ed., TUVAC adviser and assistant director of experiential learning at Trinity, for recommending AmeriCorps to him in his senior year.

After a month of traveling and spending time with family and friends, Meghan Desai ’21 began her full-time role as the people operations coordinator for Codeup in July 2021. Based in San Antonio, Codeup is a career accelerator/boot camp that helps adults launch careers in the technology industry, and Meghan supports staff in all things human resources. “I love being part of a small, growing company because the opportunities to make an impact are endless,” she says.

The impact of her time at Trinity is not lost on Meghan. After matching with Codeup during her sophomore year through the University’s Students+Startups internship program, Meghan was able to gain experience in the operations of a business and apply what she was learning in the classroom. She also says that Career Services helped her land her current position at Codeup: “Between resume review and interview prep, I’d be remiss not to thank them!”

Meghan’s most formative Trinity experiences were with the Student Programming Board, CliftonStrengths Peer Educators, HOPE Hall, on-campus jobs, and her HR capstone class: “Inside and outside of the classroom, [they] allowed me to grow and develop both personally and professionally, and I’m beyond grateful for those opportunities.

Ethan Jones ’21 is pursuing his master’s degree in entertainment industry management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a program that trains the next generation of entertainment creators to use cutting edge technology and data analytics to manage entertainment worldwide. Ethan has also been working at HBO Max as a growth marketing strategy intern since January of this year, synthesizing viewership data for hit shows such as Euphoria, Insecure, and Succession to maximize subscriber growth.

This summer, he will intern at the Cannes Film Festival in France, the largest film distribution market in the world. He will shadow film agents for two weeks to learn more about how films are pitched, produced, and eventually sold for millions at the festival. Afterwards, Ethan plans on moving to Los Angeles to intern at United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills.

“None of this would have been possible if I weren’t able to create my own interdisciplinary second major at Trinity,” Ethan says. His entertainment business degree plan combined courses in communication, mathematics, accounting, music, and business, exposing him to diverse perspectives. Ethan’s experiences with organizations such as Trinity’s orchestra, newspaper, and campus television station, as well as TigerBreaks and Strategic Communications and Marketing, also fostered his passion for learning and leadership. “Trinity gave me the confidence to be a leader among students,” he says, “and to let my voice be heard.”

Five days after graduation, Lauren Johnson ’21 moved into her apartment in St. Louis, Missouri, and began her journey as a Ph.D. student in the Evolution, Ecology, and Population Biology Program at Washington University with a graduate research award from the National Science Foundation already under her belt. She rotated between different labs throughout the summer and fall, studying interactions between genetics, environment, and social learning on behavior in guppies as well as the evolution of brain shape and size in lizards—a subject group that is also of interest to Trinity’s own biology professor Michele Johnson, Ph.D.

In January of this year, Lauren presented Losos Lab research on anole lizard behavior at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Phoenix, Arizona. And if that wasn’t a lot already, she just returned from field research at Miami’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden with the Losos team. This spring, she is researching microbiomes and examining the potential role of microbes in the return success of adult salmon from hatcheries in the Great Lakes.

Lauren says that the mentorship, teaching, and research experiences she received at Trinity from professors such as Michele Johnson, Ph.D., and Troy Murphy, Ph.D., greatly improved her confidence and skills as an independent researcher, leader, mentor, and teacher. “My first research experience in Dr. Murphy’s behavioral ecology lab at Trinity taught me how to be a scientist—I learned how to develop hypotheses, design field studies, and collect and analyze data,” she says. Her senior thesis with Johnson similarly represented a defining point in her science career, especially through the adversity they both had to overcome during the pandemic. “She is my role model, and I am confident that I wouldn’t be where I am today without her mentorship and guidance,” Lauren says. “I was challenged to think and work independently [and] encouraged to follow my passion and take chances. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed all the obstacles I faced along the way.”

“At Trinity, drive and inspiration seemed to be infused in the culture,” Lauren says. “Trinity’s mission of enduring excellence and perpetual discovery brings together a truly great community of students, faculty, and staff striving to bring out the best in each other.”

Last fall, Devon Patel ’21 started medical school at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences in Toledo, Ohio, where he volunteers with the student-run free clinic to provide quality care for the local uninsured and underinsured population. Devon also conducts research in the Department of Orthopedics on a variety of topics, resulting in a couple of publications.

With Career Services, Devon participated in a mock interview to assist him with the Toledo application process. The rigor of his classes at Trinity also helped him acclimate to the difficulty of medical school early in his first semester. “Even though medical school is at light speed compared to undergrad, my time at Trinity allowed me to learn how I learn best,” Devon explains. “One of the most important things is to know how you study best, and figuring that out at Trinity while studying for difficult classes helped prepare me for medical school.” In addition, the research Devon conducted during his undergraduate career has served as a great foundation for his current research at Toledo: “The skills I learned about critical thinking and evaluating literature have helped tremendously. I still keep in contact with my PI, Dr. [Kah-Chung] Leong, and keep him updated on everything.

Diana Long ’21 is excited to be attending the University of Texas at Austin for her master’s degree in education policy and planning, which covers ways to implement equitable education policy in the state of Texas. “I have been putting the skills I developed at Trinity into practice and have been involved in the UT community as a Graduate Assistant for the University Leadership Network (ULN),” Diana says. ULN is a nationally recognized incentive-based scholarship program that supports students on the path to graduate in four years and become leaders through experiential learning opportunities. In addition to improving student retention, Diana supervises 25 Peer Ambassadors and helps develop a strong mentorship component for the program by providing guidance on curriculum development, identifying campus resources, and building rapport with students.

Diana was recently selected as a Graduate Archer Fellow for the Summer of 2022. Established by the University of Texas System in conjunction with former U.S. Representative Bill Archer, this fellowship brings highly motivated and accomplished students to Washington, D.C., for a comprehensive academic and professional experience. Diana is looking forward to moving to D.C. this summer to conduct research and learn about the policymaking process at the federal level in the area of education: “My hope is to continue to gain the tools necessary to grow in my career and represent my community at our nation’s capital.”

“I am grateful for my Trinity experience because it prepared me well for the challenges that come with being a graduate student,” she says. “At Trinity I gained invaluable skills such as networking, research, time management, and critical thinking. Career Services, specifically, played a huge role in my success by offering guidance throughout my transition from Trinity to UT and giving me the confidence to put myself out there as a competitive applicant for future internships and job opportunities.

Wanting to stay in San Antonio, Cameron Carlin ’21 began working as a community relations coordinator for Spurs Sports and Entertainment, which gave him the opportunity to manage the Spurs Youth Basketball League with over 10,000 participants across South Texas. During the height of the pandemic, Cameron had to shift and became the assistant groundskeeper for the Sugar Land Skeeters in Sugarland, Texas. “While this job was neither a part of my anticipated career path nor in my area of expertise, I viewed this as an opportunity to gain a new perspective on the sports industry,” he explains. “I was able to be a part of the team’s transition from independent baseball to the new triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.”

After that, Cameron stepped into his current role as the community relations coordinator for the Houston Dynamo FC and Houston Dash, a position he describes as incredibly fulfilling. “I have the chance to grow community programs from the ground up and benefit the city where I was born and raised in the process,” he says. “I am extremely grateful I have had the opportunity to work for some of the biggest names in professional sports so early in my career.”

Cameron credits much of his success to relationships with mentors and CELCS, especially including business administration professor Jacob Tingle, Ed.D. “I remember being a scared freshman walking into his office with a goal, but absolutely no idea on how to achieve it. Dr. Tingle along with other staff members within CELCS helped me prepare for the job market tremendously,” he says. “Their level of expertise and approach to helping students gave me the confidence I needed when applying for highly sought-after internships.” Cameron’s time with Trinity University Student Ambassadors, which involved leadership positions and sitting on planning committees, also allowed him to put newly found skills into place and gave him the experiential learning opportunities that pushed him ahead of the other candidates applying for his positions after graduation. “I would not be where I am today without my experiences and mentors at Trinity—Trinity offers so many tremendous resources, and I am truly fortunate that I utilized some of the best ones they offer!”

Since graduation, Elsie Durán ’21 has been working as the outcomes manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas in San Antonio, where she has gained an understanding of the working parts within a successful non-profit organization as well as the soft skills necessary when dealing with clients. “In this position, I have been able to employ skills that I learned as a psychology major, which has reinforced my desire to further pursue my professional aspirations,” she says. “I am planning to apply to graduate programs in Clinical Psychology and plan on starting my masters in the upcoming fall.”

While at Trinity, Elsie was president of TUVAC, for which she received the presidential award of excellence in her senior year. “Being the president of TUVAC was instrumental to learning how a successful organization should be run, essentially preparing me for my current role,” she says.

In addition to TUVAC helping her make connections within the San Antonio community, Elsie explains that her holistic experience at Trinity was transformative in more ways than one. “My time at Trinity [made up] some of the most challenging, yet rewarding years. I learned what it meant to fail and get back up, what it meant to work hard and succeed in an academically rigorous environment. It helped solidify a work ethic needed to flourish in the professional world, along with coursework that continuously promoted a sense of curiosity. I take everything on as a challenge and try to excel, which I learned at Trinity.