Hardworking, optimistic and perseverant. While these three words were self-described, they reflect all he’s accomplished in his time at Trinity. Danny Nguyen is a senior marketing and communication double-major, four-year elected official and two-year president of SGA, four-year intern with Trinity’s marketing department, two-year intern with San Antonio Independent School District — and not to mention a first-generation student.
Nguyen believes that his time at Trinity was not only well spent, but crucial for helping him figure out what he wanted to do for a career and teaching him invaluable skills for the real world. While he did not study abroad, Nguyen enjoyed the internships and opportunities Trinity made available to him.
“I’ve had a great time learning so much stuff. Trinity talks a lot about experiential learning — how it’s important for you to do so,” Nguyen said. “I’ve definitely learned a lot in school, but definitely the things that I’ve managed to learn in these experiences that I’ve had, and many other students have had, definitely equally or maybe even benefit me more than just being in the classroom.”
One of Nguyen’s favorite memories of his time here was after a period of tribulation for Trinity and the world. Nguyen and his class were seniors in high school when COVID-19 hit, and never really got a graduation ceremony or normal senior events. Then, the class came in as first-years and were the only residents on campus. It was not until their sophomore year that the other classes returned to campus and things started to feel normal again.
“COVID kind of subsided, and after a year and a half of nonstop chaos, we were back into a full quote-unquote ‘normal semester’ again at Trinity. It was so awesome to see everyone just so happy to see each other and getting to be together again in this community,” Nguyen said. “I know for students in my year, to now getting to experience the true college experience. Again, that was something that’s super memorable and definitely was kind of the highlight of my time, everyone appreciating the togetherness.”
Now that his four years are coming to a close, Nguyen looks forward to the future with a full-time marketing job with Frost Bank in San Antonio and an MBA from UTSA part-time. Nguyen expressed gratitude for the role that SGA has played in his time at Trinity, as the skills he learned from his time at SGA directly assisted him in his internships and ultimately in securing a job as he leaves Trinity.
“I think that it takes a village for all the great work that we do, and I’m fortunate to lead a really great group of individuals. We have 31 awesome people who work together to do some really awesome things. No matter who’s leading this team, I think that SGA is going to continue to do really great things,” Nguyen said. “I’ve had a great four years with SGA and I’ve had a great two years serving in this capacity, and now that the work is almost done, I am excited to see what happens next. We know that SGA has been around for 102 years, and I’m excited to see what happens in the next 50 years or the next 100 years. I will always look back with great memories, but also look forward to bigger and better things as well.”
Nguyen couldn’t be more grateful to Trinity for making his future possible. Nguyen would also like to specifically thank Jamie Thompson and Mario Gonzalez-Fuentes for their impact on his character and career.
“There’s just something here about Trinity, where it’s such an open and welcoming community that allows you to not only learn more, but also to navigate a lot of differences with this care and compassion. We come from very different backgrounds and have a lot of differences, but there are also so many common threads you might have with others, and it’s an opportunity for you to grow and just be not only a better global citizen, but a better human being,” Nguyen said. “I think that that’s something I’m going to take out of my time. Let’s say 10 years from now when I look back, it’s not gonna be the diploma, it’s the memories that I made and the photos from my time here.”
