Although the routine of finding new extracurriculars is already underway, and there’s plenty to do on campus, the wider San Antonio community offers many opportunities for students to do what they love. Whether it be museums or gyms, Trinity students can use their student ID to burst the “Trinity bubble”: a phenomenon all too familiar to students.
Most students know of the biggest spots to hit off-campus. No one can drive down Broadway without getting their free fries at Shake Shack or exploring art and culture at the McNay Museum. But for Mia Perez, sophomore history and political science double-major, one of her most frequented places is Armadillo Boulders, a rock climbing gym a few blocks away from the San Antonio Riverwalk.
Perez joined Trinity’s rock climbing club her first year through the Student Involvement Fair. Most weeks, she joins other members of the club to climb at Armadillo Boulders.
“There’s a rock climbing gym if you want to do gym for your fingers or for your arm strength; there’s a whole section for that,” Perez said. “There’s also free yoga classes, free Pilates, free art fairs … so the perks are definitely worth the cost.”
The membership for Armadillo Boulders is normally $72 a month, but Trinity students can use their TigerCard to get $10 off per month. Perez said that the cost of membership at this particular gym is high regardless, but the student discount has enabled her to be able to afford to patronize Armadillo Boulders for longer periods of time.
Not all opportunities off-campus require a purchase. Matthew Marquez, junior political science and history double-major, worked over the summer as an intern at San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM) through Trinity’s ALE program. SAAACAM is a small museum tucked away in the historic La Villita neighborhood.
“It has a whole timeline of the history of the east side of San Antonio, which is traditionally Black, but probably my favorite area is the little place where they have rotating exhibits in there,” Marquez said.
Currently, the rotating exhibition is based on African American music in the San Antonio region. SAAACAM offers free admission to students with a student ID, but there is also an opportunity for students to contribute towards the museum for $15 a year. This membership provides students with free admission to select open houses, a one-hour annual private tour of the museum, special pricing to select museum events and a 10% discount at the museum store, according to SAAACAM’s website.
An additional free opportunity for Trinity students is the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA). This museum may be more well-known, but Ruth Patterson, junior classical languages major, said that the behind-the-scenes of the exhibits was really exciting to be a part of. Patterson was also an intern through Trinity’s ALE program and worked both marketing and curatorial positions.
“The exhibition that’s coming in September is a really big traveling retrospective exhibition of this one artist, Amalia Mason Baynes,” Patterson said. “It’s really interesting to see designers and curators working together to figure out how we’re going to host this. I think it’s a really interesting layer of artistry to get to curate the space that people get to encounter the art in, especially when those things are not really mandated by the artists.”
A Trinity student ID is often the bridge between students and these opportunities since it lessens the financial burden of going outside of the campus’ brick walls. With opportunities ranging from paying less for your groceries to seeing a movie for free, a TigerCard may be all you need to burst the Trinity bubble.
