Trinity Sencindiver

Hello to everyone graduating, the people supporting us, and all the faculty and staff who have helped us get here. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge how much time and effort we all have put into reaching this milestone and all the amazing work we have done to get us to graduation day. We have all grown and changed so much since our first days here at UT Dallas.

I would like to tell you a bit about myself, about my experience here at UTD, and then share a few words of encouragement as we continue onward. Unlike many of you, I am not from Texas. I lived in West Virginia for most of my life. But four years ago I moved to Austin to live with my grandmother. I attended Austin Community College while I saved money — always hoping to transfer to some fancy art school. The longer I attended community college, the more I understood that a fancy art school was not a place I wanted to go. I needed a place that would give me a much more well-rounded and less-specialized education. I looked at all the schools around the country hoping to find the right one — and I found it in UT Dallas. In 2022, I moved to Richardson and am so glad I did.

The friends I’ve made at UTD were all a bit surprised to learn that I applied to be today’s student speaker. I suffer from anxiety. Anxiety so bad that it was often debilitating when it came to any sort of public presentation or performance. While I still struggle with it, my time here at UT Dallas has been transformative. I have changed in ways I didn’t previously think possible. I feel encouraged when presenting in front of my peers and, after much practice, I can now say that I feel much more capable of addressing an audience — one just like you! I’m still anxious — don’t get me wrong — but I breathe through it and try not to let the anxiety control me.

I recently saw the movie “The Wild Robot.” It’s a story about love and family, and about the beauty of change and how wonderful it is to truly be alive. The film follows Roz, a robot, who is mistakenly delivered to a wild place not meant for someone like her. While watching the film, I found myself comparing my time here at UT Dallas to Roz’s experience in her new and wild place.

Just as Roz struggled in adapting to her new environment, I struggled with adapting to my new life at UTD, finding myself without any of my family close by to support me for the first time in my life. I want to acknowledge, however, one professor who helped me along the way. Dr. Christine Veras’ classes were where I really felt empowered to think for myself and think outside the box. I gained perspective on not only how animation is created, but also how it can alter society and widespread beliefs. Dr. Veras helped me through a time of great change.

Change is an important aspect of all of our lives. We are all in a near constant state of change. We are changed by the people around us, changed by what we learn, changed by where we live, and changed by the decisions we make. We chose to come to this school, we chose our majors and now, because of those choices, we are college graduates!

As you leave UT Dallas, I hope that each of you will welcome and even embrace the change coming for us all. We will surely all make mistakes, but we will learn from them and go on to do great things. Now, that may be an intimidating ask — doing great things. But I assure you all, we do great things every day. “The Wild Robot” taught me that existing, in and of itself, is great. Even the smallest things can be great, can inspire others and can change someone or something for the better. Each and every one of you has done great things, and we will all continue to do them as alumni of The University of Texas at Dallas.

Thank you and keep being great! Whoosh.

Trinity Sencindiver is graduating today magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in arts, technology and emerging communications, with a concentration in animation and games. She has focused her studies on preproduction for animation and games, with a passion for bringing diverse stories to the animation world. Sencindiver has contributed to the preproduction of the animated short film “Kraken’s Tooth” and the game “GraveBound,” both of which are being produced by the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. She is also the writer and illustrator of “Kitten Buddies,” her capstone project. Over the past two and a half years, Trinity has served as a student assistant for the Bass School, earning dean’s list recognition along the way. After graduation, she will join the Disney College Program.