Centering, throwing, pulling, wiring.
In a quiet pottery studio in San Antonio’s Southtown, Apple Garcia’s hands slowly blur as she shapes mauve clay, her wheel whirring as the summer heat simmers like a kiln of its own outside.
Some days, small cups, or copitas, emerge from her wheel, followed by bowls and other tableware. These little vessels will one day carry spirits, caffeine, or even pinches of salt. But while her fingers are still stained with clay, Garcia aspires to work with an even more valuable material: time.
“I want my pieces to invite you to stay at a table longer,” Garcia says. “There’s this tradition, sobremesa, which is the time after a dinner or a lunch where everyone stays seated at the table talking, sometimes longer than the actual dinner itself. You feel lighter; you laugh a little louder. That’s what I want my cups to bring to the table.”
Heading into her second year at Trinity University, Garcia ’29 has launched a small startup,
AppleBliss, which draws on her South Texas roots and Latina heritage to create earthen-themed tableware built around the concept of sobremesa. Emboldened by the flexibility of Trinity’s liberal arts environment and connected with San Antonio’s dynamic cultural and entrepreneurial opportunities, Garcia is shaping her future with her own hands.
Open Table
Garcia enjoys a whole set of hobbies that readers might not expect from a person her age.
“Yes, I crochet. I sculpt. I make pottery,” Garcia says. “Younger people are picking these types of activities up.”
For Garcia, creating art is a way to feel in control when life is hectic. Since she was a kid, she’s popped on a pair of headphones (with music ranging from The Beatles and Latin Mafia to Melanie Martinez) and worked with a medium she can shape.
Garcia, named by her father for the 1995 Peter Cetera song “Apple of Your Daddy’s Eye,” started crocheting plushies and little key chains as a teen. She took custom orders and sold them at local markets around San Antonio with such success that she often ran out of materials.
Garcia says she got this entrepreneurial, hands-on itch from spending time with her maternal aunt, Michelle Gonzales. “I had family dinners at my own house, but I would go over to my aunt’s house in Corpus Christi [two hours south of San Antonio] every other weekend with my sister when I was younger,” Garcia says. “My aunt does catering, baking, and seeing her make a living with her own hands, that was my first experience of entrepreneurship. I just didn’t know the term for it.”
Garcia’s aunt left a 20-year banking career to launch her own catering business in 2016. “I’ve always loved having my table open and [seeing] the reaction people have to my food,” Gonzales says. “My niece has always been adventurous with her appetite. She was never shy about tasting something new.”
Gonzales’ table has overflowed with everything from lobster and crawfish to cookies and enchiladas, with a little blend of Tex-Mex and Southern homestyle. Her stalwart gas stove has endured through crises, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when Gonzales opened her doors to strangers who didn’t have power in their own kitchens.
Here was Garcia’s first taste of sobremesa.
“People are always telling stories at [my aunt’s] table, reminiscing, debating,” Garcia says. “It’s just so much deeper than a normal conversation. These [moments] happen a lot at my aunt’s house because her house has a very open policy. I love the energy because of how lively it is, how there is always company and things to learn from the people there.”
Cheesy Story
Life moved fast for Garcia as she headed to college in the summer of 2025.
“Going to Trinity, honestly, I was ready for the academic rigor, and I was looking forward to a change of pace from high school,” she says.
Garcia, who aspires to be a studio art and marketing double major, was challenged early by classes in business management, philosophy, and marketing but also enjoyed a painting class. “I usually work in 3D, so that was a nice surprise to find,” she says. Garcia was also relieved to find plenty of free time outside of class. She took up writing for the student-led campus newspaper, the Trinitonian, played tennis and swam, and joined Top Naach, a Bollywood Fusion student dance team.
But she struggled with a nonstop impulse. “Even if I’ve worked 40 hours this week and I need to rest, this voice in my head is always saying, ‘You should be doing something. Have you done enough?’”
Garcia found pottery lessons in the San Antonio community to soothe this restlessness, falling in love with the medium. But before launching AppleBliss, she found a different outlet to direct her creative appetite to: grilled cheese.
Just one exit south on U.S. Hwy 281 from campus sits the Pearl, a must-visit location for shoppers, visitors, and foodies of all stripes. Here, Trinity University and the San Antonio branch of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) collaborated on a pilot Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in early 2026 that teamed up students from each institution and tasked them with creating and marketing a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich at the farmers market that packs the Pearl weekly.
“I’d never been inside the CIA Pearl building, so it was so cool to see the kitchens and that whole space,” Garcia says. “But what I really loved was the marketing... evoking a feeling in people through the sandwich.” Garcia’s team ended up winning the popular vote in the competition by blending a bit of Tex-Mex and French culture, producing a “three-cheese croque-monsieur,” made with a bit of blow-torched showmanship and accompanied by elote and a soothing watermelon agua fresca to drink.
“People were stopping by to see the blowtorch, to see us pour the drinks, to see the colorful display we’d made,” Garcia says. “The story mattered just as much as the product. It actually helped to slow down so people could see how we were making everything.”
Launching a Startup
This past summer, Garcia found herself wondering whether she could tell similar stories with her pottery. Working with Trinity’s Incubator summer program, Garcia found an entire network of support and resources for crafting her own business.
Elsa Fernandez, program manager for Trinity’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, says Garcia is one of many students who come to campus dreaming of building a new business.
“Apple has been really inspiring to see.Even from the jump as a first-year, she little by little dipped her toe into different resources,” Fernandez says. “She’s come to networking events, and that connected her with the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in January, which in turn connected her with our Incubator summer program.”
During the 10-week Incubator program, Garcia received mentoring, consulting feedback, and crash courses in business topics, all of which helped strengthen her vision for AppleBliss. In a world that’s increasingly driven by tech and digital priorities, Fernandez says she has a special place in her heart for Trinity students who make things by hand.
“The center is so excited to be working with an increasingly diverse group of students that includes those within the arts [and humanities],” Fernandez says. “Because of Apple’s experience this summer in our Incubator program and witnessing her unique needs as a maker in the arts, [the center has] been inspired to add a new second summer program that runs concurrently with the Incubator, specifically for students in the arts that caters to their needs in building a brand.”
Setting a Place
In a big city, her city, Garcia says she’s seeing a perfect place to grow a tabletop business like AppleBliss.
Her favorite pottery studio is just eight minutes from Trinity’s campus, and she’s finally having her own small kiln installed at her parents’ house this year. Then, there’s the food scene.
“The whole Tejano culture plays such a big role here in San Antonio, with the significance of meals,” she says. “Sometimes the food is less important than the company you’re with. Even if you’re not Hispanic, even if you’re not of Latin descent, community is such a big part of San Antonio culture.”
Working with the entrepreneurship center, she’s now on a three-year plan toward being
able to sell her pieces, including a formal production schedule, and she’s already conducted customer interviews that have her primed to deliver a tabletop-ready product.
Garcia has streamlined her design process, focusing on elegant earth tones, and she has a more definitive vision for her catalog: “I’m moving away from plates and really focusing on small cups and bowls, things that can fit on the table while it’s still messy.”
And soon, Trinity’s campus might help Garcia expand her own table.
“Trinity has given me a way to become really good at networking with people,” Garcia says of her CIA and entrepreneurship experience. “I didn’t enjoy the legal side as much, so I know that’s something where I’m going to have to branch out and hire people, maybe who I meet right here on campus.”
Fernandez, a 10-year entrepreneur herself who also hails from San Antonio, says she’s excited to see a young Trinity student stay true to her roots. “She wants to build her brand upon the visuals and the essence of the culture in San Antonio and her Mexican heritage, and that makes her story that much more beautiful,” Fernandez says. “I know some of my friends will be excited to be some of her first customers.”
And when things get tough, San Antonio is also within driving range of Gonzales’ table in Corpus.
“I’ve told my niece that if she wants to be an entrepreneur, I hope the pottery business works out,” Gonzales says. “But what [will truly] make her successful is if she finds happiness in it. I see that this makes her happy.”
Back at the pottery studio, Garcia’s fingers shape a new cup, one that ends up a bit bigger than intended. “Double shot of espresso,” she says, shrugging with a laugh.
No matter what table the cup ends up on, it will be carrying a bit of Garcia’s story with it. Gonzales’ story, too.
The pottery wheel slows, as if the cup wants to stay in motion just a bit longer.
“When you’re in a place with good friends, in the aftermath of a great meal, and you’ve
got something to sip and enjoy,” Garcia says, “you don’t need to rush.”