When Texas A&M University–San Antonio senior Nayahna Treviño was crowned Miss Texas Latina 2025 in September, she fulfilled a dream years in the making—but also proved something greater about the power of discipline and self-belief. The political science and legal studies major is one of the University’s most visible student leaders, balancing pageantry with her role as president and founder of The Influencer Club, a student organization she launched to help students turn creativity into opportunity.
“You don’t wait for opportunities,” she said. “You make them.”
Treviño was born in Odessa, Texas, and moved with her family to San Antonio at age 9, as her father pursued a job opportunity and better access to higher education for his kids. Treviño found that A&M–San Antonio offered the right mix of affordability and connectivity. “It’s a smaller campus, very community-oriented,” she said. “I’ve really grown to love it. It reflects San Antonio itself.”
That sense of community inspired her to create The Influencer Club in 2024. The idea first took root during her freshman orientation, when a local speaker urged new students to “leave a legacy” and build something lasting on campus.
“I had tried different organizations—cheer, book club—but nothing felt like my niche,” she recalled. “Then I started getting into social media seriously in 2023, and it became my creative outlet.”
Treviño started pitching herself to brands and soon began working with major companies such as Clinique, Rizos Curls, Tapatío, Doritos, and Hot Pockets. Treviño stressed that these collaborations didn’t require her to have millions of followers, just strategy, consistency and a strong work ethic.
As she gained momentum and started seeing success, she wanted to share her experience with her peers. “I wanted to make sure A&M–San Antonio students had access to the same opportunities as students at larger universities,” she said.
Now in its second year, The Influencer Club has about 90 members and continues to grow. The organization teaches digital marketing, brand partnership strategy, and content creation—skills Treviño says are essential for modern professionals. Her leadership earned her the Henry Cisneros Leadership Award for President of the Year, one of A&M–San Antonio’s top student honors.
Her success with social media and campus leadership skills also helped bolster her pageantry career. After competing in her first adult pageant—Miss San Antonio USA—and not placing, she chose to learn from the experience rather than give up. “It can be discouraging,” she said. “But there’s failure in politics, in social media, in life. You just have to work through it.”
She refined her pageant skills with guidance from a mentor and brought the same drive she applied to her social media success. A year later, her efforts paid off. Winning the Miss Texas Latina crown—a title that leads to the Miss U.S. Latina and Miss Latin America of the World competitions—was, as she put it, “something that wasn’t handed to me. I had to work for it.”
Treviño traces this nose-to-the-grindstone mindset back to her high school cross-country days. “I wasn’t a good runner,” she laughed. “But waking up at 5 a.m. every day to do something you’re bad at—that builds discipline. It’s about doing something even when you don’t want to. When I started, I couldn’t run a mile. But by the end, I was running 8 miles a day.”
After graduating next spring, Treviño plans to take a gap year to work as a paralegal before applying to law schools, possibly St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M University, or St. John’s University in New York. She also hopes to launch a nonprofit supporting immigrant families.
Her focus on immigration law stems from when she was 17 and attended her mother’s citizenship ceremony. “It was exciting seeing families from different cultures and backgrounds,” she said. “I had so much pride in my mom being there, but I was also proud of the other people there. I wanted to be the reason why people were in that room, and that's never changed.”
Looking forward, Treviño strives to become a role model for young women on campus and across Texas. “I want to show that A&M–San Antonio students are capable of breaking barriers and redefining success,” she said. “We’re not just participants—we’re leaders, advocates, and changemakers.”