Now a political science major with a minor in film studies, Heineman is a writer for the Trinity Tripod and the Other Voice and a past president of the College Democrats. He is also a manager at Cinestudio, where viewing thought-provoking films week after week has been an education in itself. At the theater, Heineman supervises other volunteers, including his former film professor, Fred Pfeil, who calls Heineman both an excellent student and a great boss who exhibits "a combination of intelligence and decency."

Firsthand experiences in Trinidad
In the spring of his junior year, Heineman found the perfect opportunity to observe firsthand the dynamics of politics and culture. He spent the semester at Trinity’s global learning site in Trinidad, a nation whose entire multicultural population expresses its collective identity through annual Carnival festivities.

"I was interested in Carnival as political resistance," says Heineman. Trinidad, he notes, is home to a racially and ethnically diverse society whose political history is layered into the conventions of Carnival. The Afro-based traditions of today’s Carnival, he points out, are in part a mocking permutation of the Catholic-based celebrations of French farmers, who were among the many waves of colonizers to occupy the island. In a more personal example, Heineman himself participated in a Carnival masquerade band with about 50 others, all dressed in the traditional "fancy sailor" costume. "This band is a satiric, ironic commentary on the American soldiers stationed in Trinidad during World War II," says Heineman, noting that the dance of the fancy sailor involves acting inebriated. Being an American playing an American from the Trinidadian political viewpoint was, Heineman says with a laugh, "doubly ironic."

Trinity Artist-in-Residence Tony Hall, a Trinidadian playwright who taught Heineman and the other Trinity students in Trinidad last spring, says of Heineman, "He’s very focused and conscientious and one who found his way into the new culture quite easily."

In addition to participating in Carnival activities and taking courses with Hall and at the local university, Heineman did an internship with the Trinidad Express, a daily newspaper. One highlight of that experience was writing — and having published — an article about an influential calypso singer whose death had an enormous impact on last year’s Carnival. The other high point was visiting Trinidad’s Parliament, accompanied by a reporter from the newspaper, to observe the day-to-day functioning of the government. "What’s interesting," notes Heineman, "is that the population of Trinidad is very integrated, but the political parties go along racial lines."

Putting learning in context
Returning to Trinity this fall, Heineman has been putting his experiential learning in Trinidad to good use in the classroom. In "Politics of Developing Countries," taught by Associate Professor of Political Science Brigitte H. Schulz, students are examining and comparing theories of economic and political development in the post-colonial era. Schulz, who calls Heineman "an excellent writer with a very good analytical mind," appreciates the informed perspective he shares with classmates. She says that by both bringing his firsthand experience to bear on the course material and also retrospectively reassessing and reinterpreting what he witnessed in the Caribbean, he can "make backward and forward linkages" and "put his experiences into context." Says Heineman, "I was able to make my own observations and conclusions in Trinidad, and now I’m comparing them with what theorists have said."

Heineman, who is from Hingham, MA, has no definite plans yet for life after Trinity, but teaching is one option that appeals to him. This past summer, he worked at the Boston-based headquarters for City Year, an organization that sends young people into the inner cities for a year of tutoring, mentoring, and participation in community service projects. For his summer job, Heineman worked behind the scenes, analyzing surveys about the effectiveness of the organization’s programs, and now he is considering committing to a year-long stint on the front lines. He also is considering journalism as a strong career possibility — one that might just take him full circle, back to that influential film course at Trinity. He says, "I think being a film critic would be an ideal job."