The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in April, 2001.

A versatile student in a world of opportunity

 As a senior student admissions associate, Jennifer J. Carvalho not only
informs the dozens of high school students she interviews about the opportunities and rewards that a liberal arts education at Trinity offers, but she also embodies these ideals. She is perfectly suited for her admissions role. Outgoing and engaging, she puts people at ease and says she enjoys sharing her enthusiasm about Trinity with prospective students. Her intense involvement in a wide range of pursuits at the College also provides an up-close and personal look at the many and varied options that Trinity enables its students to explore. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, Carvalho is a double major in biology and music who is also interested in politics and psychology. Respected by her professors, she has served as a teaching assistant for three different courses. Adept at the laboratory work that is integral to her scientific studies, Carvalho is equally comfortable backstage at the Austin Arts Center, where she has been a stage manager for every student production of musical theater since her sophomore year. Meanwhile, she has made time to serve as an officer in Trinity’s Newman Club and to play the clarinet in the Capital Winds, a regional concert band based at the University of Hartford. “Jen is an amazingly talented young woman,” says Ronald M. Cino, associate director of admissions.

One of biology’s best and brightest
On the first day of the first semester in her first biology course at Trinity, Carvalho knew two things. One was that she wanted to be a biology major. The other was that she intended to earn one of the department’s highest honors, a Thomas Hume Bissonette Teaching Fellowship—a goal she achieved this fall. The fellowship is awarded to two students each semester who the biology faculty believe have the intellectual and personal skills to teach effectively in the two introductory courses that build the foundation for the biology major. As a Bissonette Fellow, Carvalho represents “the very best and brightest of our biology majors,” notes Assistant Professor of Biology Scott R. Smedley, who has taught Carvalho in three courses.

Smedley also attests to Carvalho’s dedication to her work and cites her summer research with him as one example. Carvalho conducted a study related to “puddling,” a drinking behavior of male Gluphisia moths. As moths are nocturnal creatures, Carvalho stationed herself in the laboratory from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. to observe the moths in action and then would often get up at 6 a.m. the next day to collect new specimens from the moth traps.

Carvalho says she is most interested in ecology and “larger scale” biological dynamics. In one of her favorite courses, “Conservation Biology,” taught by Assistant Professor of Biology Joan Morrison, she examined such issues as biodiversity, endangered species, resource management, and related political processes. For a community outreach assignment for the course, Carvalho and her project partner made a presentation about water conservation to six- and seven-year-olds at the Montessori School in Hartford’s Learning Corridor. They showed the children specimens of shellfish and other organisms found in Long Island Sound—creatures that are affected by what humans introduce into the ecological system of the Connecticut River.

Equally distinguished in music
Although Carvalho did not decide to become a music major on her first day at Trinity, she began building a distinguished reputation in the music department from the start. Professor of Music Gerald Moshell taught her the fall semester of her first year in the introductory music theory course. “She seemed solid, bright, congenial, and organized,” he recalls, just the qualities he was looking for in a stage manager for musical theater productions. He offered her the job, and she soon became an indispensable part of the musical theater program, which features a fall revue, four short musicals in January, and a major production in the spring.

Carvalho loves the varied tasks of being a stage manager. Early in a production, these tasks include organizing costume fittings and keeping track of all blocking and staging according to the director’s instructions. During performances, she oversees the technical aspects of the performance, communicating with technicians via a headset and calling the lighting, sound, and prop cues. A stage manager is accorded a certain amount of authority, and Carvalho manages the tricky role of supervising her peers with aplomb, according to Moshell.

Carvalho, who enjoys listening to a wide range of music—from classical to pop to show tunes—says her music history courses have challenged her and changed the way she listens to music. Whenever she hears a piece of music, she can’t help applying her contextual knowledge and interpretive skills: What do certain compositional or stylistic elements reveal about when the piece was written or who influenced the composer?  “Once you’ve learned to listen to music beyond the outside aesthetics of how pretty it sounds,” she says, “you can’t go back” to uninformed listening.

One of Carvalho’s most meaningful musical experiences took place last June, when she was invited back to her high school in Bolton, CT, to conduct its 117-student concert band. She selected the music “On a Hymn Song of Lowell Mason” by David Holsinger and held a few rehearsals with the students before conducting the performance for an audience of 500 people. She had learned conducting skills in her Trinity courses but never had led such a large ensemble. “Musically, it was a wonderful experience,” she says, adding that her hometown gig was personally rewarding as well. Her sister was a member of the band, and her proud parents were, of course, in the audience.

Considering teaching
This semester, the biology faculty chose Carvalho to co-chair the student search committee in the department’s review of candidates for a genetics and developmental biology position. Carvalho says it was exciting to meet the four finalists, whom she describes as “extremely brilliant scientists,” and to be responsible for conveying to the faculty the student perspective on the candidates. “It required me to sit down and think about what qualities are needed to make someone a good professor or teacher,” Carvalho notes. Such musings are germane to her own career prospects since teaching might provide a way of continuing both of her interests. She is considering, for example, working as a high school biology teacher and adviser to the drama club. Of one thing she is sure: “I want to work with people, no matter what I do.”

—Leslie Virostek