Imagine for a minute being in class with history professor
Jack Chatfield.

“What I try to do in my teaching goes beyond conveying subject matter,” he explains. “I try to transmit the sheer excitement of exploring a world which remains unexplored up until that point, posing questions that are difficult to answer. What I try to create in my classes is a sense of discovery linked to an ongoing sense of intellectual tension.”

Trinity is a community of learning composed of talented and diverse faculty and students, united in their quest for knowledge and understanding. During four years here you will experience the pursuit of learning for learning’s sake and will come to appreciate the value of learning as a conversation. The heart of Trinity's educational excellence is the personal encounter between professor and student, the intellectual partnership that opens a world of ideas and launches a life long pursuit of knowledge. For many Trinity graduates, the enduring memories of a challenging and caring professor define a Trinity education.

Trinity professors teach with rare devotion. They will work alongside you, challenge and question you, share your triumphs, and encourage you when things don’t go as planned. You will come to know your professors as teachers and colleagues, as mentors and as friends. They are scholars whose work has earned them coveted national and international awards, but their first commitment is to helping students learn.

“I always tell my students, it doesn’t matter what you major in,” says economics professor Diane Zannoni. “What matters is what excites you. What do you have a passion for? It is all about finding your passion.”

Senior Joe Tranquillo found his passion in the engineering department and in the labs where he collaborated with two professors on a three-year research project. In the fall of his senior year, he was the only undergraduate student invited to present a paper — he presented two! — at an international biomedical engineering conference in Amsterdam. On his return to Hartford, Joe shared his thoughts in a letter that speaks volumes about Trinity.

“Beyond boosting my enthusiasm and refining my research skills, the professors at Trinity have taught me how to think and communicate,” explains Joe. “In my opinion, this is the true value of a Trinity education — not merely to learn methods, theories and formulas, but to develop clear, logical thinking and expression. A research project is not something that can be found in a book; the question is created by the researcher and must be solved by the researcher. My advisers put me in charge of solving the problems! Solving them requires creativity and clear thinking — something my books cannot supply.”

More than 30 percent of the most recent graduating class collaborated with faculty in conducting research. Many of them, like Joe Tranquillo, made joint presentations at international, national, and local symposia or published jointly written papers.

In addition to such extraordinary collaborative learning, Trinity students are engaged in experiential learning. Our location in a capital city provides virtually limitless opportunity for hands-on learning through internships, community service, and cultural exploration. At Trinity you can learn in class, on the Web, in the community, in workplaces, at the opera, in museums, at the Capitol, in medical centers, in law offices… In the “real world” of Hartford, you can test out classroom theories and career interests or discover whole new worlds of art, music, and civic activity.

Over 200 students annually are involved in internships at over 70 different organizations in Greater Hartford, earning academic credit for their work. More than 300 students each year reach out to the community and extend their learning beyond the classroom through the College’s service learning and community outreach programs.

In its commitment to the rigorous pursuit of the liberal arts and to instruction that is personal and conversational, Trinity is an ideal college. At the same time, Trinity is in close touch with the world outside its gates. In that respect, and in terms of the myriad and unparalleled opportunities Trinity’s capital city location offers students, a Trinity education is indeed a real education.

Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me, and I’ll understand. That Chinese proverb captures the essence of Trinity’s distinctiveness among the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. Trinity offers students a powerful combination: an education that is at once ideal and real.

I've always thought that one of the great strengths of Trinity is the opportunity for students to discover and create their own structure, both educationally and socially. Really, the curriculum permits just about anything for those who are creative in excavating its secrets. And anyone can create a new organization and mobilize just like that! Entrepreneurship and leadership are the great opportunities here.

–Professor of Philosophy Dan Lloyd

The Proof of Excellence

Majors

Recent Faculty Grant Awards

Recent Student Awards

First-Year Program

Recent Student Scholarship