Convocation Welcomes New Students to Trinity, Marks Start of Academic Year

Trinity College officially began its 202nd academic year on August 28, 2025, when new students and their families gathered on the Main Quad with members of the Trinity community for the President’s Convocation and Matriculation.

In his introduction of the Class of 2029, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Matthew Hyde said, “The 482 Bantams of Trinity ’29, our 23 distinguished transfer additions, and our one Individualized Degree Program scholar now gift Trinity with a compelling blend of experiences and perspectives. Your collective intelligence and the amalgamation of ideas and ideals swirled into your flock is a spectacular expression of Trinity’s power and promise.”

The reach of the class is truly global, Hyde said. “The most local amongst you can skip just up the street about a half mile to his Hartford home; while the Bantam amongst you who journeyed the furthest will need to hop 9,372 miles across oceans and continents to her home Jasin, Melaka, Malaysia,” he said.

Twenty-two new students followed a family member to Trinity, while 79 members of the Class of 2029 become the first in their family to attend college, Hyde said. “Your interests and intent, ideas and ideals are vast and compelling,” he added. “Regardless of how you landed in this seat before me, let it be known that this day, your class, and your college unite all of you. Each and every one of you belongs at Trinity.”

Trinity College President Daniel G. Lugo, who is beginning his first year at Trinity, told the Class of 2029, “Like you, I am learning about what makes this campus and our people so special—what it means to be a community of Bantams.”

He introduced the new students to some of the traditions on campus—including using the lemon squeezer to offer a lemonade toast to the incoming class, and a warning against stepping on the Luther-Roosevelt Stone—and told them to make the most of their time at Trinity.

“This is the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Trinity—and, when you do this right, it will lead to many lifelong relationships with others,” Lugo said. “Trinity is not just a four-year proposition. This is not a transaction; it is an experience—the sum of all the learning and growth you’ll experience, all the people who will support you now and in the future, and all the great things you’ll do.”

Lugo assured the new Bantams that they are not alone. “You belong to a community where you can find classmates who will challenge you and become true and deep friends,” he said. “You can find others to guide you if you need help. You can find a club or team that excites you. You can be entrepreneurial in all that you study and inquisitive about all that you learn.”

Finally, Lugo challenged students to do new things that might make them feel unsure or uncomfortable at first. “Growth only happens beyond the edges of what you already know,” he added. “My charge to you is this: open your eyes. See possibility where others don’t. Seek the opportunities that Trinity, Hartford, the region around us, our alumni, our faculty, and staff present—both directly and indirectly. There will be many opportunities.”

“As you walk the Long Walk today, perhaps for the first time—walk it with intention,” Lugo said. “Know that one day, you’ll walk it again…this time in cap and gown. What happens between now and then is up to you.”

Students and their families also heard from Shakira R. Crespo ’02, a former Funston Trustee (2007–2010), co-chair of Trinity’s Women’s Leadership Council, and a mentor to the Society of Women Engineers. “College is about discovering who you are, what you value, and how you want to make an impact in the world,” Crespo said.

Student Government Association President Manuela S. Rodes ’26 welcomed the Class of 2029 and introduced them to the Student Integrity Contract. “Change can feel uncertain, but it is also full of possibilities,” Rodes said. “It is a chance to rethink, to grow, and to imagine what’s next. That is exactly what these next four years will be for you.”

Before the new students took the Oath of Matriculation during the ceremony, they learned that matriculation is the symbolic act of enrolling at the College and that it is the oldest continuously observed tradition at Trinity.

To mark their matriculation, two representatives of the new students—a member of the Class of 2029 and a transfer student—signed the College’s Matriculation book, as all new students would do the next day. The book is one in a long series of volumes preserved in the archives since the founding of the College. Lugo said, “Your addition to this book will serve as a reminder to you and to all who are witnesses that you will approach your responsibilities with seriousness of purpose and with exemplary judgment.”

To conclude the ceremony, Sarah A. Raskin, associate dean for faculty development and Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, declared that the College’s 202nd academic year was officially under way. “May each of you excel in your studies and be moved and transformed by the ideas and the intellectual passions you are about to encounter,” she said.

View the program here. Watch the ceremony and see a photo gallery below.