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Project at Liberal Arts Action Lab Inspires $149K Grant

As Trinity College prepares to welcome nearly 2,000 students back to campus in February for the spring 2021 semester, the work to keep the entire community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Here, members of Trinity’s COVID-19 steering committee and other campus leaders look back at the fall semester and discuss plans for spring.

The COVID-19 pandemic led students enrolled in a sculpture class at Trinity College to get creative when considering the subjects and spaces for their works of art, which their professor says were full of humor, patience, and hope. “Their spirit was inspiring,” says Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Lynn Sullivan.

Beginning in fall 2021 with the incoming Class of 2025, the Trinity College curriculum will include a broad variety of credit-bearing co-curricular experiences and a new wellness program.

Trinity’s Student Success team is adept at connecting students with resources to help navigate challenges they encounter during college. With the team’s leadership, Trinity has achieved a first-year student retention rate of 90 percent, worthy of celebration in any year and even more so in the time of COVID-19.

The college has added 86 fundraising volunteers so far this fiscal year—more than doubling the number of volunteers who joined last year, bringing the total number of fundraising volunteers to more than 300. These volunteers are instrumental in serving as vital connectors between Trinity and its alumni and parent community.

Trinity alumna Kari Sweeney Efferen ’03, a research scientist and associate director at the pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer, speaks to the Trinity community about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and answers questions about how one can be developed so quickly during a worldwide pandemic.

Twenty-six students are honored for the highest academic achievement in their first year at the college. Students remain Deans’ Scholars through the end of their sophomore year.

Students in one Trinity College course are sharing their knowledge of public policy in a series of columns published by The Connecticut Mirror this semester.

With the in-person portion of the fall 2020 semester concluded, Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney is sharing her thoughts about what the challenges of the past several months have meant for students and for educational equity.