‘What difference can I make?’
These Bantams—and many others—show their dedication to Hartford
By Andrew J. Concatelli
Photos by Nick Caito
More than 1,200 Trinity students participated in academic or co-curricular engagement in the city of Hartford in the past academic year, according to the College’s Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER).
“Community engagement is essential to strengthening the bonds between Hartford’s diverse communities and Trinity College,” says Liliana Polley, IDP’21, M’23, executive director of CHER. “Our students are at the heart of this effort, facilitating a meaningful exchange of knowledge and resources that creates lasting benefits for both the community and the College. Through this engagement, we aim to enhance research, respond to community priorities, enrich teaching and learning experiences, and tackle the pressing issues our society faces together.”
Students are involved in each of the core programs coordinated by CHER: Community Learning; Community Service and Civic Engagement; the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy (HMTCA) Partnership; the Liberal Arts Action Lab; and Trinfo, a neighborhood gathering space, computer lab, and community garden.
Breanna Pitta ’27 notes the benefit that Trinity students gain from living in an urban area. “Hartford is truly our home; we’re here for four years,” Pitta says. “I think it’s a huge disservice to oneself and one’s education to not go out and explore it. I think Trinity and its students have a responsibility to give back to the community that homes us. Serving the community has been a huge part of my time here. The way I look at it is, What difference can I make?”
Pitta is one of three students the Reporter contacted to gain insight into those dedicated to community service in Hartford.
Aida Haile ’27
After learning about the impact of community service from her family in Philadelphia, Haile was president of her high school’s Service League Organization and nurtured a passion for bringing people together in support of important causes.
“Social justice and advocacy work are my motivations for what I’m studying and how I am on a daily basis,” says Haile, a double major in public policy and law and human rights studies who is connected to Hartford through several Trinity programs. “Being active in Hartford is what you make it,” she says. “There are abundant opportunities, organizations, communities, and individuals in Hartford who are passionate about the place they’re in.”
Through the Community Action Gateway, Haile engaged with the city through community-based research and social change projects in her first year at the College. Her research on Hartford Changemakers in partnership with Hartford Public Library and other archival resources included interviews with family members of local historical figures. “It was a great way to expose myself to the community as someone new to Hartford,” she says.
Haile joined Trinity’s Community Care Project as its food recovery co-chair in spring 2025. The student-led group brings food from Mather Dining Hall to the ImmaCare shelter each Friday. “It’s one of the most meaningful interactions I have every week,” Haile says. Her work with the Garden Groupies club this year involved spring cleanups across Hartford, including at the Trinfo community garden adjacent to campus.
As part of her work with the Public Humanities Collaborative in summer 2024, Haile worked with Assistant Professor of Political Science Dang Do on an open resource book to teach residents about state politics and the legislative process. She also participated in last year’s “voter
captain” campaign led by Do and Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Law Abigail Fisher Williamson. “The aim was to have each ‘captain’ we trained get 20 members of their family or communities to vote, causing a chain reaction,” Haile says. “It was a perfect combination of my interests in political advocacy and working in the community.”
Haile also supports high school students as a tutor and mentor at HMTCA. “The students are genuinely the highlights of my day. It’s rewarding to see the students’ academic and personal growth throughout the school year,” she says.
“The work is never really done,” she adds. “If we want Trinity to be open for everyone, you have to be intentional with the work you’re doing and the impact you want to leave. In my next two years at Trinity, I aim to be intentional and grateful to a community and city that exposed me to amazing opportunities.”
Thaddeus Hempel ’27
Hempel grew up engaging in community service projects; his dedication to supporting the public good led him to become an Eagle Scout.
“If you can spend two hours playing a video game or going out and helping someone, it always feels better to help,” says Hempel, a mathematics major and philosophy minor from Storrs, Connecticut. “Community service is humbling, and it’s an easy way to connect and make a difference, person by person. I’ve had the opportunity to really make a change. It’s one of the things I’m the proudest of in my life.”
In his first year at Trinity, Hempel joined the Liberal Arts Action Lab, which pairs Hartford community partners with student and faculty teams from Trinity and Capital Community College on semester-long research projects. “I found a place where I could be myself and be involved,” he says of the Action Lab. “I was part of the Family Finance Project. We did research and connected with people about a potential Connecticut child tax credit.”
The work included interviewing Hartford residents about their financial situations. “One interviewee, Maria, had us to her house for dinner with her and her son. We had a nice chat, like we were part of her family,” Hempel says. The team brought what they learned to state legislators and spoke at a press conference about the tax credit. “I felt empowered, and I had the chance to use that empowerment to empower others as well,” says Hempel, whose work on the tax credit continued with the United Way.
Like Haile, Hempel also tutors students at HMTCA. “I’ve really enjoyed engaging with the youth. It feels very productive and helpful,” he says. “It’s a different kind of community service. Instead of larger communities, you’re making a personal difference in someone’s life; it’s one of the most special things you can do.”
When Hempel declared a major in math, he thought he might become a consultant or a banker, but, he says, “I’m about as far from that as I could be now. I’m interested in working with people—either one-on-one like at HMTCA or broad lobbying work like I’ve done with the Action Lab.”
Hempel says that going on runs through the city gives him new perspectives as he talks with Hartford residents along the way. “We can feel so separate, but we’re really so close together,” he says. “Trinity is located in the middle of a lively community with a lot going on. Whether it’s through Cinestudio or programs involving people off campus, I feel like it’s very easy for Trinity students to engage with the Hartford community.”
Breanna Pitta ’27
Volunteering has been part of Pitta’s life since she was young, she says. She has helped to organize a benefit soccer tournament for a coach diagnosed with brain cancer, tutored children in immigrant
families, and went on a service trip to Rwanda, where she volunteered at a school for orphaned and vulnerable children. “Volunteering,” Pitta says, “is something that’s always been important to me, and it’s how I choose to spend my time.”
Coming to Trinity as a Presidential Scholar, Pitta also was interested in opportunities outside of the classroom. Being part of the Community Action Gateway in her first year at Trinity gave her an immediate connection to Hartford, where she is involved in many groups and activities.
Pitta is pursuing majors in environmental science and public policy and law, in addition to a minor in community action. “My brain is pretty science focused, but I want to do something more community facing with my life,” she says.
To that end, Pitta is a tutor for high school students at HMTCA and is president of Trinity’s student community service club, JELLO. “We help out at the Wadsworth Atheneum’s ‘Second Saturday’ family events, volunteer at Place of Grace Food Pantry twice a week, and have our ‘Week of Service’ in January, when we work with organizations in the Hartford community,” she says.
Pitta’s favorite part of the past year, she notes, was serving as a head coach for HMTCA’s middle school soccer team. While she captains Trinity’s women’s club soccer team, she missed coaching younger players, as she did for years in her hometown of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. “It’s fun to make someone love soccer as much as you love soccer,” she says.
Alongside Eulalia Esquenet ’27, Pitta guided 20 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders—some of whom did not know how to kick a ball at first—all the way to the league championship game. “It was amazing; I was so proud of them,” she says. “Once they understood that I cared about them a lot, they cared about the team a lot, and I think that’s what led to our success.”
While Pitta’s academic work has led to research opportunities in all three of her fields of study, her career aspirations are in environmental justice or policy, which combine several of her interests. “I have opportunities to share my scientific findings with the community and have them actually mean something,” she says.
Pitta says her time at Trinity has helped her understand how deeply intertwined environmental issues and social issues are and adds, “It’s shown me the importance of community.”
