Reporterspring2015

SP RIN G 2015

The Trinity

RE P O RT ER

A NOVEL IDEA Two creative writing seniors penning works in fantasy genre

INSIDE

JEWISH HISTORY IN POLAND Professor advises on museum’s creation

NEW APPROACH TO PHYSICS Trinity transforms introductory course

BANTAMS WIN TWO NATIONAL TITLES Men’s ice hockey, men’s squash prevail

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/ The Trinity Reporter /

12 A Novel Idea

Two creative writing seniors penning works in fantasy genre

18 Reimagining Introductory Physics

Fundamental course undergoes transformation

22 Telling the tale of a civil rights icon

Andrew Aydin ’06 co-authors lauded books

SPRING 2015

C O N T E N T S D E P A R T M E N T S 02 ALONG THE WALK 06 TRINITY TREASURE 10 VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT 11 AROUND HARTFORD 36 ATHLETICS 41 CLASS NOTES 72 IN MEMORY 78 ALUMNI EVENTS 80 ENDNOTE

The Trinity Reporter Vol. 45, No. 3, Spring 2015 Published by the Office of Communications, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106. Postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut, and additional mailing offices.

The Trinity Reporter is mailed to alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of Trinity College without charge. All publication rights reserved, and contents may be reproduced or reprinted only by written permission of the editor. Opinions expressed are those of the editor or contributors and do not reflect the official position of Trinity College.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Trinity Reporter, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106 The editor welcomes your questions and comments: Sonya Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106 or sonya.adams@trincoll.edu.

www. trincoll.edu

ON THE COVER Georgia Summers and David Field, seniors in Trinity College’s Creative Writing Program, are writing novels for their senior theses.

26 Celebrating Jewish history in Poland Trinity professor lends expertise in museum’s creation

32 Strength & Support

Initiative aims to attract top students

PHOTO : AL FE RRE IRA

ON THIS PAGE The Trinity College campus sits nestled in its Hartford home. To see the Trinity College Tour from Above video, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

PHOTO : B RAD J. WARD

/ Fall 2014 /

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200 CONSTITUTION PLAZA

P HOTO: COSTAR, INC .

COLLEGE BUYS BUILDING IN D OWNTOWN H ARTFORD

Trinity finalized in January the purchase of downtown Hartford’s 200 Constitution Plaza, a longterm, strategic move that aligns with the College’s goals of urban engagement and collaborative partnerships in Hartford.

A downtown footprint will allow Trinity to connect students with the heart of the city and its endless possibilities for internships, educational partnerships, and interactive learning. It opens the door to new relationships for the entire community, including faculty, staff, and local alumni.

The five-story, 135,000-squarefoot building once housed The Travelers Companies as its corporate training and educational facility and is well suited to educational needs, including a 200-seat amphitheater, multiple classrooms, lounge areas, a library, and a teleconference center. The size and location of the building also will enable Trinity to lease extra space that may be unused, thus providing revenue enhancement for the College.

To guide the planning process for the building’s use, the College has enlisted the help of two individuals with strong backgrounds in urban and institutional planning in higher education settings. Rachel G. Bratt, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, emerita,

from Tufts University, and Catherine Donaher, an experienced consultant in real estate development and master planning, will help Trinity develop a comprehensive plan for occupying the building.

Paul Mutone, Trinity’s vice president for finance and operations and treasurer, will be project manager, and Chief of Staff Jason Rojas and Associate Professor of Political Science Stefanie Chambers will serve as liaisons to various on- and off-campus constituencies.

A forum for faculty and staff and another for students took place during the spring. Alumni and others were invited to provide feedback online.

In a letter to the Trinity community in December, when it was announced that Trinity had placed the winning bid, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney said, “I believe taking advantage of this unique opportunity moves us toward building a sustainable future for Trinity that is built on vision and integrity,” she said. “A presence for our College in downtown Hartford opens many doors for us to strengthen our campus culture, ensure academic excellence, reach financial equilibrium, and foster institutional pride. This is an exciting opportunity for us to go boldly and engage more fully with our city.”

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M E N T O R I NG N ET W O R KS

BEST OVERALL DESIGN

NEW PROGR AM TO SU PP ORT C L AS S OF 20 19

The 60 students — split into five teams — who took part in the mentoring networks design challenge presented their plans to a panel of eight judges on Sunday, March 8, one of the first warm days of 2015. By the evening, the students, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in President Joanne Berger-Sweeney’s residence, were aching to hear which of the teams had taken first place in a competition to redesign the experiences of Trinity first-years through a new system of mentoring networks.

Berger-Sweeney stood at a lectern to announce the winner. “As we make the final design, we will use parts of all the proposals,” she told the crowd. Then, “the President Joanne Berger-Sweeney joins overall best design: Group 4, the ‘Bantam Network!’ ” members of the team that won top honors in The Bantam Network’s core idea is to bring together stuthe mentoring networks dents from four thematically different first-year seminars into design challenge in March.

Pictured are Dylan residentially based groups called nests. These nests, named Spagnuolo ’17, Monica for persons, places, or things tied to Trinity’s history, will fosMhina ’17, Hannah Adams ’17, President ter scholastic engagement outside the classroom, a greater Joanne Berger-Sweeney, sense of community within the living spaces, civic engageMark Ferreira ’17, Madison Ochs ’18, Molly Thoms ’17, ment with Hartford, and school pride.

Sarah Beckmann ’18, and “We tried to harken back to Trinity history and tradition,” Colin MacKichan ’15. said Madison Ochs ’18, a member of the winning team. “We’re proud to have won and to be able to have a hand in this. I’ll be able to see my legacy being implemented while I am here at Trinity.”

Charged last December with designing mentoring networks that would strengthen the interaction of Trinity students with each other, the campus, and the city of Hartford, the five design teams met frequently since the start of the spring semester. The teams, each supported by presidential cabinet sponsors, worked toward designs that would offer concrete plans for programming, space, and governance; engage existing campus resources; have a compelling name to describe it; and achieve the project’s four goals.

These goals are to connect students to their peers, creating an immediate sense of belonging; to strengthen mentoring of students outside the classroom, inspiring them to cultivate knowledge; to connect students to Hartford, equipping them to take advantage of our

These “nests,” named for persons, places, or things tied to Trinity’s history, will foster scholastic engagement outside the classroom, a greater sense of community within the living spaces, civic engagement with Hartford, and school pride. city’s offerings; and to prepare students for life by developing engaged, civically minded persons.

Associate Professor of Biology LisaAnne Foster, one of the judges, said of the Bantam Network, “I like how the proposal integrated the academic and the social.”

New York restaurateur Danny Meyer ’80, also a judge, said, “I liked the connection to Hartford.”

According to the Bantam Network plan, the main support for each nest will come from a close-knit team of academic and residential mentors, who will set an example of cooperation and leadership for their students. A new central space on campus will support the plan’s goals of integrating academic, social, and professional life at Trinity.

As the initial design phase comes to a close, the College turns its efforts to implementing the students’ ambitious plans. When the members of the Class of 2019 arrive on campus in September, they will be supported by those who know best what it takes to successfully engage with the Trinity and Hartford communities.

For more photos of the mentoring networks design challenge judging day, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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PH OTO : DIAN A GUAY P HOTOG RA PH Y

COMMUNITY JOINS IN MURAL PROJECT Peruvian artist Jorge Alberto Miyagui Oshiro, foreground, Trinity College’s 2015 Human Rights Advocacy Fellow-in-Residence, leads a public mural painting session at Trinity’s Broad Street Gallery on Saturday, February 7. Dozens of participants of all ages collaborated on the two-day project, which was started the preceding day. On February 5, Miyagui gave an afternoon talk on “Art in Public Space: The Experiences of the Mural Brigade and the Itinerant Art Memory Museum in Peru,” as well as an evening lecture: “Mr. Miyagui Fights Back: Blurring the Lines between Art and Politics.” Miyagui’s artwork explores the activism, resistances, and traumas of everyday working- and middle-class Peruvian people during and after Peru’s civil war, confronts the findings of the 2003 Peruvian Truth Commission, and highlights ongoing social justice issues. His time on campus provided opportunities for students and community members to reflect on social transformation, activism, and community building.

For more photos from the mural project, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

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TRINITY TREASURE ALONG THE WALK

Residents of The Fred take part in the Gaming Group on a recent Friday afternoon.

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It is Friday afternoon at The Fred. Like all Trinity students, the students who live in this residence hall are unwinding after a demanding week of classes. But they also are preparing to turn each of their five floors into a different movie or film genre, filled with related games and activities, so that when attendees of this week’s Friday at The Fred event drift in at 9:00, they are transported to the worlds of Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, a spy flick, a horror film, or an action movie. Officially titled The Fred Pfeil Community Project, The Fred is the tallest of the three Summit Suites buildings in the southwest corner of campus. It houses 60 upper-year students who apply to live there based on a desire to be part of an inclusive, friendly, and engaged atmosphere. The Fred, founded in the fall of

2006, was named in honor of Fred Pfeil, a Trinity professor of English and film studies from 1985 until his death in 2005. Pfeil was known for inspiring students with his lifelong commitment to justice, political engagement, and social change. The community also hosts weekly gatherings that are open to all Trinity students, including meetings of the Gourmet Pancake Club, the Crafternoons group, and the Comic Book and General Nerdology group, to name just a few. Ethel and Max Schader Memorial Scholar Allison Stegeland ’15, who serves as a community facilitator in The Fred’s internal democratic government, said that The Fred is a “doors open” kind of place. “At the end of the day,” she says, “The Fred is a building of 60 people trying to make campus just a little bit friendlier.”

PH OTO: RICH ARD BE RGE N

THE FRED

ALONG THE WALK

ROSEN WINS TOP HONOR FOR BOOK RECENT PUBLICATIONS Literary Exiles from Nazi Germany: Exemplarity and the Search for Meaning Johannes F. Evelein, Professor of Language and Culture Studies Camden House, 2014; 201 pages

Reconnaissance in Sonora: Charles D. Poston’s 1854 Exploration of Mexico and the Gadsden Purchase C. Gilbert Storms ’64 The University of Arizona Press, 2015; 193 pages

The Kind Worth Killing

PH OTO: J OH N ATAS HIAN

Peter Swanson ’90 William Morrow, 2015; 313 pages

Why Are You Here?

A Primer for State Legislators and Citizens

Franklin L. Kury ’58 University Press of America, Inc., 2014; 104 pages

A Sister to Honor Lucy Ferriss, Writer-in-Residence Berkley Trade, 2015; 400 pages

The Sound of Music Story

Tom Santopietro ’76 St. Martin’s Press, 2015; 324 pages

Tender is the Night & F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Sentimental Identities

Chris Messenger ’65 The University of Alabama Press, 2015; 281 pages

If you have a recent book, CD, or video that you would like listed in The Reporter, please submit a copy to Sonya Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106. Questions? E-mail sonya.adams@trincoll.edu.

David Rosen, professor of English and chair of the English Department, along with co-author Aaron Santesso, recently received the James Russell Lowell Prize for their 2013 book, The Watchman in Pieces: Surveillance, Literature, and Liberal Personhood.

Rosen and Santesso, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication, met when each was doing a one-year stint at Wesleyan University. They realized that their areas of interest had some overlap and began collaborating on this book.

The Watchman in Pieces explores how ideas about personhood and surveillance have evolved together over the last 500 years. In this history, literature has played a major role, as both a record of, and laboratory for, changing beliefs. The authors’ primary claim is that

the ideas about liberal personhood in literature make it possible for citizens to participate in an environment where they are being watched and responding to that surveillance.

The Lowell Prize is awarded each year to an outstanding book written by a member of the Modern Language Association. Rosen accepted the honor at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in January.

CORRECTIONS / WINTER 2015 / The “Trinity Treasure” story on the Chapel organ gave the wrong first name for the person credited with starting Trinity’s notable organ tradition. Clarence Watters was appointed College organist in 1932 and went on to receive an honorary master of music degree from Trinity in 1935. / In “Leading the Way,” the title of William Macaulay was incorrect. He is and has been a full professor at Columbia University and a named endowed chair, the Nas S. Eftekhar Professor of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery, as well as division chief of adult reconstruction at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University, for more than 10 years. He also serves as director of the Center for Hip and Knee Replacement and director of the Fellowship Program in Hip and Knee Surgery. In addition, he also was recently appointed as chief of orthopedic surgery at New YorkPresbyterian/Lawrence Hospital.

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PHOTO : JO HN ATASHI AN

GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP AND NEH GRANT S AWARDED

Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Professor of Religion Frank Kirkpatrick; Professor of Religion, Emeritus, John Gettier; Professor of Religion and International Studies Leslie Desmangles; President Joanne Berger-Sweeney; Professor of History, Emeritus, Borden W. Painter, Jr., ’58, H’95; and Dean of the Faculty Thomas Mitzel celebrate the January 2015 opening of the Trinity College Retired Faculty Lounge in Mather Hall.

LOUNGE FOR RETIRED FACULTY OPENS Trinity acknowledged the lifelong relationship between faculty and the College with the opening in January of the Retired Faculty Lounge in Mather Hall.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to have this space here,” said Tom Mitzel, dean of the faculty, shortly before the lounge’s ribbon cutting, which was attended by approximately 40 retired faculty members. After a meeting with Borden W. Painter, Jr. ’58, H’95, professor of history, emeritus, and a former president and dean of the faculty, Mitzel worked with a group of current faculty members and retirees to establish and open the space.

The lounge’s location in the basement of Mather Hall, a hub for student life on campus, is no coincidence. Joanne Berger-Sweeney, President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience, encouraged the retired faculty members to stay in touch with Trinity students and to involve themselves in the forthcoming mentoring networks. With the lounge now open, Mitzel said he anticipates announcements about programming with retired faculty members soon.

“This is a small but visible symbol of how much we want you to remain connected to the community,” Berger-Sweeney said in addressing retired faculty members.

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For their research on the uniqueness of the Torah and the mapping of the Middle East, respectively, Seth Sanders, associate professor of religion, and Zayde Antrim, Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of History and International Studies, recently were awarded grants of $50,400 each from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Sanders also was named a Guggenheim Fellow and received a $52,000 grant. Both plan to use the funding to continue research and complete their most recent books.

Sanders will finish researching and writing his third title, Why We Can’t Read the Torah: The Form of the Pentateuch and the History of Ancient Hebrew Literature. Through this book, Sanders intends to analyze the literary values of the Torah to understand its place as one of Western history’s most fruitful pieces of literature.

“Religious people have struggled with the Bible’s contradictions since they first read it, and scholars have used them as a window into how it was created.

What my project can explain is why those contradictions were put in the text in the first place,” Sanders said.

Sanders, who has experience working with sources in Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, will conduct his research in Philadelphia and Ann Arbor, Michigan, both of which have major research libraries and scholarly communities in his field.

Antrim’s project, Mapping the Middle East, emerged from her previous scholarship on ideas of place in the early Islamic world and two courses she developed at Trinity: “Mapping the World” and “Mapping the Middle East.” Her book uses a set of representative and compelling maps to trace a history of the ways in which people have visualized and asserted power over the Middle East during the last millennium.

“My research for Mapping the Middle East has taken me to libraries and archives in Turkey, Lebanon, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the United States,” Antrim said. “I will be using my fellowship year to visit other archives in the Middle East and Europe and to finish writing the book. I am thrilled to have the additional time and resources to devote to this ambitious project.”

ALONG THE WALK

Nine Faculty Members Retiring THIS JUNE MARKS THE RETIREMENT OF NINE TRINITY FACULTY MEMBERS, LISTED BELOW. FOR MORE ON THESE ESTEEMED INDIVIDUALS, PLEASE SEE PAGE 71.

W. MILLER BROWN Professor of Philosophy CYNTHIA L. BUTOS Principal Lecturer in the Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric JUDY DWORIN ’70 Professor of Theater and Dance DAVID E. HENDERSON Professor of Chemistry DREW A. HYLAND Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy PAUL LAUTER Allan K. and Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of English WILLIAM M. MACE Professor of Psychology RICHARD S. ROSS Librarian and College Professor ROBIN L. SHEPPARD M’76 Professor of Physical Education and Associate Director of Athletics

TWO LONGTIME ADMINSTRATORS

SAY FAREWELL Two longtime Trinity administrators — Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Larry Dow ’73 and Dean of Students Fred Alford — marked their retirements this year.

Dow retired in December 2014 after 41 years in the Office of Admissions. He completed a remarkable career at his alma mater, entering Trinity as a member of the Class of 1973 and beginning his work in admissions following graduation. Since then, he played an integral role in the enrollment of every entering class at Trinity. For the last 15 years, Dow served as the College’s chief admissions officer and oversaw the Office of Financial Aid. His distinguished reputation resulted in his receiving numerous awards and honors, including being named Connecticut’s Admissions Counselor of the Year by the New England Association for College Admission Counseling, receiving the College’s Alumni Medal for Excellence, and being chosen as the Trinity Club of Hartford’s 2011 Person of the Year.

Dow

Alford

Alford retired at the end of the academic year, his 12th at Trinity. Always the active voice of support and opportunity for students, Alford knew many students on a firstname basis. Colleagues praised Alford for his calm, unflappable presence in the face of difficult situations and for his quick and ready sense of humor. He played a central role in developing and implementing plans to improve community life and was a member of the Charter Committee for Building Social Community and the Council on Campus Climate, and he served on the Planning and Budget Council. He also was the College’s representative to the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE). He was a past winner of the David Winer Award, given by students to someone who has made a significant contribution to student life.

Prior to his time at Trinity, he served as dean at Union College for 16 years.

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VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

BY CAROL LATTER

Lisa Marinello Jones ’84, P’15 “I’m a big believer in a liberal arts education,” says Lisa Marinello Jones ’84, P’15. “Liberal arts gives you the opportunity to expand your thinking, helps you learn to think analytically, and allows you to practice writing as a craft.

I think all of those things are beneficial, regardless of what career direction you’re going in.”

As a high school student, the Saugus, Massachusetts, native envisioned herself pursuing a college degree in the sciences. But after applying to – and visiting – Trinity College on the advice of her guidance counselor, “I fell in love with the Long Walk, the quad, and the feel of the school.”

Today, Jones is the Boston-based CEO of U.S. business for Pioneer Investments, a global firm with more than $250 billion in assets under management. She says her bachelor of arts degree in economics stood her in good stead as she climbed the financial services career ladder in New York and Boston and traveled the globe on business.

“I truly believe Trinity provided me with the platform of education and life skills that allowed me to become successful in the field that I’m in,” she says, adding that while she was in college, she savored every moment of courses like philosophy, English, Asian studies, and art history. She also had an opportunity to study overseas at the College’s Rome campus, an experience she treasures.

More than 30 years after earning her degree, Jones continues to be active with her alma mater. She is committed to helping current students, her fellow alumni, and the College whenever she can.

She has volunteered with the Career Development Center as a mentor, coaching students to explore job opportunities. But her involvement doesn’t

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end there, says Gretchen Orschiedt, director of principal gifts and international advancement at Trinity. Jones also has supported the center philanthropically and has worked to strengthen programs for students throughout their four years at Trinity.

“Lisa is terrific,” says Orschiedt. “She’s smart, she’s enthusiastic, and she wants to help students take full advantage of opportunities to expand their horizons, study abroad, and tap into their Trinity network.”

She notes Jones has maintained close connections with her own Class of ’84. In addition to serving as a committee member for her 10th, 20th, 25th, and 30th reunions, the busy CEO has “marshaled attendance, organized activities, and helped fundraise with her class to reach giving goals.”

In support of the College as a whole, Jones has twice served on the Board of Fellows.

“And last year,” says Orschiedt, “she hosted a President’s Reception at her Naples, Florida, home.” Orschiedt has high praise for Jones, both as an alumnus and as a person. “Lisa is upbeat and positive, she cares deeply, and we’re very grateful for her leadership and engagement. She has been committed to the College throughout her life, all while pursuing a career and raising a family. She and her husband have treated Trinity as a priority.”

Jones was delighted when her eldest daughter decided to enroll at Trinity in 2011.

Samantha, who graduates this spring, pursued many of the same opportunities as did her mother, including studying in Rome and taking her mother’s favorite class: Asian religious studies with Professor Ellison Findly.

Jones couldn’t be happier about her own choice of college and the positive impact it has had on her life.

“Trinity fosters an environment of great adventure and learning and an opportunity not only to experience personal growth but also to expand your horizons of people, backgrounds, culture, and different disciplines,” she says. “That concentration of opportunity in a four-year course of study is really a privilege and a gift that I hope students appreciate, recognize, and take advantage of – because it goes by too quickly.”

ALONG THE WALK BEAR’S SMOKEHOUSE BARBECUE, 89 ARCH STREET, HARTFORD, CT 06103

AROUND HARTFORD

In June of 2013, Jamie McDonald IDP ’00 and his wife, Cheryl, opened an authentic wood-smoked, Kansas City-style barbecue take-out restaurant in Windsor, Connecticut, in a space no bigger than a bedroom. The popularity of Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue exploded, prompting McDonald, a Kansas City native, and his wife to open a new location on Arch Street in Hartford, a short drive from Trinity’s campus. The menu offers all-American barbecue classics featuring meats from beef brisket to racks of ribs, and sides from mac ’n’ cheese to mashed potatoes. The Hartford eatery has taken off, earning a review from a New York Times writer who said the restaurant’s food was the path to “barbecue heaven.” For more information, visit www.BearsBBQ. com, and be sure to follow @ReporterAroundHartford on Instagram.

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Assistant Professor of English Ethan Rutherford, Georgia Summers ’15, and David Field ’15

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A Novel Idea Two creative writing seniors penning works in fantasy genre

W ALK INTO A B OOKSTOR E a few years from now, and you may see novels by Georgia Summers ’15 and David Field ’15. If you do, you can take pride in knowing each sprang from seeds planted at Trinity.

Both Field and Summers are seniors in the College’s Creative Writing Program who have opted to write novels for their senior theses.

BY M AU RA K I N G SCU L LY P H OTOS BY A L F ERREI RA

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Field & Summers

have much in common. Both English majors, the two served as co-editors of the College’s literary magazine, Slate, now renamed The Spine.

They also share a thesis adviser: Assistant Professor of English Ethan Rutherford.

“I had David and Georgia for ‘Senior Seminar’ last fall, when they were both working on early stages of these books,” explains Rutherford, who joined the Trinity faculty last fall. “They both applied to write senior theses, and because I was familiar with their projects, it made sense for me to advise them.”

The similarities don’t end there. “Both are writing broadly in the fantasy genre,” he continues, “and both of their projects, to some degree, are geared to a young adult audience. Georgia and David are terrific writers. Their imaginations are vivid: they’re skilled at inventing worlds and putting their characters into fantastic scenarios. I know they also both have a number of other novels tucked in drawers,” he notes.

“And both participated in NaNoWriMo.”

CHAPTER 1

A Good Start Short for National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is an online undertaking that challenges participants to write a 50,000-word manuscript over 30 days. Now 16 years old, the event has produced more than 250 traditionally published novels, including bestsellers such as Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.

Field and Summers are no newcomers to NaNoWriMo; both report they’ve participated for years. They also share long-standing aspirations to be novelists.

“I developed this whole career ladder when I was 8,” explains Summers, a native of London, England.

“Writing a novel is something I’ve always wanted to do.” Summers counts The Night Circus as her “very favorite book. I’d love to write something similar to that,” she confesses.

“In first through fifth grade, I wrote a book each year that was between 40 and 60 pages,” says Field, who is from Franklin, Massachusetts. As he entered middle school, those books gradually increased in length. Field remembers loving the Goosebumps series, eventually growing into Harry Potter before discovering Stephen King.

The two each worked on versions of their thesis project for the 2014 NaNoWriMo, what Rutherford calls “a good start.”

Field, a Henry F. MacLean Memorial Scholar, classifies his novel-in-the-works as an “urban fantasy.” Called Suburban Train, “it’s a modern-day reinterpretation of Dante’s Inferno,” he explains.

“It’s about a young guy with a mentally ill mother and a girlfriend who dies in a tragic accident. He runs away from home and ends up on the wrong train, which takes him to the capital of hell. There, he has to grapple with loss, death, and guilt over the things he’s done.”

Field says he was inspired by taking a class on the Divine Comedy (which includes the Inferno) in addition to “Remixing Literature.” “That course had us retelling old stories in new ways,” he says. “Both cemented my interest in what I’m doing now.”

Summers’ novel, The Assistant, is “a fantasy, but not in a Lord of the Rings kind of way. It’s more whimsical,” she says. “It’s about a reclusive magician

SUBURBAN TRAIN BY DAV I D FI ELD ’15

“It’s about a young guy with a mentally ill mother and a girlfriend who dies in a tragic accident. He runs away from home and ends up on the wrong train, which takes him to the capital of hell. There, he has to grapple with loss, death, and guilt over the things he’s done.”

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who’s trapped in his house. When he loses his assistant to an unfortunate accident, he ends up hiring two assistants — which is unheard of — essentially pitting them against each other. It’s about each of the characters working through their own problems, which gives you insight into how they’ve come to be the people they are.”

Summers, who has moved around a lot, found herself drawn to probing the sedentary life. “My mom’s Trinidadian; my dad is British,” she explains.

“Besides the U.K., my family has lived in Colombia, in Russia, and briefly in Switzerland. I wanted to explore what it means to stay in one place for your whole life and what that does to a person’s relationships.”

C HA P TE R 2

No Ordinary Project The fact that Summers and Field are writing novels is unusual. And, according to Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program Ciaran Berry, it makes them standouts in a small field. “The senior thesis is open only to seniors with either an A- average in the major or who submit a successful petition.

This year, only six students are writing theses,” he explains. Two are working on short story collections; one is writing a novella; another, a piece of creative nonfiction. Though those longer-form projects are more typical, Berry is happy to encourage these budding novelists. “I think it’s great. They’re two very talented students, and they’ve been geared up to do this for a while.”

Summers and Field, in turn, praise the English Department faculty as mentors and role models.

“Creative Writing has professors who are passionate about writing and invested in the individual successes of their students,” says Field. “That’s one of the main factors that drew me to Trinity.”

All of the Creative Writing faculty are, in fact, published authors. They are Francisco Goldman, a novelist and journalist; novelist Lucy Ferriss; Rutherford, who recently published a short story collection, The Peripatetic Coffin; as well as poets Clare Rossini and Berry.

My professors have been so interested and encouraging,” adds Summers. “Professor Rutherford in particular has been very supportive. It’s so nice to have someone who is interested not just in the thesis requirements, but in what I want to do as well.”

For his part, Rutherford says, “Georgia and David have always wanted to write novels — so this is their chance. This thesis project gives them permission to prioritize their own work and see how that feels.”

Early in the semester, “They’re already well into writing. We’ve set up a schedule to meet weekly and workshop what they’ve written. They’re excited, and it’s exciting to see that kind of work ethic in them.”

Rutherford predicts Summers and Field will finish the semester with solid first drafts. “Who knows what will happen with these projects?” he muses.

“They may well become published. That would be a dream. It doesn’t always happen. They’re approaching their projects very seriously, but they’re realistic.”

Rutherford is currently working on a novel himself. “It’s not going to be done by May, unfortunately,” he says. “But as I keep telling Georgia and David, writing is a process. To show up every day, keep a schedule, be consistent — that’s something to be proud of.”

T H E ASS I STA NT BY G E O RG I A S U M M E RS ’15

“It’s about a reclusive magician who’s trapped in his house. When he loses his assistant to an unfortunate accident, he ends up hiring two assistants – which is unheard of – essentially pitting them against each other. It’s about each of the characters working through their own problems, which gives you insight into how they’ve come to be the people they are.”

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Creative Writing @ Trinıty

A SP I R I NG AU T HO RS -TO -BE FIND T HEIR H O ME in Trinity’s vibrant and robust Creative Writing Program. A concentration within the English Department, the program has a dedicated faculty of five who teach classes in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as oversee thesis projects. The faculty members — Ciaran Berry, Lucy Ferriss, Francisco Goldman, Clare Rossini, and Ethan Rutherford — are all published authors or poets.

Each year, the English Department sponsors a number of events that bring noted authors and poets to campus to share their works with the Trinity community. Poet David Wojahn was the Hugh Odgen Poet-in-Residence this past spring; Wojahn spent a week on campus meeting with students and presenting a series of lectures.

Through the Allan K. Smith Reading Series, which brings in several writers each semester, Sinéad Morrissey, the poet laureate of Belfast, Northern Ireland, visited campus in the spring; National Book Award finalist Jim Shepard ’78 is scheduled to speak in the fall.

One of the program’s most coveted awards is the South Beach Writing Residency, offered by the family of Hyam Plutzik ’32 and officially presented at Honors Day for the top senior creative writing thesis. It was announced in late April that David Field ’15 had won the 2015 prize, marking the second year of the award that the Plutzik family has committed to offering for five years. The prize includes a one-week writing retreat in Florida.

All together, the program’s rich and varied offerings make for “a really strong undergraduate program,” says Creative Writing Program Director Ciaran Berry.

PRAISE FOR THE PROGRAM

“Creative Writing has professors who are passionate about writing and invested in the individual successes of their students. That’s one of the main factors that drew me to Trinity.”

DAVID FIELD ’15

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REIMAGINING INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS

/ FUNDAMENTAL COURSE UNDERGOES TRANSFORMATION /

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PH OTO: BA RBA RA WALDE N

It was with apprehension that first-year student Mariam Avagyan attended the first class of Assistant Professor of Physics Brett Barwick’s Physics 141 “Physics I – Mechanics” course last fall. The high school physics class Avagyan had taken in her home country, Armenia, had consisted almost entirely of lectures. “I’d never done any physics laboratory work,” she says, “and I was feeling uncomfortable about it.” / BY JIM H. SMITH /

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The introductory course is required for students who, like Avagyan, plan to take advanced physical science or engineering courses as upper-year students. So, most of the 30-plus students – all with an aptitude for STEM (sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics) – trooped into the classroom in the McCook Academic Building with a similar set of expectations. Traditionally, college introductory physics has been taught using a series of weekly lectures, in which fundamental ideas about physics were covered by a professor, and one weekly laboratory session during which students explored those ideas experimentally, collecting and analyzing data. Trinity was not an exception.

However, when Avagyan and her peers showed up for the first day of class last September, they found that paradigm had been tipped on its head. The course, a concentrated exploration of mechanics, had been completely redesigned.

/ POSITIVE RESULTS /

As an undergraduate at Doane College, in Crete, Nebraska, in the late 1990s, Professor Barwick had experienced, firsthand, a novel approach to the subject that impressed him. “Doane had a new science building, and the professors were inspired to use a more active learning approach to teaching physics,” he recalls.

Barwick liked what he experienced at Doane and hoped to transplant those ideas when he joined the Trinity faculty in 2010. He soon found an eager ally in Associate Professor of Physics Barbara Walden. “It’s a goal of the department to attract more STEM students, who’ll choose physics as a major,” says Walden, a member of the Trinity faculty since 1991. “Revising the introductory course made sense. Research has shown this approach to teaching physics for first-year students produces positive results.”

Indeed, there is a growing body of evidence.

“Many studies over the past decade have demonstrated that hands-on learning is more effective than a traditional lecture-based approach,” says Walden, who taught a section of Physics 141 last fall. “Students find it more interesting and better understand the concepts when they are actively engaged in solving interesting, carefully designed problems and questions.”

The new course was patterned after a model called SCALE-UP, pioneered at North Carolina State University.

SCALE-UP is an acronym for Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, and “active learning” is the key to its success. How it works is succinctly summarized in the introductory passage of the course overview students received on the first day of class: “The goal of the course is … to help you begin to think like a scientist — to understand how to solve complex problems, analyze data, design experimental ways to answer questions, and communicate scientific ideas.”

The class meets three times each week, for two-hour sessions, essentially the same overall amount of time as a traditional lab-lecture course. However, as the overview asserts, “There will be very little lecturing. Most of your time in class

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will be spent actively doing and thinking about physics — working in small groups to solve problems using theory, modeling, and experimentation. Laboratory work will be integrated directly into what we do each week. The course will be highly collaborative, hands-on, and interactive, and you will need to prepare well for each class session.”

/ COMPREHENSIVE REDESIGN /

Taking the revamped course from drawing board to physical reality did not happen overnight. For starters, it called for a completely redesigned classroom. Walden spent a year seeking funding for the renovation. During that time, she and Barwick consulted with professors at several other schools where similar programs have been offered. “Talking with others helped us to think through both the big picture and the small details,” she says.

The new room, with its bright, colorful carpet, reflects that research. Instead of desks, it features commodious triangular tables supported by central pedestals.

The tables’ rounded corners, and the fact that they have no legs, make it easy for three groups of three students to work together comfortably, designing experiments to help them answer questions and using computers to collect and analyze data. Moreover, since three groups work at each table, cross-pollination of ideas is encouraged.

Because students are often called upon to solve problems mathematically, the walls of the room are coated with “walltalkers,” a wallpaper that can be written upon and erased like a whiteboard. “Walltalkers fosters collaboration,” says Walden.

P H OTO: CH R I STOP H GE I SS PH OTO: B AR B AR A WALD E N

“Three students standing at the wall, writing on a large surface where they can all see what is written, provides a very different dynamic than three students sitting at a table looking at a small sheet of paper upon which only one person can write at a time.

I strongly feel that this is the most important piece of technology in the classroom.” The wall work also makes it easy for instructors and teaching assistants to scan ongoing class work, allowing them to observe and offer guidance.

Classes begin with brief lectures and discussion. Since students have daily reading assignments from a text, each class features a short quiz. The balance of the class is devoted to solving problems.

“We spent a lot of time designing the actual course,” says Barwick. “We looked for problems where students’ physics intuition was likely to be wrong. The learning opportunity lies in discovering why.”

Dean of the Faculty Thomas Mitzel said the new approach to the Physics 141 course reveals an appreciation from the faculty that students learn best by working on concepts in a physical manner, while simultaneously learning the theory behind the experimentation. “The hands-on approach to learning gives students power over their education by helping them run the required experiments that will give rise to the theory they will carry forward in their education. I applaud the work Professors Walden and Barwick have put into reconfiguring this important gateway course and will follow enthusiastically the assessment of their new pedagogical approach in the coming years.”

Top: Assistant Professor of Physics Brett Barwick, second from left, works with students in Physics 141. Right: Associate Professor of Physics Barbara Walden and her students gather data.

/ MULTIPLE BENEFITS /

In addition to its most apparent benefits — that students learn physics more quickly and retain the subject matter longer — the redesigned course offers many advantages over the traditional approach to teaching physics, says Walden. For starters, it’s more enjoyable — for both students and professors.

“The classes would fly by,” says Avagyan, a Karl W. Hallden Engineering Scholar. “Solving the problems was a lot of fun, especially when you were working with two other students.”

Walden and Barwick note that the success of the three-student teams hinged, in part, on their own work before the class designing the student teams to take advantage of student diversity and to bring together trios in which each student’s unique skills and experience complemented those of their partners. “Research has shown that the kinds of solutions students come up with in groups are often better than what the best students can come with on their own,” says Walden. “Collaboration is an important aspect of the course.

In the real world, scientists seldom work alone. They are generally part of a team.”

There’s another important advantage. “Women and minorities tend to be underrepresented in physics,” says Walden.

“Research has shown that women and minorities tend to be more successful in active-learning physics courses.”

Though he attended a high school that used a similar program to teach physics, Matt Lucas ’17, a Chicago native, came to Trinity expecting a traditional model. Like Avagyan, he found the course highly enjoyable. “I had a close friend who was in the class, but most of the students didn’t know each other,” says Lucas. “We quickly got to know each other and became friends. I think the social aspect of the class is part of its success.”

Beyond Education Scholar Paul Ntege ’18 concurs. “In my high school, in Uganda, physics was taught in a more traditional way,” he says. “This course was much more enjoyable.

Solving problems helps students experience physics as something that explains the real world. I learned a lot and made many friendships.”

It’s too early to know how much better the new course, which is part of a two-semester program, is than the traditional approach, but early signs point to success. “In the past,” observes Walden, “a large number of students — perhaps 20 percent — would drop out after the first semester. That didn’t happen this year.”

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TELLING THE TALE OF A

CIVIL RIGHTS

ICON Andrew Aydin ’06 co-authors lauded books

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STORY BY MARY HOWARD

ART WORK FROM MARCH GRAPHIC NOVELS BY NATE POWELL*

his Second graphic novel, March: Book Two, is just out to stellar reviews, including The Washington Post calling it a “must-read monument.” His first book, March: Book One, topped best-seller lists of The New York Times and The Washington Post. And life is all “a bit surreal” for Andrew Aydin ’06. “It’s become my new normal,” says the author about the attention his work has received.

*All artwork part of MARCH graphic novels and published here with permission of Top Shelf Productions/IDW

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Left: Artist Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin ’06 attend the 2013 Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Above: Andrew Aydin ’06 and Congressman John Lewis hold their 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Award.

“If we do this right … we really might be able to teach this Aydin is digital director and policy adviser to U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a figure who was a cornerstone of the civil rights movement and the architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.

The two, along with artist Nate Powell, have created a trilogy — a third book will be out next year — that chronicles Lewis’s lifelong struggle for civil and human rights. And they have taken the publishing world by storm.

“In some ways, I am not surprised by the success,” says Aydin. “The congressman’s story is compelling and very relevant today.” March: Book One focuses on Lewis’s childhood in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement that broke down barriers through nonviolent lunch-counter sit-ins in the segregated South.

What does surprise Aydin is how fervently the mainstream audience has embraced the book. “It’s not just graphic novel fans who are reading it,” he says. In addition to topping best-seller lists, March: Book One was

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named one of the best books of 2013 by the Boston Globe, USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews, among others.

It received a 2014 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and a 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Award.

The making of the March series has its roots in the late 1950s, when an 18-year-old Lewis encountered a comic book that would change his life and inspire him to work for change through nonviolence. The book was Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, published in 1957 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. “It sold for 10 cents, and it was 14 pages long,” recalls Lewis.

Fifty years later, Lewis mentioned the book to Aydin. A comic book fan from childhood, Aydin began researching the history of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, including its many translations that inspired activists in South Africa, Uruguay, Vietnam, and other countries. The book inspired his subsequent master’s thesis, “The Comic Book That Changed the World.”

It also gave him an idea: “I suggested the congressman write his own comic

generation how to use civil disobedience in the most effective way. And they might actually be able to bring about some serious change.”

— Andrew Aydin ’06

book.” Lewis politely declined, but Aydin didn’t let the idea go. “Finally he said he’d do it, but only if I’d write it with him.” Aydin agreed. “This was the greatest gift I could give to a man who has given his country so much,” he told a Houston audience in February.

Lewis is grateful for Aydin’s persistence. “Andrew had a vision to embrace the philosophy of peace and nonviolence in this book,” says Lewis.

“And he wouldn’t let it go.”

The respect these two men have for each other is obvious. “He’s been my congressman since I was 3 years old,” says Aydin, an Atlanta native. “He’s an unbelievable human being; one we

Left: Artwork from March: Book Two of John Lewis speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. Below: Covers of the first two graphic novels in the planned trilogy

should all strive to emulate.” Lewis says he’s “more than blessed” to have Aydin in his life. “He’s smart and gifted, a jack of all trades.”

The two have worked together since 2007, when Aydin took a job answering the congressman’s mail in his Washington, D.C., office. Their strong bond was forged when Aydin served as press secretary for Lewis’s 2008 and 2010 re-election campaigns. “Working with someone on a campaign is a bit like being in the trenches,” says Aydin.

When asked if he worried about doing justice to his subject during the writing of March, Aydin laughs. “Constantly.

The congressman is a legend, a titan in the history of our country.”

Though Aydin had written speeches and radio ads, “and the usual things for school,” the trilogy was his first

venture into storytelling. “It’s a different animal,” he says. “But you learn the pacing and the rhythm through reading.” And Aydin has a lot of experience reading comics. “I’m a nerd,” he says. “I got into comics as soon as I could read.”

A workhorse, Aydin penned March while simultaneously finishing his master’s degree in public policy at Georgetown University and working full time at the House of Representatives. “I like to keep intellectually engaged,” he says. A political science and film studies major at Trinity, he impressed his professors and administrators at the College with that same drive.

Former Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut Kevin Sullivan ’71, who taught Aydin in his media and public policy class at Trinity, describes him as

“incredibly motivated.” Aydin interned in Sullivan’s office and later became his special assistant. “You knew he was someone who was going someplace,” says Sullivan.

“Andrew had a way of saying something controversial without offending anyone,” adds T.J. Barber, who was associate director of operations and judicial affairs at Trinity and worked with Aydin on the Student Government Association. “That’s a real skill.”

Of his college years, Aydin says, “I made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot of lessons, and tried a lot of different things.” Besides student government, he was involved with crew and helped resurrect the College’s television station, TrinTV. At Trinity, he also participated in his first act of civil disobedience. “We had a sit-in at the library to persuade the College to increase hours during exams,” he says.

A scholarship student, Aydin is grateful for the assistance he received.

“I’m proof that supporting financial aid makes a difference. You can open up a world for a student and give them a whole new life.”

Looking forward, Aydin is open to possibilities. “You can have all the plans in the world, but in the end you’ve got to follow what feels right.” And what feels right to him now is to promote the principles of the March trilogy.

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CELEBRATING TRINITY PROFESSOR LENDS EXPERTISE IN MUSEUM’S CREATION

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JEWISH HISTORY IN POLAND

PHOTO : W. K RYŃS K I/ PO LIN MU SE UM O F THE HISTORY OF PO LIS H J E WS

BY RHEA HIR SHMAN

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews / Spring 2015 /

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“Who could have predicted,” she says, “that 70 years after the virtual destruction of Polish Jewry, we would see this day in Poland?”

More than two decades in the making, the museum is built on the site of what was once the heart of Jewish Warsaw — the area that the Nazis turned into the Warsaw Ghetto. The core exhibit galleries showcase a millennium of Jewish life in Poland and immerse visitors in the world of Polish Jews. The eight galleries begin with “First Encounters (960–1500)” and end with “Postwar Years (1944 to the present).” Rather than being filled with artifacts, the galleries contain interactive, multimedia narratives and reconstructions of homes and businesses, as well as artwork, photos, and the stuff of everyday life. The centerpiece exhibition is a replica of the 17th century Gwozdziec Synagogue.

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PHOTOS : LISA P LES KOW KASSOW

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ooking out the windows of the Hotel Bristol in Warsaw, where she was listening to her husband, Trinity Professor Samuel Kassow ’66, give a talk last fall, Lisa Kassow saw a sight that took her breath away. On lampposts around the city, the blue and white flag of Israel flew with the red and white flag of Poland, snapping together in the October breeze.

The conjoined flags, notes Lisa Kassow, director of the Zachs Hillel House at Trinity, spoke volumes about what was happening in Warsaw that week: a celebration of the revival of Jewish life in Poland, symbolized most forcefully by the official opening of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Among the scholars who helped shape these exhibits is Samuel Kassow ’66, Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity.

Traveling numerous times to Poland, Sam Kassow served as lead historian for two of the eight galleries: “Encounters with Modernity (1772– 1914)” and “On the Jewish Street (1918-1939),” covering the period between the two world wars, his particular area of expertise.

Sam Kassow is an internationally recognized scholar of Russian and Soviet history, modern European history, and the history of Ashkenazi Jewry. He lectures worldwide and has dozens of articles, scholarly presentations, and public talks to his credit.

He has written or edited five books, with a sixth due out this year.

A film based on his 2007 book, Who Will Write Our History?, is currently in production. In that book, Sam Kassow, who himself grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors, tells the story of historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who led a secret group of 60 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to chronicle the lives of the hundreds of thousands facing starvation, disease, and deportation.

Just before the ghetto was destroyed by the Nazis in 1943, the group buried thousands of documents in milk cans and tin boxes, determined that, even if they did not survive, the world would hear their voices and know what went on in that place during the war years. Of the 60 chroniclers, only three survived the war.

A STORY FILLED WITH LIFE

Samuel Kassow ’66, Charles H. Northam Professor of History

As important as such a story is, Sam Kassow says, what is equally important is to remember that, for centuries, Poland was the center of Jewish life in Europe and the cultural hub of the Jewish people. As Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, mayor of Warsaw, noted in the museum’s catalog, “How difficult it (would be) to separate what is Jewish from what is Polish … so deeply have our fates intersected.”

That message of interconnectedness is encoded in the museum’s name, which is based on a legend: that when Jews fled western Europe in medieval times to find a safer haven, they were urged to settle in this eastern land by angels who carved the Hebrew letters “pol-in” — meaning “rest here” — onto tree trunks in the forest.

In the earlier part of the 20th century, one-fifth of world Jewry lived in Poland, and Jews made up 10 percent of Poland’s population. Today, more than half the world’s Jews can trace their ancestry to Poland. “One of the great mistakes in understanding the history of Polish Jewry,” Sam Kassow says, “is to see it only by looking backwards through the Holocaust. That view gives a distorted impression of how people understood their lives in their own times.”

So how does a museum present, as its catalog says, “a thousand years of Jewish presence on Polish soil”? Doing so was a challenge, Sam Kassow acknowledges, with the academics, the exhibit designers, the curators, and Barbara KirshenblattGimblett — the leader of the exhibit development team — in constant dialogue. “How would we present Zionism? Yiddish literature? Jewish socialism? The Hasidic movement?

Daily life? As a historian, I am accustomed to writing and expressing

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<< Sam Kassow ’66, third from left, and Lisa Kassow, left, gather with Trinity students at the POLIN Museum as part of a Hillel trip to Poland in 2014. >> The POLIN Museum’s “On the Jewish Street (1918–1939)” gallery covers the period between the two world wars, a particular area of expertise for Samuel Kassow ’66, Charles H. Northam Professor of History.

nuances and qualifications: on one hand this, on the other hand that.

Designing a museum exhibit was an entirely new experience.”

Sam Kassow says that he had to think about how to use visual media and conceptual spaces rather than relying primarily on words — and to be willing to get rid of 99 percent of the material in order to keep the 1 percent that would create the most compelling narratives for the vastly different audiences that the museum attracts. The idea is for visitors to experience each era as did those living through it. He is particularly proud of his idea to build the narrative of the late 19th century and early 20th century around a railway station, conveying the life of the period through the stories of the ticket buyers.

In addition to the galleries, the museum has a major educational component, with staff that presents minicourses in Jewish history, gives talks to visitors and students, and sponsors training for Polish teachers. The message, says Lisa Kassow, is that “interest in contemporary Jewish engagement and renewal in Poland is profound.”

ENGAGING THE PRESENT

A group of Trinity students experienced this spirit of renewal on a Hillel trip to Poland in March 2014. Guided by Sam and Lisa Kassow, they visited the Auschwitz Jewish Center — dedicated

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to public education about prewar life, the Holocaust, and the dangers of xenophobia and anti-Semitism — and conducted a memorial service near the ruins of the Birkenau gas chambers.

But they also visited a busy Jewish day school, orthodox and progressive congregations, and a lively Jewish community center in Warsaw. They learned that university degrees are available in Jewish studies. They met young Jews who, Lisa Kassow says, “are consciously choosing their identity — learning about their collective history, culture, religion, values, and beliefs, identifying as contemporary Jews who are inspired to maintain their links to a Jewish past and to build a vibrant future.”

The trip was supported by the Polish Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation, an initiative of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture — also a key supporter of the museum — whose executive director is Shana Penn ’77.

“Polish Jewish heritage tours that do not center exclusively on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust,” Penn says, “can encourage people to discard their stereotypes when given the opportunities to do so in a country that has been confronting its own prejudices and misconceptions.”

A few months after the Hillel trip, Lisa and Sam Kassow were back in Warsaw for the festivities surrounding the museum’s grand opening. “We knew we were witnessing history,” Lisa Kassow says. Sam Kassow adds,

Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Malgorzata Omilanowska, right, congratulates Sam Kassow ’66, Charles H. Northam Professor of History, on receiving an Order of Merit for Contribution to Polish Culture. The ceremony took place in Warsaw on February 16, 2015.

Kassow ’66 Honored for Role Sam Kassow ’66 returned again to Warsaw in mid-February of this year, this time for a ceremony in which he was presented with the Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej — an Order of Merit for Contribution to Polish Culture. The medal, given by the Polish Minister of Culture, recognizes the significance of his scholarship on Polish Jewry and his central role in the development and creation of the POLIN Museum.

The award, Kassow says, has deep personal meaning for him. “In my research, writing, and teaching, I have tried to honor the memory of the millions of Jews, including my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins who lived in Poland and who were murdered there. This award is an acknowledgement of the meaning of their lives and says that, in some important way, I have succeeded in ensuring that those lives are remembered.”

“While we were all there to celebrate a remarkable institution, we were also fulfilling the moral obligation to remember not only how Jews died, but how they lived.”

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PHOTO : M. STAROWIEYS KA, D. G OL IK/PO LIN M US EUM OF TH E H ISTO RY O F PO LIS H J EWS

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STR E N GTH SU P P ORT PRESIDENTIAL FINANCIAL AID INITIATIVE PUSHES TO ATTRACT TOP STUDENTS

Strengthening scholarship support is a top priority for Joanne Berger-Sweeney. Soon after her Inauguration as Trinity Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 22nd president, Berger-Sweeney launched the Presidential Financial Aid Leaders initiative, designed to put a Trinity education within reach of a greater number of highly qualified students. Presidential Financial Aid Leaders are donors who make an individual commitment of $125,000 or more, qualifying for a one-to-one match from Trinity.

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HE SCHOLARSHIP INITIATIVE aims to enroll more of our most qualified applicants, improve student recruitment and retention, and bolster Trinity’s reputation.

“We must ensure that we have the financial resources to attract the very best students from a wide range of backgrounds, giving them the opportunity to attend this institution regardless of their ability to pay full tuition,” says Berger-Sweeney.

Enhanced scholarship offerings will change the equation for Trinity in many ways. Consider the numbers: Trinity accepts more than one-third of its first-year class based on their credentials and without considering financial need. Then, when the student aid budget is expended, the College must include financial need in selecting the remainder of the class.

Unfortunately, that means turning away many top students who simply cannot afford a Trinity education.

Featured are three students who are able to attend Trinity because of scholarship support. Scholarships helped to bring them to Trinity and have allowed them to thrive on campus.

ETHAN CANTOR ’16

The recipient of the R.C. Knox and Co. Scholarship and the Samuel C. Suisman Scholarship, Ethan Cantor ’16 is grateful for his Trinity education. The public policy and law major was just a child when his father, who was running for a local position in the representative town government in Fairfield, Connecticut, took him doorto-door to campaign. Even then, his parents were committed to teaching him the workings of government.

Cantor watched his father pour a cup of coffee each morning and sit down with The New York Times, joined his parents as they watched the nightly news, and followed the contested presidential race of Bush vs. Gore in 2000 as best

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he could, considering his lack of experience. Youth didn’t stop him. At 13, Cantor applied for an internship with the Fairfield first selectman’s office.

He got it.

Cantor recalls that when he toured Trinity, sat in on a class, and interviewed with a senior admissions associate, he thought, “I just know Trinity is going to be the best place for me.” But he also feared not receiving enough financial aid to attend.

That fear dissolved soon enough.

“Many students recall the day that they received their acceptance letter from Trinity as one of the happiest days of their lives,” says Cantor, who spent the spring 2015 semester studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. “For me, that

“Many students recall the day that they received their acceptance letter from Trinity as one of the happiest days of their lives. For me, that day was when I received the letter in the mail informing me that I could study at Trinity for tuition within my means.”

—E TH A N C A NTOR ’ 16

day was when I received the letter in the mail informing me that I could study at Trinity for tuition within my means.

“Without the financial aid awards I have received, I would not be a Bantam today,” he says. “And that thought has made me forever grateful for the generosity of Trinity’s donors.”

LUIS CRUZ ’16

Luis Cruz ’16 grew up in Honduras, the son of an electrical engineer who bought Windows 95 as soon as it was available and installed video games on the family computer to amuse his son. Cruz became enamored of the games, and at an early age, he decided that his future would be in video game

programming. In his early teens, Cruz began teaching himself programming languages and then mastered digital electronics, building his own video games. His father, noticing his prowess, sent him to Colorado to live with a cousin. There, Cruz spent his senior year of high school at Harrison High in Colorado Springs, creating a video game controlled by eye movement.

Soon after, he befriended a paraplegic student. “It was then that I started working with the eye board,” he says. “I wanted to create an eye-tracking system where people with disabilities can have access to a computer without having to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.” His invention, in which he built the eye-tracking system into one set of glasses, cost less than $300.

Cruz’s entrepreneurship brought him head-turning recognition, including his being named in a Huffington Post story as one of “9 Tech Innovators Under 21

“My dream has always been to come to the United States to study, and the scholarships are what have made me able to accomplish my dream.”

PH OTOS: JO HN ATASH IAN (CRUZ A ND C HA NG )

—LUI S C RUZ ’16

Who Are Changing the World.” His work also has been featured on CNN.com and a number of other news sites and in print publications. He already is an entrepreneur, helped along in his Trinity education by the Andrew Forrester ’61 Scholarship Fund and the William P. Scully ’61 Scholarship Fund.

“The scholarships have been such a helpful thing, the most helpful,” says Cruz, a junior electrical engineering major. “I wouldn’t be able to be at Trinity otherwise. My dream has always been to come to the United States to study, and the scholarships are what have made me able to accomplish my dream.”

BRIANA CHANG ’16

When looking at colleges, Briana Chang ’16 immediately gravitated toward the Trinity campus, but she knew that she was going to need financial assistance if she wanted to attend the College.

Chang grew up in eastern Brooklyn, New York, in a neighborhood where access to education, positive role models, and opportunities to succeed were scarce.

The child of Jamaican immigrants, she proved to be a talented and determined student, and she won a scholarship from the organization A Better Chance to attend the Cambridge School of Weston, a Boston-area prep school.

Chang found her Trinity aid in the form of the Class of ’63 Scholarship.

“It’s a phenomenal scholarship,” says Chang, a junior majoring in biology.

“Every year we meet with the members of the Class of ’63. They mentor us, and we learn about what they’re doing in the world. We call them ‘the uncles.’ It’s quite a family, and to actually know the people who are having a direct impact on my life takes it to a whole other level.”

The scholarship allowed her to thrive in a place where she knew she belonged.

“The atmosphere and the faculty-to-student ratio were important to me,” she says. “The public schools in my neighborhood had too few teachers and resources compared to the large number of students, and it didn’t allow for optimal performance. Being around so many

“Every year we meet with the members of the Class of ’63. … We call them ‘the uncles.’

It’s quite a family, and to actually know the people who are having a direct impact on my life takes it to a whole other level.”

—B R I A NA C H A NG ’ 16

intelligent professors and students helps me to grow as a student.”

She recognizes her financial challenges, particularly as she aspires to become a dentist. “I am thankful for the scholarships that have made my education possible. As others have believed in me through financial support, I hope to someday be able to provide for other students who might not have the opportunity to receive an education from amazing institutions like Trinity College.”

Join us

in the Presidential Financial Aid Leaders initiative. To learn more, please contact the Advancement Office at (860) 297-2369.

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FOR MORE ATHLETICS NEWS, VISIT www.BantamSports.com .

TRINITY TRIUMPHS

The Trinity menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ice hockey team celebrates its national title.

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/ The Trinity Reporter /

ATHLETICS

MEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Trinity’s men’s ice hockey team completed the greatest season in program history, capping a 25–3–1 campaign with a 5–2 victory over the University of WisconsinStevens Point in the NCAA Division III Championships Finals in Minneapolis. The Bantams used a 16–1–1 record in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play to finish at the top of the league standings for the second consecutive year. Recovering from a 2–1 loss to Tufts in the NESCAC Quarterfinals, the Bantams rattled off four wins in the NCAA Tournament to capture Trinity’s first NCAA title. Trinity defeated Nichols 4–2 in the opening round and Plattsburgh State 5–1 in the quarterfinals to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four and handed Adrian a 5–3 setback in the semifinals to reach the finals. Against WisconsinStevens Point, sophomore Ethan Holdaway broke a 2–2 tie with the game-winning goal in the third period, while junior Nathaniel Heilbron made 35 saves and earned MVP honors for the weekend. Trinity Head Coach Matthew Greason ’03 was honored as the U.S. College Hockey Online.com (USCHO.com) Division II/III National Coach of the Year, while sophomore forward Ryan Cole was named to the American Hockey Coaches Association All-American East First Team, junior forward Michael Hawkrigg earned All-American Second Team honors, and senior captain defenseman Michael Flynn and Heilbron graced the All-American Third Team. Cole and Hawkrigg also made the New England Hockey Writers Division II/III New England All-Star Team, Cole was selected as the NESCAC Player of the Year, and Cole, Hawkrigg, Flynn, and Heilbron represented Trinity on the All-NESCAC First Team.

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

The Bantam women’s ice hockey team caught fire at the end of the season, finishing with an 18–7–2 overall record and winning the first NESCAC Championship title in the 16-year history of the program. The Bantams downed Williams 1–0 at home on a goal by junior forward Emma Tani in the NESCAC Quarterfinals before ousting Amherst 2–1 and Middlebury 3–2 in the final two rounds of the league tourney. Both NESCAC Final Four wins came in overtime with the clinching goals coming off the stick of junior forward Cheeky Herr. Trinity qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament for the second time and took Elmira to an extra period before falling 3–2 in the quarterfinals.

PHOTO: D3PH OTO GRAP HY.COM

WOMEN’S SQUASH

Trinity’s women’s squash team finished with a 17–2 record, won its ninth consecutive NESCAC Championship title, and advanced to the College Squash Association

(CSA) National Team Championship (Howe Cup) Finals for the third year in a row. The Bantams, under the direction of NESCAC Coach of the Year Wendy Bartlett in her 31st season, defeated Cornell 9–0 and Pennsylvania 5–4 in the Howe Cup Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively, before suffering a 7–2 setback against host Harvard University in the finals.

Junior Kanzy El Defrawy closed the season with her third-straight appearance in the CSA National Singles Championship A Division (Ramsay) Finals, while Bantam senior cocaptain Natalie Babjukova captured the B Division (Holleran) title with a 3–0 triumph over junior teammate Sachika Balvani. El Defrawy and first-year Raneem Sharaf were honored as CSA First Team AllAmericans, while fellow rookie Julia LeCoq was a CSA Second Team All-American and sophomore Anna Kimberley received All-American Honorable Mention recognition. El Defrawy was named as NESCAC

To see our winter sports highlights video, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/Reporter.

Women’s ice hockey captains Lucy Robinson ’15, Lily Gacicia ’15, and Lauren Fitzgerald ’15

Ashley Tidman ’15

Kyle McGuire ’15

Player of the Year for the third consecutive season and joined Kimberley and Sharaf on the All-NESCAC First Team, while senior co-captain Ashley Tidman and LeCoq each graced the All-NESCAC Second Team.

WRESTLING

The Bantam wrestling team finished the season with a 2–11 record in dual matches, placed 15th in the New England Wrestling Association (NEWA) Championships, and closed the year with a 17th-place showing in the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional Championships.

Senior co-captain heavyweight Kyle McGuire was named to the 2014–2015 NEWA All-New England Honorable Mention Team.

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The men’s squash team celebrates its national title with Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney, fourth from right.

Miled Zarazua ’15

WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD

Trinity’s women’s indoor track and field team tied for 12th in the New England Division III Championship Meet at Springfield, tied for 35th in the New England Open Championships in Boston, and tied for 22nd in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Championships in the New York City Armory. Senior tri-captain Jenna Wilborne accounted for all 18 Bantam points with a second-place distance of 18'0.50" in the long jump and a winning distance of 38'02.75" in the triple jump in the New England Division III Championship, earning

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/ The Trinity Reporter /

MEN’S SQUASH

Trinity’s men’s squash completed another historic season, finishing with a 20–1 record, winning its ninth consecutive NESCAC Championship title, and capturing the CSA National Team Championship (Potter Trophy) title for the 15th time in the last 17 years. The Bantams, coached by Paul Assaiante in his 21st season, defeated Pennsylvania 8–1 and Cornell 7–2 in the Potter Trophy Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively, before downing St. Lawrence 7–2 in Trinity’s Kellner Squash Center in the CSA Finals. Sophomore Affeeq Ismail capped off the campaign by winning the CSA National Singles Championship B Division (Molloy) title.

First-year Rick Penders was named to the CSA All-American First Team, while senior co-captain Karan Malik, senior Miled Zarazua, and junior Juan Vargas were CSA Second Team All-Americans. Seniors Vrishab Kotian and Zarazua and Vargas were named to the All-NESCAC First Team, and Malik and Penders graced the AllNESCAC Second Team.

All-New England honors in both events.

Wilborne added All-New England Open honors with an eighth-place long jump distance of 17'09.00" and won the long jump and finished fourth in the triple jump in the ECAC Championships to collect All-ECAC accolades before closing out the season by tying for ninth in the triple jump and placing 13th in the long jump at the NCAA Division III Championship Meet in North Carolina.

MEN’S INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD

Trinity’s men’s indoor track and field team finished 18th in the New England Division III Championship Meet at

Springfield and tied for 51st in the ECAC Division III Championships in the New York City Armory. Junior captain Patrick Hoagland posted a thirdplace finish in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 8:27.95, while fellow junior captain Geoff Bocobo placed seventh in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.62 seconds.

In the 4x800-meter relay, the Bantam quartet of Hoagland, sophomore Matt Reichelt, and first-years Kyle Larsson and Caleb Wright posted a seventhplace time of 8:03.04. All five were named All-New England for their fine performance. The same foursome collected All-ECAC recognition with a seventh-place time of 7:56.59 in that meet,

PHOTO : JO NAT HAN LE STE R

ATHLETICS

ATHLETICS

while Hoagland qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in the 3,000 meters, finishing 12th with a time of 8:30.87.

James Cosgrove

the Year, while junior guard Jaquann Starks was named to the AllNESCAC First Team, the D3Hoops. com All-Northeast Region Fourth Team, and the ECAC Division III New England All-Star Third Team.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Bantam men’s basketball team closed the season with a 23–7 record and finished at the top of the NESCAC standings with a 9–1 league mark. The team advanced to the NESCAC Semifinals and the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals, downing Colby 66–63 in the NESCAC Quarterfinals before falling to Wesleyan 55–52 in the league semifinals and defeating Colby-Sawyer 60–55, Salisbury 60–47, and Bates 79–62 in the NCAA Tournament prior to a seasonending 76–69 overtime setback at Babson in the Elite Eight round.

Head Coach James Cosgrove was honored as the NESCAC Coach of

Trinity women’s swimming and diving senior Audrey Butler was named to the NESCAC AllConference Team by virtue of her second place time of 29.66 seconds in the 50-yard breaststroke. Butler set new Trinity records in the breaststroke at all three distances in the NESCAC Championship Meet.

The Bantams, coached by Carlos Vega in his first season, finished 2–9 in dual meets and placed 11th as a team in the NESCAC Championships.

Audrey Butler ’15

TRINITY ATHLETICS LAUNCHES

NEW WEBSITE www.BantamSports.com

Trinity College has launched a redesigned athletics website at a new Web address: www.BantamSports.com. The platform will continue to serve as the official home for all news, information, scores, and schedules for the College’s 29 varsity athletic teams and its recreation and outdoor experiential education programs. The redesigned site provides fans, parents, alumni, and media with great access to athletics news and information, including a fan zone filled with social media information, an e-newsletter, text-message alerts, photos, an online store, live audio and video webcasts, live and real-time statistics, student-athlete and coach profiles, the Bantam of the Week honoring the performances by student-athletes, and other multimedia features. The redesign also improves the fans’ user experience on their mobile devices and tablets.

As of the beginning of the 2014–2015 fall athletics season, eight institutions within the NESCAC, as well as the conference’s website, are powered by PrestoSports. The aim of the new website is to enhance the viewer experience for the more than 3,000 fans who watch our webcasts and follow us through various social media platforms.

FOLLOW THE BANTAMS

Fans can follow the Bantams in several ways. All methods are accessed easily for free through the new Trinity athletics website at www.BantamSports.com.

Webcasts portal.stretchinternet.com Trinity will video webcast selected home sporting events, including bonus coverage for postseason play.

Mobile scoreboard www.BantamSports.com Trinity scores and results for all sports are updated throughout the day and night and are easily viewable from any mobile device.

Live stats http://livestats.prestosports.com/Trinity Home football, field hockey, soccer, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, softball, and lacrosse games will be carried via PrestoSports Live Stats viewer.

Social media network http://athletics.trincoll.edu/Information/ Social_Media Trinity will provide users with the latest information on schedule changes, results and announcements, exciting photography and video content, and more on our Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, and YouTube pages.

Text updates http://athletics.trincoll.edu/List-Signup Sign up for Trinity Athletics text updates to get the latest scores and highlights sent right to your phone.

E-mail newsletters For Trinity sports scores, news, and highlights, join our Trinity Athletics Fan E-Mail List, which lets Bantam sports fans receive the latest in Trinity results and releases right to their desktop. Simply e-mail the Trinity director of sports communications at david.kingsley@ trincoll.edu and ask to join. Sign up for all sports or choose the ones you want, and you also will receive our all-sports e-newsletter.

Check out the new website at www.

BantamSports.com.

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ALUMNUS PAYS IT FORWARD WITH A CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY Phil Parsons ’65 Tallahassee, Florida B.A. in history

PHIL PARSONS ’65 WILL BE CELEBRATING HIS 50TH CLASS REUNION THIS YEAR. His dedication to Trinity is reflected through his work on the Reunion Gift Committee, where he has been helping raise funds for the Class of 1965 James F. Jones, Jr. Scholarship Fund. He has attended every Trinity Reunion since his 25th in 1990.

Phil earned his law degree from Harvard Law School.

He practiced environmental and administrative law at Landers and Parsons, a legal firm he co-founded in Tallahassee, until his retirement. During his career, he was a professor of logic at the University of Florida.

How has Trinity prepared you for life?

Initially, I was not a great student … good, but not a top performer.

However, Trinity’s education was rigorous, and consequently, helped me get accepted to Harvard Law School. Meeting and getting to know people from all over the country also was a plus, and now I have many good friends across the United States.

Why do you support the College?

As a student, I reaped many benefits at Trinity, and I wanted to return the favor. As a result of my positive experiences, I have a strong attachment to the College, and I felt it was time to pay it forward.

What is appealing to you about the charitable gift annuity?

My wife and I make our philanthropic decisions together. Using a charitable gift annuity was a good way to benefit both of us. It’s a terrific vehicle, and it made the decision to give a lot easier. I don’t think there’s a better way to give.

For more information about ways to support Trinity, please contact: Kristen Gordon Associate Director of Gift Planning (860) 297-2406 kristen.gordon@trincoll.edu or visit www.trincoll.edu/GivingToTrinity/PlannedGiving

With a charitable gift annuity ... you make a donation of $10,000 or more to Trinity, and in return, receive a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life. In addition, you also will receive these benefits: • Your charitable gift annuity payments are partially income tax free throughout your estimated life expectancy.

• Using appreciated stock to make a gift, you usually can eliminate capital gains tax on a portion of the gift and spread the rest of the gain over your life expectancy.

• The annuity can be for one or two people, so your spouse or another loved one can also receive payments for life.

• Your payments are not affected by the ups and downs of the economy.

WHY I GIVE “I give because I am grateful for the opportunity a Trinity education provided for me in my life. The year after I graduated, my father made a $100 gift to the Trinity College Annual Fund in my name; he believed that it was my responsibility to give back to the College that had given so much to me. … I continue to give generously as my way of saying thank you and ensuring that Trinity continues to offer a world-class liberal arts education to new generations of young people.” ~ Lisa Alvarez-Calderon ’88, Long Walk Societies Member

Long Walk Societies members can be found in 39 states and seven countries.

To learn more about how you can become a member today, please contact Kathryn Van Sickle ’12, Long Walk Societies program director, at (860) 297-4229.

Nonprofit Org U.S. Postage PAI D Burlington VT 05401 Permit 397

   ,  -

Please remember to make your annual gift to the Trinity College Fund by June 30. Your support has a tangible and positive impact on our faculty, students, and programs.

Thank you for helping us finish strong, finish together.

Visit www.trincoll.edu/GivingToTrinity, or call (800) 771-6184.