academics, students

Gateway Programs

Offered by invitation to first-year students who are highly motivated to engage in focused study in a specialized area, Gateway Programs are living and learning communities that provide hands-on experience in a variety of settings both on and off campus. Small groups of like-minded students work with faculty whose expertise aligns with the students' interests.

The Cities Program is a one-year gateway curriculum providing students with the opportunity to study the City of Hartford and global cities, thereby cultivating the necessary skills to become engaged in solving contemporary urban issues. Topics studied include community development, urban planning, urban culture, gentrification, urban renewal, and urban governance policy. The program began at Trinity in the spring of 1996, and has since become a launching pad for students to enter the urban studies major or minor. Students spend their first semester at Trinity in an introductory course to urban studies, the second semester studying the American city, and finish the program by working with their advisor to design an urban studies credit unique to their interests or by taking an existing urban studies course.

The Community Action Gateway Program is specifically focused on the City of Hartford with a curriculum designed to facilitate community-based research and social change projects for first-year students interested in experiential learning in their local community. The program consists of one course per semester in a student’s first year, providing a comprehensive overview of theories of social change and community action and giving students the opportunity to develop and implement a social change project in the City of Hartford.

Introduced in 2019, the Global Health Humanities Gateway (GHHG) is a three-semester program specializing in the interdisciplinary approach to the social, political, and cultural contexts of health care. The arts and sciences are studied in tandem in this program, providing students with valuable cultural understanding alongside analytically rich knowledge about health care systems around the world. Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the program saw application numbers skyrocket as students increasingly understood first-hand the ways in which public health policy, science, culture, and class differences are inextricably intertwined when it comes to international health crises. Co-director of GHHG Erin Frymire stated, “Global health humanities is an emerging field of study of the human experience of health in response to increasing recognition that health and health care are so much more than just science.” The first semester focuses on the role of art, music, and literature in representations of illness, health, and caregiving. The second semester connects students to the Hartford community with experiential learning opportunities to explore health science locally. The third semester can consist of either a semester-long independent project or studying abroad.

The Humanities Gateway, formerly known as Guided Studies, focuses on the key themes and problems of human society through the lenses of literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Originally implemented as an experimental program in Fall 1979, the program was inspired by a 1976 faculty symposium called “The Search for Values in the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Lessons from the 19th Century.” Four of the participants–Professor of Philosophy Drew Hyland, Associate Professor of Religion Frank Kirkpatrick, Assistant Professor of History Samuel Kassow, and Professor of English Milla Riggio–worked with Dean of Studies J. Ronald Spencer to give curricular form to the cross-disciplinary approaches developed in the symposium. The result was the Guided Studies Program, which after a three year trial period was approved by the Curriculum Committee to continue as a part of the College curriculum. The program is rooted in the importance of the skills that make up the liberal arts student: the ability to think critically, synthesize complex ideas into effective arguments, and communicate skillfully in writing and verbal communication. Over the course of their first year at Trinity, Humanities Gateway students take a series of four thematically linked seminars with a rotating area of focus, co-taught by professors from across the Humanities departments.

Established in 1999, the InterArts Gateway Program is designed for first year students with an interest in the arts, bringing together music, art, theater and dance, film studies, and creative writing to probe questions facing all artists. Students in this program take four classes in the arts over the course of their first year, attend arts and cultural events as a group, and work on creative projects together. The program is heavily invested in encouraging students to engage with the creative opportunities that Hartford has to offer; students attend exhibitions, performances, concerts, and readings at institutions including the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Hartford Symphony, Hartford Stage, and Real Art Ways. The program admits 15 incoming freshmen annually. 2021 graduates of the InterArts program worked together to create “Trinity College's Cabinet of Curiosity,” a digital exhibit showcasing the historical significance of artifacts, images, and aesthetic objects sourced from the Watkinson Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the students' personal collections.

Designed by faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, environmental science, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics and inaugurated in the fall of 1987, the Interdisciplinary Science Program (ISP) explores the links between the scientific disciplines and how they connect to the external world. The program consists of specially designed courses for students exhibiting exceptional scientific aptitude and are taken across three semesters. Students participate in a seminar, a research apprenticeship with faculty, and courses involving the humanities and social sciences that address issues related to science and society. Additionally, ISP students attend weekly meetings with the whole ISP group to discuss their findings and interests. The program encourages students to study abroad to expand their scientific and social knowledge.