Meaningful contributions

Enriching the student experience

By Christine Sanni

Trinity College presents moments of personal growth, whether one is involved as an undergraduate student or an adult contributing to campus life. And this growth occurs because of idea-enriching relationships—in the classroom, on the Main Quad, in cultural houses, through internships, or in the Greater Hartford area. These relationships often change the course of people’s lives in positive, generative ways that are felt for decades beyond the moments they occur and fuel the desire to offer support to the College. The Reporter checked in with five couples to learn more about their Trinity experiences and the reasons behind their generosity.

 

Damian Wilmot ’97, P’25 and Yndia Lorick-Wilmot ’99, P’25

The Umoja House is a three-story wood-frame building at 72 Vernon Street, with a covered porch shading its front. One of Trinity’s three cultural houses, Umoja is much more than a structure—it has offered many generations of Black Trinity students “a place of solace,” says Trinity Trustee Damian Wilmot. “We held our student organization meetings at Umoja,” he says. “We also gathered there to study, interact socially, let our hair down, and bond as a community.”

Umoja also is where Damian first met his future wife, now Yndia Lorick-Wilmot ’99, P’25. Both Yndia and Damian have been long-standing leaders in the Trinity community, guiding various Trinity campus organizations, including the Pan-African Alliance (now known as Imani), the Trinity College Black Women’s Organization, and the Black and Latino Men’s Collective, and serving on the executive board of the Black Alumni Organization, which Damian also led as president. They remain active and engaged alumni.

“Umoja House has a deep, rich history,” Yndia says. “It not only provided a meeting place for our organizations’ boards but also served as a space for Black and brown alumni to connect with current students and host cultural events and activities that celebrate the diaspora.” That history and the couple’s personal connection to it is part of the reason they have been generous to Trinity and have directed gifts to the Umoja House. “We made deep connections through the Umoja House,” says Yndia, who, in addition to being one of the inaugural co-chairs of the Marjorie Butcher Circle—an alumnae group recognizing women’s philanthropic leadership—has served as a guest speaker at Trinity and a mentor to many students.

Damian, who also enjoys mentoring students, adds, “We both came from households where the scripture ‘to whom much is given, much is required’ is deeply integral to our passions and purpose. We’ve always given our time and talent to Trinity over the years, and now we are blessed to be in a position where we can give our treasure, too.”

Yndia notes, “We wanted to ensure the legacy of Umoja House lives on and the physical place would continue to positively serve current and future students as it did for many students in the past.”

The couple also created a current-use scholarship for underrepresented students through the Trinity College Fund. “Damian and I want to help students with similar backgrounds to pursue their scholarly interests in fulfilling ways,” says Yndia.

Yndia and Damian’s philanthropy recognizes that “part of the learning is not just what you get from the professors, but what you get from outside the classroom,” Damian says. “It’s so important to maintain a rich, diverse, and psychologically safe environment for students to thrive and become the best version of themselves.”

 

Stan Marcuss ’63 and Rosemary Marcuss

Stan Marcuss remembers scholarly discussions spilling out of the classroom and onto the Long Walk as he and his fellow students emerged from history class.

“Professor [George] Cooper, who taught my British history course, not only encouraged it but would join in,” says Stan. “Economics professors LeRoy Dunn and Ward Curran participated in after-class gatherings on the Long Walk, too.”

The intellectual alchemy between Stan and his teachers inspired him as an undergraduate in the early 1960s. “I loved being at Trinity. Learning how to think, to read, to speak. I was given the chance to ask why,” he recalls.

Scholarly discussions continued to connect Stan to Trinity, even as he moved on to become a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University, a student at Harvard Law School, and a fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, doing research on urban issues in Washington, D.C.

“Linda Minoff, who worked in the development office, introduced me to Professor Garth Myers in urban studies at Trinity, and I was delighted when Professor Myers came up from Trinity to Harvard to attend several of my seminars and hear me speak,” Marcuss says.

He and Myers often talked about different mechanisms for inspiring collaboration between faculty and students, and those conversations ultimately sparked Stan and wife Rosemary’s interest in supporting scholarly enterprise at Trinity by creating the Marcuss Fellowship in Urban Studies, a program administered by Myers.

Each year under the fellowship, two Trinity students—not necessarily urban studies majors—are selected to prepare a publishable article or to engage in other scholarly work related to urban issues. Each is mentored by a faculty member, and both faculty and students receive stipends for their time.

“Relationships built on the exchange of ideas continue to motivate us and inspire our philanthropy,” says Rosemary.

The Marcusses enjoy being a part of the intellectual community at Trinity and attend the public presentations by the fellowship recipients each spring. “These young people are part of our family,” she says. “And so are the faculty. They are all family to us.”

Says Stan, “The people matter. Without them, the College is just a collection of lovely buildings on a beautiful green campus.”

 

Amanda Kauff Jacobson ’94 and Blair Jacobson

Trinity Trustee Amanda Kauff Jacobson and husband Blair Jacobson recall the same two highlights from college life in the ’90s: exploring a fascinating variety of disciplines at small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast and then putting their classroom knowledge to work in summer jobs and internships.

Amanda, an art history major at Trinity, interned at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. She also wrote a community arts column for a small newspaper in the Berkshires and organized an exhibit with her Trinity professor. “These experiences brought my major to life and definitely helped shape my future career path,” she says.

Blair, who majored in political economy at Williams College and met Amanda during their junior semester abroad in Florence, Italy, also sees the value of practical experience: “Internships were the rudders that helped steer our careers.”

When the Jacobsons decided they wanted to make a significant gift to Trinity, internships became an area of focus. “We wanted Trinity students to be able to pursue their job interests without having to worry about paying bills,” says Blair. “They need to be able to pair what they learn in the classroom with what can be done in the world of work.”

Amanda adds, “We hope to level the playing field for Trinity students. This includes being able to provide students with whatever they need, including business attire and transportation costs—the basics.”

The new Kauff Jacobson Fellows Program includes a preference for nonprofit internships, which, the Jacobsons point out, tend to be underpaid or unpaid. “Most people working in the nonprofit sector are more focused on a higher purpose than just money. They’re devoting their careers to helping others,” says Amanda.

Service has enhanced the lives of both Jacobsons. When Amanda worked in publishing in New York, she volunteered for several nonprofits and remembers reading to children on her lunch breaks. Today, in addition to Trinity, she is an active board member at the Connecticut camp she attended for 13 summers in her youth and at a preservation and conservation trust in Massachusetts.

Blair recalls, “In high school, I would drive to the White Plains airport to schedule seats on private jets for cancer patients.” Today, he serves on the boards of a South African educational charity, of his synagogue’s endowment, and of his graduate school alma mater, now the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Amanda says, “This is behavior we want to model for our own children. And since Trinity is such a special place for both of us, we wanted to put our best foot forward with this gift and maximize its impact.”

 

Everett “Ev” Elting Jr. ’58, P’85, ’87 and Joanne Elting P’85, ’87

“Nothing compares with a smaller, liberal arts college. A dynamic liberal arts college in a vital state capital city like Hartford is even better,” says Everett “Ev” Elting Jr.

He says his experience at Trinity was all one hopes for in college. A shy kid “without a clear direction” in his first year, he set out to major in mathematics until confronted with a harder-than-expected introductory class. Fortunately, he stood out to both an English professor and a history professor, the latter after Ev produced a sophisticated paper on the Crusades.

Ev credits Trinity with broadening his perspectives on life, which set the stage for a successful marketing and advertising career that took him around the world. His retirement has furthered his explorations as he and wife Joanne have traveled to more than 100 countries since retiring.

“While countries and peoples certainly have plenty of differences, there are common elements everywhere,” he says. “The travel and worldwide exposure have created an inducement and an encouragement to play a role in contributing to the world. Trinity’s Human Rights Program is one way of my making that contribution.”

With funding for a professorship and program development, the Eltings are responsible for helping Trinity craft its Human Rights Program (HRP), the first of its kind at a liberal arts college in the United States. With a robust curriculum, research opportunities, and internships at leading human rights organizations, the program seeks to foster critical debate about human rights problems, interdisciplinary dialogue, and conversations that bridge the divide between local and global human rights concerns.

Ev notes, “We have been fortunate to play a major role in the establishment of the Human Rights Program at Trinity and to have been able to watch it grow and become important in the College’s offerings and activities.

“Not only have Trinity’s life and its students’ lives been enhanced by the Trinity Human Rights Program, Joanne and I believe that our lives have importantly been as well,” he adds. “We have enjoyed tremendously our discussions and interactions with the HRP faculty and students, and the program has been an important part of our lives. I like the way the HRP has evolved and grown, and I look forward to that continuing in the years to come.”

 

Kelli Tomlinson ’94 and Steffan Tomlinson ’94

When Kelli and Steffan Tomlinson visit Trinity, what they notice most is the vibrant sense of community that emanates from students, faculty, and staff and radiates into the areas surrounding campus. At the same time, Hartford residents who come to events energetically engage with those at the College in what has become a circle of positive energy.

“Every time I attend a board meeting,” says Kelli, a Trinity trustee, “I’m inspired and further engaged. The Trinity people are remarkable, and then there’s Hartford. [President Joanne Berger-Sweeney] has created powerful connections between Trinity and the surrounding community.

“When we were students,” Kelli explains, “there was a juxtaposition—geographic and economic—between Trinity and Hartford. It always bothered us. Joanne has done so much to bridge that divide.”

The College has relied on alumni and friends like the Tomlinsons to support the vision of a positive town-gown relationship. The Tomlinsons have provided support of many kinds, including important gifts for the Trinity Plus curriculum and for entrepreneurship. Yet what is closest to their hearts is their philanthropy for scholarships for Hartford students, particularly those who are the first in their families to attend college.

“Our commitment to first-generation students happened a while back, certainly before I joined the board, and partly in response to what we perceived as a chasm between the College and the community,” she says.

When scholarship recipients are interested in meeting alumni and friends of the College, Kelli enjoys having that connection. “I’ve loved interacting with them. I’ve met a number who came to Trinity as part of a bridge program in East Hartford.”

In fact, the Tomlinsons’ commitment to first-generation students is bicoastal. They are involved with three organizations in California’s Bay Area, including one that provides wraparound services for children beginning in the fourth grade and following them through college. Thanks to one of these organizations, Kelli says, a former fifth grader whom she mentored is a first-year in college.

“We’ve seen the power and effect of investing in first-generation students,” she says. “Uplifting young people so that they have equal access to the opportunities has been life-changing for us.

“If I could say something to alumni who are disengaged, I’d tell them, ‘Come back to campus. You will not believe what you experience and what has evolved at Trinity. Meet current students—the caliber and breadth of who they are is remarkable.’ ”

For more information about how to support the student experience, please contact Caitlin Gasiorski at [email protected].

 

Header Photo by Nick Caito; Associate Professor of Computer Science Madalene Spezialetti with Samuel Knijnik Werneck Martins ’28

Wilmot Photo by Chris Rakoczy

Marcuss Photo by Nick Caito