Living@Trinity

One thing I've never touched upon in my previous blog posts has been the residential dorms here at Trinity. Trinity mandates that every student must of encessity live on campus for at least three years out of four, because it is believed that a residential experience is a necessity for any college experience. After two and a half semesters spent here, I can see their point, and I fail to see, honestly, why any student would want to opt out of this experience once their mandated three years are up (most seniors elect to live off campus, from what I understand).

Everything about the residential experience at trinity, from the people here to the buildings, from the rooms we're given to the way custodial service is managed, from the community experience to the food- okay, well maybe not the food- everything is great. I'm not one for the 'community experience,' and when people start talking about wanting to belong to something or be a part of something greater than themselves, I start looking for the next exit, but the residential experience at Trinity, which places healthy interaction among students at its center, really does make me feel great. The community experience adds to the residential experience at Trinity so much.

The last two images I ever took of my room in Calvert, just before leaving it for the summer. I honestly miss that room a lot. There are simply so many memories attached to it.
(c) 2011 All rights reserved.

And then there are the rooms themselves. The dorms at Trinity are great,l there's no way around it (although I must admit, Winn and Witt, two freshmen dorms, were not quite to my taste). In my freshman year, I was assigned a room in Calvert, which as luck would have it, was the 'newest' dorm on campus, having been renovated early last year. My room became my second home without me even realizing it, such that when I had to leave for home this summer, and when I realized that I would never be seeing my room again, that it would no longer be MY room, that I was genuinely sad. My room was my home, and although I love my new one too (seriously, it's huge), I do miss my old one a lot.

The residential experience at Trinity cannot be explained. One has to experience it oneself for it to be believed. It made sure I was never homesick, both by physically providing me with an excellent home, and, by putting the community experience first and foremost, ensuring I would make so many great friends that I would never be at a loss for company.

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(c)2011 All Rights Reserved

Classes@Trinity

I like studying. I don't want to come off as one of those 'teacher's pets/know it alls,' but the fact is, I simply like studying. I don't particularly like classroom teaching, though, just so I am clear. On the contrary, I like self study a lot, I find it to be the best way of learning. This is because a self study session can usually be tailored to meet one's needs, and one can move at one's own pace (which in my case, is usually faster than everybody else), and the teaching method can be highly flexible to suit one's own needs. Or at least, this is what my opinion on studying was. Twelve years in a large school in India, with class sizes varying from 35-49 students, had taught me that I learned best when I studied alone. And I yearned to learn.

I was looking forward to classes at Trinity, mostly because I couldn't wait to see how the classroom environment differed here in the US. Also, I had been assured that the average class size here was small, so that each individual student would get a lot more attention from the instructor. However, on the whole, I was not anticipating any particular change in my learning methods.

The last two semesters have proven me largely wrong on that front. As my classes at Trinity started, I realized what a difference a small class size could make. No, I did not have professors exclusively catering to my needs and demands (nor did I expect them to, that would have been selfish). However, almost every class I was in was structured as a discussion oriented environment, with every lecture being structured as an open two way interaction, either between the professor and the student(s), or between two (or more) students. Reading the textbook and answering questions from it was no longer the be all and end all of classroom learning- in most classes, I was expected to do the readings and then discuss my impressions on said reading. Where the class went depended entirely on our impressions of the reading.

The notebook is no longer the centerpiece of classroom teaching. At least, not here at Trinity.

There were discussion oriented classes in my school too, but almost never to this extent. This free form, free flowing, malleable and flexible classroom structure was intellectually stimulating, and it really engaged me like almost nothing else in the classroom had. I no longer wanted to miss classes, and I genuinely began looking forward to them. I was even excited about my homework and assignments.

Well, okay, no, I wouldn't go that far. I still hate doing homework, But the rest of it is all true! Put simply, I have newfound respect for classroom teaching, and it is all because of the excellent teaching methods that Trinity;s professors employ in the classroom.

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pencil by capl@washjeff.edu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.