Trinity Receives $100,000 Grant From the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to Strengthen Liberal Arts

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Trinity a prestigious $100,000 grant in September to preserve and strengthen the centrality of liberal education in the College of Arts and Sciences, Trinity’s historic undergraduate women’s college. Trinity was invited by the Mellon Foundation to apply for the grant, and, with a creative and visionary team led by Dr. Pamela Barnett, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Trinity submitted a proposal, “Strong Start in the Liberal Arts.” The Mellon grant will be used to strengthen Trinity’s first year curriculum by focusing on pedagogies to enhance reading and writing across the arts and humanities disciplines, and to promote undergraduate research in those disciplines.

The grant will support several initiatives during the next three years, including first year curriculum revision, faculty development for teaching reading and writing across the disciplines, and undergraduate research in arts and humanities. This work is already underway, and with the support of Mellon the activities will reach even more sophisticated levels.

“Thanks to the great leadership of Dean Pamela Barnett and the marvelous collaboration of many faculty and administrators in the College of Arts and Sciences, Trinity is honored to receive this very prestigious Mellon Foundation grant,” said President Patricia McGuire. “Receiving a Mellon Grant is a true mark of distinction for an institution of higher education. Trinity is now at the point where we deserve recognition for the great work we do with our students, and we are being more proactive about pursuing funding opportunities and presenting the results of our work to audiences that really care about improving educational outcomes for historically marginalized populations.Trinity is doing amazing work in some of the most challenging places found anywhere in American higher education. This grant recognizes and celebrates that work, and challenges us to keep improving. As the recognition from the Mellon Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York illustrate, Trinity is gaining increasing renown for curricular innovation and pedagogies that strengthen student outcomes and undergraduate research is becoming a significant part of the curriculum in many disciplines.”