At Trinity, we’re made for big moments.
And choosing a major is one of them. For more than 150 years, Trinity students have made this step on their academic journeys, driven by their unique interests to select academic paths that help them make a mark on the world.
Now, Trinity is announcing a new celebration: Major Declaration Day. This Feb. 17 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., the University is inviting students to an afternoon of celebration at Miller Fountain, where they can declare their majors in person, meet department faculty, and connect with current Tigers in those majors.
Students will receive a pennant customized according to major and/or discipline as a souvenir, as well as food and party bags from Academic Advising. Students will have the opportunity to take a variety of photos in front of the fountain alongside their friends and academic and faculty advisers.
This is a moment to celebrate the beginning of your academic journey, not the end: Your major might be your forever calling, or it also might just be where you’re discovering yourself right now. But for everyone, this is a major moment.
Jamie Thompson, Ed.D, assistant dean of students and director of Student Involvement at Trinity University, and Jennifer Henderson, Ph.D., associate vice president for Academic Affairs: Student Success, both say this event will be an exciting opportunity for students to start feeling at home in their majors.
“This is an opportunity to connect students with their academic home,” Thompson says. “As students declare their major, they’re going to connect with faculty who will become their mentors and begin to develop those connections with peers who are already within the major. The excitement of the event itself is really to signify and celebrate that this is a new stage in their academic journey.”
Henderson says students can be excited to start forming the types of connections with faculty members that Trinity prides itself on.
“The kinds of working partnerships that form between faculty members and students here are long-lasting and important, and they have great impact on our students long after they've graduated.”
Esther Esparza, assistant director for orientation programs at Student Involvement and Rachel Boaz Toppel, assistant director for residential education at Residential Life, say this event is a perfect “next step” for a university that wants to keep finding ways to engage students at all levels of their academic journeys—not just at commencement.
Boaz Toppel says students familiar with Residential Life programming, such as Sophomore College, will pick up on the similarly integrated and supportive vibes of this event.
“This is the natural evolution of the work of Sophomore College,” Boaz Toppel says. “Residential Life has always been responsible for [many aspects] of the sophomore experience, including the academic piece of connecting students to their major. So as part of this evolution, this is Trinity seeing an increase in the structures and systems that set up our students for success.”
Esparza adds students can simply think of Major Declaration Day as connecting the dots between other events and milestones that mark their academic journeys at Trinity.
“This is a great shared experience that all Trinity students will have moving forward. They have orientation, they have commencement, they have a ring ceremony: This is another shared experience in the middle of all that that they can have together,” she says. “This should be a really fun party.”
Across campus, faculty and current majors are eager to welcome new students declaring their majors. Major Declaration Day is a chance for Tigers to create a new tradition together as they prepare to pursue lives of meaning and purpose.
This is your major moment. This is Major Declaration Day.
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