Archives: Initiatives

For professional market research, improving brand awareness, boosting social media engagement, creating business models and other services, local companies have an option right at Trinity—Fusion 59’s Consulting Team.  

The Consulting Team, which consists of Trinity students and is overseen by Fusion 59 Director Haley York ‘20, recently presented a marketing plan for a new venture by alumnus Gabriel Soler ‘19. The venture involves “New Drip,” a waterless car wash option that has a strong business in Brazil, and which Soler is looking to expand to the United States.  

The consulting team, led by Hope Heeg ‘22, offered a comprehensive plan that included multiple components, including market research, competitive analysis, product testing feedback, product branding recommendations, and a social media marketing strategy.  

Soler praised the quality of the presentation. “This will lead to some good discussions with the people in Brazil,” he said. “They did a thorough job with research. The pitch deck was well organized and the branding work was very detailed.” 

The team spent about two months working on the presentation. York brought together a team with diverse backgrounds for the assignment, Heeg said. “We had accounting, marketing, and graphic design majors to help tackle this new project. We knew we had to come up with a marketing plan and a strategy to bring New Drip to the United States from Brazil. The team took areas that they were experts in and we went from there! We all reviewed each other’s work and made the necessary changes to provide the most thought-through plan,” she said. 

This was one of several projects the Consulting Team has been working on. “Each semester we are assigned at least four clients in the Chicagoland area that need assistance with their digital marketing. We provide a certain amount of postings per week on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube,” Heeg said. “Depending on what package the client purchases, we also do photoshoots to gain new content and email campaigns. These businesses are all diverse in what they provide to the community. For example, we have worked with the Palos Heights Public Library, Royalberry Waffle House, and Noral Jewelers.” 

As a marketing major, Heeg said the Consulting Team has given her important experience and insights and helped prepare her for a career after college. “I knew that this was something that could help get my feet wet in the marketing realm and help me get an idea of what exactly I enjoy,” she said.  

Along with the professional research and report, helping students gain valuable experience is one reason Soler selected the Consulting Team. “As a student, I donated a lot of energy to Trinity. Giving back is important,” said Soler, who majored in finance. “I realized I could give this work to a third party or to Fusion 59, so gave it to Fusion 59.” 

Soler, who lives in Oak Lawn, Ill., and currently works as a consultant, has personal experience with the value that Fusion 59 offers. Fusion 59 launched while he was a student at Trinity, and he was deeply involved, along with serving as captain of the men’s soccer team and being part of Future Founders, which is affiliated with 1871 in downtown Chicago that supports early stage, growth stage and corporate innovators. “I’m pleased to see how well Fusion 59 is doing. Being part of Fusion 59 is a big benefit for students,” he said.” 

And it also benefits clients. Soler is currently working with several partners in the discovery phase of New Drip. He discovered the product while visiting Brazil, and is looking for next steps in introducing it to the U.S. market. “I wanted to get an unbiased view, which is why I reached out to Fusion 59 for marketing consulting work.” 

—By Patricia Yang ’25 

It was long and eagerly awaited. Erin Davis, a senior and current president of the Historical Association of Students (HAS), was especially excited. It was the first field trip since the spring of 2020, and HAS was going to The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (OI). Granted, Davis had been there before—but why turn down the offer to go again? Before the trip, Davis said “I love going to museums, and I miss going to museums.”

She was delighted to have visited again. “I forgot how quiet they can be, especially history museums. It’s like a reverent silence, because you’re looking at all these artifacts that are sometimes thousands of years old, and you suddenly remember that humanity is ancient. We’ve changed so much, and even now continue to change in monumental ways.” 

OI is a museum featuring Middle Eastern, East Asian, and North African history, exhibiting the history of places like Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. Davis’ favorite part of the museum was a massive stone wall three times the size of a person, and carved on it was a mystical creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and wings like eagles—a lamassu. 

This time around, the OI had a new exhibit on the photographer Antoin Sevruguin. He was a photographer in Iran during the 1880s to 1890s and took photos of people and everyday life. The exhibit featured several of his photos and also described Sevruguin’s career evolution. “The thing that struck me was seeing Sevruguin’s photos and realizing that these are real people who existed, who had their own lives, families, loved ones, goals, and thoughts—and just so much made them them. These photos may be the only thing we have that shows us their lives, yet cannot possibly capture all of it,” said Davis, reflecting on her museum trip experience. 

HAS, founded in the spring of 2003, is recognized as an official club by the Student Government Association with the help of the History Department itself. “For almost twenty years, we’ve been meeting, having the president hit his or her shoe on the desk to start and end the meeting, doing ‘This Day in History,’ and other historical fun stuff,” said Dr. John Fry, Professor of History. “Most recently, we’ve taken advantage of Kahoots, some of which are really hilarious and all of which are fun.” 

Previously, HAS had hosted some lively activities on campus, such as a jousting tournament. “I don’t know how it went, because I was not there for the event,” said Davis as she laughed. “But I would love to bring something like that back!” HAS also used to have a trebuchet (a medieval catapult). Fry retold, “We put about 300 pounds of weights from the weight room on it, and it could throw a gallon jug of water about 75 feet. We also sometimes threw laptops, printers, and other items.” The trebuchet is long gone now, but Davis would love to have something like that again, too. 

And of course, HAS enjoys field trips to museums both local and regional: Cantigny Park, the Great Lakes Naval Museum, the Lincoln Museum and the Lincoln Home, and the Henry Ford Museum are just a few this club has gone to. They would go in Trinity vans and head out. On road trips, they would stay the night in a hotel, visit the site in the morning, and head back in the afternoon. “Now that things are getting more back to normal, I would love to see us be able to do a road trip again,” said Fry. 

The OI field trip came to a close—and now the club returns to its usual routine: hitting the shoe, seeing “This Day in History,” and playing fun Kahoots. And perhaps next semester HAS will once again head out for another exciting museum visit. 

To find out more about HAS and its activities, email Erin Davis or Dr. John Fry. 

While Professor of Communication Arts Craig Mattson was interviewing dozens of organizational leaders for his book, “Why Spiritual Capital Matters,” many of them would tell inspirational stories designed for investors, donors, and shareholders. And many of these leaders seemed uncomfortable with this type of narrative, as Mattson writes about in an article for  Duke Divinity’ Schools Faith & Leadership publication, titled “Ditch the hero narrative and tell a story about your community.”

And after talking further, his interview subjects would start to tell a different type of story, one that is more connected to place.

In the article, Mattson discusses why this type of inspirational storytelling can exacerbate social problems and offers suggestions on how to tell stories that are more tied to neighborhood and place. You can read the entire article here.

On Dec. 4, Trinity’s Music Department came together to celebrate Christmastide, and the Chicago Tribune’s Daily Southtown was there to cover the return of the beloved tradition.

Myriam Melidona, a junior nursing student from Oak Forest, was one of the Christmastide participants quotes in the article. She said the songs brought so much meaning, particularly after last year’s Christmastide was cancelled because of Covid. “Since we didn’t have the opportunity to perform for the community last year, it’s a wonderful opportunity to come together,” Melidona told reporter Mary Compton. “It’s a also a way to showcase our talents and our praises to the people that come and join us and recognize the true meaning of the season of Christmas.”

You can read the entire article here.

—Patricia Yang ’25

Flashing lights. Eerie music. Thrilling swordplay. Moving trees. Bloody daggers. Bubbling cauldron. Chanting. Prophecy. Murder. It was magical, malevolent, and magnificent—it was “Macbeth,” one Shakespeare’s dark and terrifying tragedies, and Trinity’s Theatre Department’s Fall Mainstage performance.

The skin-tingling and electrifying play was a 90-minute version of “Macbeth,” directed by Professor Kim Darling. She had worked on the original script over the summer, carefully scrutinizing each line, making sure that all the key parts were still included, but still made sense. “This was the first time performing Shakespeare for most of the actors, so I wanted to keep the script manageable for only nine weeks of rehearsal,” said Darling. “I also wanted to provide a reasonable run time for an audience who hasn’t been to live theatre in nearly two years.”

“I have a deep love and appreciation for Shakespeare and “Macbeth” has many scenes and lines that are part of our present-day culture,” said Darling. She loved the fact that the play, despite being over 400 years old, still held great relevance to people’s lives today. “We see images of violence and death almost daily, and we wonder why? Who is to blame? Shakespeare’s most direct and action-packed play speaks eloquently to the cause and consequence of sin, the importance of a higher purpose, and the choices we all face.”

The inspiration of this Macbeth interpretation came from the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Darling’s vision incorporated several of the Globe-inspired elements to provide a similar experience for this audience. “These elements included a thrust stage configuration, a two-story set modeled after Shakespeare’s Globe, live sound and music, direct interaction between the actors and audience, and a jig at the end of the play,” said Darling. She added, “In my vision, the true horror in the play is not that Macbeth kills the king but the recognition of our own humanity in Macbeth’s actions.”

Darling was grateful to work with the designers for the various parts of the performance, as well as all the cast and crew members of the theatre department. “We felt such powerful electricity onstage, and we were grateful to do this work from within our faith lives,” she expressed. “I feel privileged to have worked with such a talented and dedicated cast and crew.”

Her favorite part was working within the Christian context, where she and everyone else worked to incorporate and integrate their faith into the art of theatre. “I believe the stage holds a powerful opportunity to embody truth as we explore the struggles of being human and the even greater storyline of humanity: a story of brokenness, love, rescue, and lasting victory,” said Darling.

The theme for the theatre department this year is “Resilience and Rebirth.” “Macbeth” is dark, bloody, and foreboding—yet at the end there is a light of hope. “In the final battle,” explained Darling, “Macduff casts out evil with one fell swoop of his sword, restoring order to Scotland and declaring the time to be free. How do we emerge from the chaos of the world around us? How do we cling to hope through despair? How do we shift our focus from our finitude and frailty to God’s enduring mercy and grace? I was captivated by many of Shakespeare’s insights in “Macbeth,” and I hope our audience also finds this to be true as they reflect on our production and theme this year.”

As the play ended, Macbeth’s crown gleamed in the light as it was held high by MacDuff. The tyrant of Scotland was slain, and now the country could rest. The lights fade away as Malcolm, the new king of Scotland, looked on with a fire in his eyes. The crown, resting upon his head, gave one last glimmer—a glimmer of hope.

Academic advising can be challenging and exhausting. But Professor of Biology Clay Carlson loves it. Because Trinity’s once-a-semester Advising Days are where students share their stories.

Carlson recently explained why he views serving as an academic advisor as a privilege in a blog post for Christian Scholars Review, “The gifts of advising day.”

“In short, Advising Day could be seen as an administrative burden, a bureaucratic intrusion into the academic project of the semester,” Carlson wrote. “Instead, I see in it nothing but gifts. The gift of a moment of reflection on the path we have taken. The gift of an opportunity to contemplate vocation and meaning. And most importantly, a gift to both advisee and advisor of our shared humanity.”

You can read Carlson’s entire post here.

Dr. Mark Mulder ‘95, professor of sociology at Calvin University and graduate of Trinity in history and communication arts, recently returned to campus for several engagement opportunities with the College community and broader public.

Mulder is the author of Shades of White Flight: Evangelical Congregations & Urban Departure, which Trinity faculty and staff reading groups read together this past summer. That book explores the “white flight”  that occurred in the Chicago neighborhoods of Englewood and Roseland, where seven entire church congregations from one denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, left the city in the 1960s and 1970s and relocated their churches to nearby suburbs. Mulder’s book investigates the migration of these Chicago church members, revealing how these churches not only failed to inhibit white flight, but actually facilitated the congregations’ departure.

Mulder’s visit encompassed several different conversations and lectures. That included an author conversation, sponsored by the Faculty Development Committee, and a lunchtime conversation, sponsored by the Center for Teaching & the Good Life, surrounding the question, “How do we ensure our vision of the good life is accessible to all human beings?”

Mulder also provided a public lecture entitled “Shades of White Flight: Reckoning with Racialized Legacies,” sponsored by the Office of the Provost.