Back to Entrepreneurship at Trinity College

Entrepreneurship Center

A distinctive Center for Entrepreneurship advances, directly and indirectly, our mission of preparing bold, independent thinkers who lead transformative lives. Tackling the world’s most vexing problems requires people who are both critical thinkers and creative doers. There is no better preparation for this than an education that unapologetically combines the liberal arts with a diverse array of real-world, applied immersive learning experiences.

Trinity College’s Center for Entrepreneurship provides any liberal arts major, not just those interested in business or start-ups, with the confidence and know-how to turn ideas into action. This is consistent with our forward-looking Trinity Plus curriculum, which boldly combines the liberal arts with co-curricular, experiential learning in preparing students for the future.

Trinity’s liberal arts graduates already learn entrepreneurial attributes, including curiosity, flexibility, and resourcefulness, blending critical thinking with creative problem solving. The Center for Entrepreneurship takes this to a whole new level, through interdisciplinary collaboration across campus, connecting students and faculty with alumni and other world-class entrepreneurs and innovators.

The Trinity Center for Entrepreneurship increases Trinity’s visibility and allows our college community to partner more effectively with Hartford’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem—benefitting the city we call home and providing graduates with an incentive to stay in Connecticut.

It thrives alongside Trinity’s other academic centers and institutes, amplifying our distinctiveness as a liberal arts college in a city. Our centers are all vibrant hubs that bring together multiple constituents and advance Trinity’s mission and goals.

The Center is located in Trinity’s Roy Nutt Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science Center (MECC).  The Center houses space for student collaboration, seminar-level teaching, and mentoring. The Trinity College Entrepreneurship Club operates out of this space as well.

LEADERSHIP

The Center for Entrepreneurship, located in the Nutt Math, Engineering and Computer Science Center, is a hub for forward thinking learners to hone their innovation skills. Danny Briere is the inaugural Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.
The Center is made possible by the generosity of Lou Shipley ’85. A trustee, Shipley has served as an executive at multiple successful technology companies and as a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management. He also served on the President’s Commission for Trinity’s Future in 2020. 

Hartford Impact

Just as Hartford has historically been a city of invention and innovation, Trinity has a long history of entrepreneurial alumni and faculty who want to transform the world, in large and small ways. The Center for Entrepreneurship is teaming with Trinity’s strategic Hartford partners to create new student-centered, alumni- and faculty-powered hands-on training and consulting experiences to boost the level of innovation and entrepreneurship in Hartford.  Current partners include:

  • Infosys
  • Hartford Healthcare
  • Connecticut Children’s
  • Stanley Black & Decker
  • Launc[H]artford/UCONN

If you are a Hartford-based business interested in partnering with our center, please contact Carlos Espinosa, Director of Community and Strategic Partnerships for Trinity.  LEARN MORE →

Alumni Network

A key pillar of the Center for Entrepreneurship is Alumni involvement. Trinity graduates have a history of success in their chosen fields and have much to share with the leaders of tomorrow. LEARN MORE →

Faculty/Staff Advisory Board

A faculty and staff advisory board will provide the center with guidance about campus partners and programming. The current advisory board members are listed below:

  • Clayton Byers, Assistant Professor of Engineering
  • Joe Catrino, Executive Director of Career & Life Design
  • Christoph Geiss, Professor of Physics and Environmental Science
  • Peter Kyle, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance
  • Susan Masino, Professor of Applied Science
  • Garth Myers, Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS)
  • Joe Palladino, Professor of Engineering
  • Leo Schuchert, Associate Director, Center for Academic and Experiential Advising (CAEA)
  • Ed Stringham, Professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation and Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Endowment
  • Ewa Syta, Associate Professor and Chair of Computer Science
  • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, Professor and Chair of the Department of History

The Center thanks these advisors for their guidance as we together plan the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship efforts of the Center on Trinity, the City of Hartford, and beyond.