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The senior thesis project is considered the capstone of a Trinitas education; its goal is to demonstrate classical Christian thinking at its best in high school seniors. During the fourth quarter of their junior year students select a topic about which to research and write. They don’t merely write a summary, but actually write an argument based on their research and then try to persuade the rest of the world to see it their way. By the beginning of senior year, students will have read hundreds of pages, narrowing their topics and staking out a position. They spend the first semester writing a paper of about fifteen pages that draws on their research and supports the thesis they have proposed. Soon after the writing process ends, seniors stand before a panel of faculty and board members to answer questions and defend their thesis as an audience of family and friends look on.
This project gives Trinitas seniors a small foretaste of the kind of academic testing they will experience at university. It also brings the fruit of a Christ-centered and classical education to bear as students draw from the tools they have acquired in the grammar, logic, and
rhetoric stages and weigh everything on the scales of Scripture. Students enter the great conversation through the senior thesis project—by no means uttering the final word, but taking the opportunity to make their own educated assertions on things that matter in the fabric of human existence.
Among the most important goals for Trinitas students are that they would reason persuasively and articulate precisely. From Junior Kindergarten through the twelfth grade, Trinitas students practice written composition and public speaking skills to help them achieve these goals. Juniors and seniors compete annually for the opportunity to represent Trinitas against other classical schools all over the nation in the John Chrysostom Oratory
Competition, hosted by the Association of Classical Christian Schools.
Each spring all students from 7 th through 12 th grades compete within their classes. The class winners and the top four juniors and seniors present their speeches to students, parents,
guests, and a panel of judges. The top speaker chosen from the juniors and seniors represents Trinitas in the national competition. To date, Trinitas students have won second
place finishes in this prestigious contest for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018.
The Trinitas Student Council provides leadership and service opportunities to students in grades 7 through 12. Each grade elects a single student to represent them on the Council. Additionally, three upper-class students are elected by their peers to serve as student council officers in capacities such as president, vice president, and secretary of the Student Council. Council Officers meet twice a month with the Council Advisor and the entire student council meets monthly to address matters pertaining to the student body and community service opportunities. Ad Hoc Committees are organized by the Student Council on an as-needed basis and open to all Logic/Rhetoric students.
