Trinity College One Love
By Sammi Bray
This spring, The Summiter interviewed two impactful student leaders generating positivity and change on Trinity’s campus.
In 2022, Chloe Slater ’24 and Riley Morgan ’25 brought the national non-profit, One Love, to Trinity College. One Love is dedicated to eradicating relationship abuse in all its forms, equipping individuals to foster meaningful and transformative dialogues about the dynamics of relationships among their peers. Ms. Slater and Ms. Morgan shared, “By providing a wealth of educational resources, we aim to offer life-saving prevention tools to both the Trinity and Hartford communities, thereby nurturing an environment of awareness and support.”
Both students were involved in their high schools’ chapters of One Love and wanted to bring what they thought were essential resources to their new academic environment. They explained, “Navigating relationships at any stage in life can be daunting, a complexity that’s magnified by significant life transitions such as attending college. This new chapter brings with it the challenge of exploring a myriad of new interpersonal relationships, from those with roommates, to professors, to coaches, all the while being away from home.” With this in mind, they were certain that One Love could have a positive impact on students during their transformative years.
It is their goal that One Love will foster healthy and safe relationships among students at Trinity and beyond, “By adopting a peer-to-peer education model, the club intends to create a ripple effect of awareness and prevention, making strides towards ending relationship abuse in all its forms among our community.”
The club hosts many events on campus, consistently partnering with a variety of organizations, especially in the Greek Life community, and fundraising for other local charities. One of their most impactful actions have been workshops that train students to be good advocates of healthy relationships. Thus far, over thirty-five students have become equipped with the necessary skills and have gone on to give multiple talks to other students. Their largest event to date was a Dedication to Yeardley Love and her family, held at a home men’s lacrosse game against Colby College. Yeardley Love, who One Love is named for, was tragically killed by her ex-boyfriend in 2010. Her legacy is honored through the education of young people and their peers about the signs of domestic abuse to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again. Over $500 was raised.
Other partnerships include working with Hartford schools to begin early education about engaging in healthy friendships.
Students who are interested in becoming involved with One Love can contact Ms. Slater or Ms. Morgan at their respective Trinity emails or through their Instagram, @trincollonelove. As always, students are also encouraged to interact with One Love around campus.
