By Elizabeth Farrington
TINTON FALLS – As the 2024-25 school year comes to a close, many high schools in Monmouth County are celebrating their senior classes in various ways. Trinity Hall, with its trailblazing attitude, honors its seniors in a different way.
The week of May 27, members of Trinity Hall’s Class of 2025 spent their last few days on campus attending life-prepping workshops, listening to college advice panels led by Trinity Hall alumnae, and presenting their work completed during “Beyond the Hall,” a Trinity Hall senior year assignment in which students are required to complete 30 hours of internship work at a company of their choice.
Trinity Hall’s Senior Week focuses on preparing students for college and their transition to adult life. It began with “Beyond the Hall” presentations, where students dressed in business casual attire gave formal presentations about their internships to fellow students, faculty, board members, and employees from their sponsor companies. Not only are these presentations great practice for public speaking in both college and the corporate world, but they also serve as a capstone to the impressive work completed and professional connections made by the girls throughout their 30 hours. Once presentations concluded, Trinity Hall’s 2025 seniors spent the rest of their day practicing for graduation, which was held at the Ocean First Bank Center at Monmouth University June 1.
On Wednesday, the Trinity Hall senior class spent the day engaging in College Transition Programming. Seniors began the day learning about abusive relationships and how to escape them with a short film created by the One Love Foundation. Students were made aware of the prevalence of abusive relationships and learned about “See something, say something.” Students then attended a situational awareness and essential life skills workshop presented by IRL (In Real Life), a program that provides situational awareness and accessible safety tools for students of all ages. The Trinity Hall 2025 seniors learned how to be present at all times and always aware of their surroundings, especially in unfamiliar settings.
Although all Trinity Hall students are “savvy in the classroom,” said Meredith Harmon, Trinity Hall’s 2025 valedictorian, seniors were given the opportunity to “learn something new that will carry into the real world.”
The two workshops are “powerful additions to the week,” said Caitlin Post, one of Trinity Hall’s guidance counselors. The College Transition Programming portion of Senior Week “equips students with the tools to navigate their new environments with confidence and self-awareness,” Post added.
On Thursday, the final day of Senior Week, students spent their morning learning about financial literacy, voter registration and female health and wellness. They left these sessions more informed about the U.S. economy and government, as well as their own health.
Rounding out their day was “real world” preparation with an alumnae panel from Trinity Hall’s Class of 2024. This year’s Trinity Hall seniors reconnected with their previous classmates and “gained wisdom” from their personal college experiences, said Theresa Kiernan, head of school.
Senior Week concluded with the Senior Awards Ceremony, where selected graduating students were recognized for their academic, athletic and personal achievements over the course of their four years at Trinity Hall. From valedictorian and co-salutatorian, to the Core Value Awards of leadership, perseverance, respect and faith, the Senior Awards Ceremony provides Trinity Hall’s seniors with “a meaningful bridge between high school and their next chapter,” Post said.
Trinity Hall’s Senior Week is another example that the school is one of a kind; Trinity Hall empowers its students with valuable life skills and tools that will serve them for a lifetime. Trinity Hall girls begin their journey as freshman learning about empowerment and unapologetic outspokenness and, when they graduate, they take with them the values that have been fostered and instilled in them to their next chapter of life. The workshops, panel discussions and celebratory activities of Senior Week “remind us that reflection, community and gratitude are just as important as preparation,” said Kiernan.
The article originally appeared in the June 5 – 11, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
