Rose Fest Queen talks about picking Trinity College
Come September, the woman crowned the Queen of the Portland Rose Festival in May will be an undergraduate at Trinity College in Dublin where her subjects will be Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology.
“I did some of my own research about Trinity and it offers the perfect program,” said Lincoln High graduate Ava Rathi about studying those four disciplines before she has to declare her major at Ireland’s oldest institute of higher education (1592).
“I’ve known since I was a freshman that I wanted to go to an international university. The International Baccalaureate Program at Lincoln opened a lot of doors for me and when it came time to apply to Trinity I knew I had to try,” Rathi said.
Lincoln High School offers the IB Program, a curriculum offered in 150 countries designed to prepare students for course work anywhere in the world. Lincoln’s IB program is considered one of the best in America.
About 35 of every 100 students who apply to Trinity are accepted. Tuition for international students can exceed 30,000 euros ($34,400). The student body at the campus in the heart of Dublin includes 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
“I’ve never been to Ireland or Dublin before,” admits Rathi. “My friends think I’m insane.”
Ava Rathi is the reigning Queen of Rosaria.
It was a friend’s experience at Trinity that was a big factor in her decision. Bailey Armstrong was on the Debate Team at Lincoln and a Rose Festival Princess before heading to Trinity, which she recommended to Rathi.
Then there’s this factor. “The reason I was attracted to Trinity in particular was because I watched a show called Normal People. I saw the show then I read the book.”
The tv series was based on the novel of the same name, much of which was based at Trinity. The author of the novel, Sally Rooney, is herself a graduate of Trinity. The director and Executive producer, Oscar-nominated Lenny Abrahamson (Best Dir. Room 2015) also went there, as did the co-star Paul Mescal.
Rathi wasn’t the only high schooler who gave Trinity a serious look after watching Normal People. The school reported that after the series first ran in April and May of 2020, applications jumped by 12%. They called it the “Normal People bounce.”
Trinity College of Dublin, founded in 1592, enrolls 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students. It’s also the home of The Book of Kells.
Legendary Alumnae
There’s a long list of notable graduates of Trinity. The seventh and eighth Presidents of Ireland, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, are both graduates of Trinity.
“Mary Robinson was also the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights,” Ava reminded me. “To walk the same hallways as her and people like Oscar Wilde will be awesome,”
(For the record, here are some other “Trinity people”: Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Andrew Scott, Dominic West, Ruth Negga, Anne Enright and Chris de Burgh.)
The Old Library at Trinity may look familiar. It is featured in many movies and tv series, including Normal People. It is best known as the library in the Harry Potter movies.