Arguably the most sought-after project in the Bachelor of Business Administration program at Trent is the Legacy Project, a component of the ADMN-4101H Thinking About Management class taught by Professos David Newhouse with teaching assistant Keren Fox. The legacy project charges students with the task of creating something that will “leave their mark on Trent” after they have graduated. Typically undertaken by fourth year students, the Legacy Project presents the perfect opportunity to assess Trent in its entirety, and find a way to enact a change that will impact future students at Trent.

This year, four students are making waves in the student body, aiming to raise awareness through their “Trent Heritage Collection” furniture preservation project. Elsa Batten, Alex Watson, Jenna Pilgrim and Mark Hunt have made it their mission to make the Trent student body aware of the chairs they are sitting on, and their relevance to Canadian heritage.

Trent University is one of the only universities in Canada with its own furniture line, with all of the pieces chosen or built by Ron Thom's team of architects and designers.

Using heavy oak and birch, Thom chose mid-modernist furniture that complemented his surrounding architecture. In doing this, Thom and his team created an atmosphere of “total design” at Trent.

Over Trent’s 50 years, some this furniture has been lost to time and disrepair, and is in need of protection. These business students have created a stamp – a silver sticker that will be on all pieces of original furniture at Trent. Each chair, for instance, has a designer’s name and a number, with the website URL www.trentu.ca/heritage where an index will tell the viewer more about that particular chair. The second part of the project aims to provide brochures on Trent architecture for all incoming students in September 2015, to help educate the newest group of students on the architectural relevance of Trent, like a living and interactive museum.

For third year student Jenna Pilgrim, this is not a new project. Ms. Pilgrim has been working on heritage-related issues at Trent since the beginning of the school year, and intends to continue this work throughout the summer and her final undergraduate year. Her initiatives so far include speaking on architectural philosophy and interdisciplinary learning at the ‘Your Trent’ Student Symposium, participating in the three-minute paper competition presenting a talk on furniture preservation, and recently being invited to speak at Doors Open Peterborough, an open-house style initiative by the Ontario Heritage Trust on May 2 at Trent. 

The Legacy Projects undertaken by the Winter 2015 Management class will be on display at a Knowledge Café to be held in the First Peoples Gathering Space in Gzowski College on April 6 from 9am-12pm.  All are welcome.

The Trent Heritage Collection project is generously sponsored by Alumni House and the Tom Nind Endowment Fund, awarded through the Office of the President.

Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.