Nick Cimillo ’26
Executive Features Editor
Over the next few weeks leading up to graduation, six members of the Tripod’s staff are nearing the end of their times at Trinity. Among this group of seniors are Executive Sports Editor Annika “AJ” Dyczkowski ’25, Staff Photographer and Executive Social Media Editor Sabrina Codrington ’25 and Copy Editor Allie Mikalatos ’25. These three staffers discussed their backgrounds before coming to Trinity, what led them to join the Tripod, some of their personal highlights from throughout their undergraduate careers and their plans and aspirations following graduation.
Dyczkowski came to Trinity from her home in Michigan; “[I] came to Trinity mostly because of hockey,” she began. “I knew that I wanted to play at a competitive level, but at a respectable or prestigious school … Trinity kind of just checked both of those boxes.” In addition to playing for Trinity’s women’s ice hockey team all four of her years on campus, Dyczkowski is a double major in economics and political science, minors in rhetoric, writing and media studies, and works as a barista at Peter B’s.
When asked what led her to join the Tripod, Dyczkowski recalled that “In high school, I wanted to write for a newspaper. But there actually [weren’t] enough students interested, so we didn’t have [a paper during] my junior and senior year. So I knew coming to Trinity that writing for a student-run newspaper was something that I wanted to do.” As it turned out, that opportunity came to her from another member on the women’s hockey team: “[During] my freshman year,” she said, “one of the seniors on my team, Bailey McKeon (’22), was a features editor and I told her I was interested. I wrote one article, and she said, ‘That looks great. I’m graduating this year, do you want to be the features editor next year?’ And I was like, ‘Great! That sounds awesome!’ And ever since then, I’ve been involved.”
After being a features editor for some time, Dyczkowski moved to the sports section. “I feel like the athletes here on campus are pretty close,” she said, “so it’s pretty easy to reach out to people for interviews, and it’s also fun to hear your friends or your peers talk about their sport and their passion.” One of the highlights from throughout her Tripod career that Dyczkowski cited was her article spotlighting Trinity’s former Director of Athletics Drew Galbraith, written days before his leaving the position. “That was a very insightful, longer interview,” Dyczkowski recalled. “He talked about [how] this is a moment in your life that it’s never going to be like this again, so just make sure that you really soak up every moment … Hearing him talk as a senior [who is] nearing the end of my athletic career almost brought tears to my eyes.” Following graduation, Dyczkowski aims to use her economics degree in wealth management roles along the East Coast.
Codrington, who was raised in Brooklyn, New York, transferred to Trinity after finishing her freshman year at the State University of New York at Albany. “That was an interesting experience,” she said. “I knew [during] fall semester at that school that I was going to transfer and then I did a full year there … I only applied to transfer to five schools and I was waiting to hear from Trinity and I declined all the rest of them, so if I didn’t get into Trinity I would have had to go back to UAlbany. So I really put a lot of faith into Trinity.”
Her love of photography has suited her well for her academics — as a major in studio art and a minor in art history — and also served as the main reason behind her joining the Tripod. “I was interviewed for a piece myself,” she explained, “because I was doing student photography… [At first,] I think it was more like a ‘Would you like to take pictures for the Tripod?” [situation], and then I was doing that: just pictures of campus for the [Instagram] posts and stuff. And then over time, it was more of an official role.” Codrington recently debuted her photography thesis, “The Spaces Between,” at the Poon Family Art Gallery in the Crescent Center for Arts and Neuroscience. According to Codrington’s artist statement, the entire collection, photographed in black and white, “challeng[es] the stereotypes associated with [gender] through abstraction.”
Codrington recalled her photographing Trinity’s men’s basketball team as a prominent highlight not just in terms of Tripod work, but her entire Trinity career; she enjoyed the opportunity to “travel with [the team] to Indiana two years in a row, [and to photograph them] winning the national championship this year.” Codrington wishes to continue with sports photography after graduating.
Coming from Portland, Oregon, Mikalatos applied to Trinity College — or, rather, this Trinity College — by mistake. “I chose Trinity because I accidentally applied here thinking it was Trinity [College] Dublin,” she mused. “And then I found out they have full financial aid and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll come here.’”
Nevertheless, Mikalatos found herself getting involved on campus academically and socially; she is a double major in English and mathematics in the final stages of writing a poetry-play hybrid thesis, and in addition to being the Tripod’s copy editor, has been heavily involved with the College’s theater department as well as activism on campus. “I’ve contributed choreography to four plays and I’ve choreographed two musicals,” she said, “and I definitely think choreographing the musicals, especially ‘Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,’ was one of the things I’ve been most honored to be a part of… I’ve also been very proud to participate in activism at Trinity.” It was through her activism that Mikalatos found a role on the Tripod: “Savannah (Brooks ’26), one of the managing editors, needed someone to edit live coverage of the encampment last year, and I wasn’t on the Tripod [then], but Savannah [knew] I’m an English major, so I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’ Then I did it and I was like, ‘Do you guys have someone who is copy editing your articles every week … Can I do that?’ … and now here I am.”
Mikalatos tried her hand at writing for the Tripod rather than editing with her article detailing Kristen Cole’s recent termination from Trinity. “That was really fun,” she said, “because I interviewed Kristen and talked with the administration and just tried to figure out what happened and how we can try to cover this in a good way. It was cool to put that story together.” But she also expressed satisfaction in her work as an editor of other students’ work: “What I’m most proud about is being able to platform other student voices on the Tripod and just being able to contribute to their articles working out and hitting our deadlines, and just making the life easier of the people who are putting themselves out there to write every week.” After graduating, Mikalatos would like to continue working in the arts either by choreographing or writing.
