Trinity Dobbins is a 2026 recipient of the WRNS Studio Foundation Scholarship, which she will use to major in Architecture and minor in Interior Design at the esteemed Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design at the University of Arkansas. We spoke with Trinity recently about her journey and her plans for the future.

Thinking of your cultural background and lived experience, how do you envision creating a more beautiful, sustainable, or equitable built environment as a future architect or designer?

As a kid born with many health challenges, extensive stays in hospitals were normal. I remember every little detail: popcorn ceilings, gray walls, and checkered blue tile floors. These hospitals always gave me a sense of impending doom. However, whenever I did face a medical emergency, it gave both me and my family a sense of comfort knowing I was going to Arkansas Children's Hospital. This hospital was comparative in every way: colorful walls, starlight lit ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows. Whenever I went there, whether it be an appointment or an emergency visit, the built environment made me feel reassured. Through these experiences, I began to understand how actively design affects human sentiment.

Through this, I envision building more equitable and inviting environments, especially for people of color. Understanding the stigmatization that many people of color face regarding health, as well as fears with seeking medical and/or resource based treatments, I desire to create spaces where they feel comfortable, safe, and at ease; just as Arkansas Children's hospital once did for me. In action, this looks like building community spaces using mindful design practices, using the incorporation of green spaces, and including interdisciplinary understanding. More specifically, examples of this include incorporating areas of play for the youth, making spaces more walkable to contribute to the health of local communities, understanding and gaining input from people who live in these communities.

Describe a creative interest or talent that brings you joy.

I see, I click. The formula of capturing a moment is very simple, yet complex. Photography, for me, has always been this way. Whenever a fleeting, important, or unseen moment comes by, it is essential that I capture it.

I first started photography the summer before my tenth grade year as a means of dealing with complicated emotions. My family took a small day trip to visit my estranged grandfather in Eastern Arkansas. Filled with complicated emotions regarding my relationship with my grandfather, and no way to articulate them, I instead took pictures of the things I saw around me. I took pictures of my grandfather and his duplex, pictures of the farmland within the city, and pictures of broken down houses that once harbored generations of my family before me. I took these pictures and immediately felt a sense of calm. I didn’t feel nervous, angry, or confused; I just felt as if my pictures told the stories that I needed to tell.

I continued on using this perspective, allowing my work to capture moments unseen and emotions undiscovered. Whether it was a vacation, a beautiful space, or a drive down the street I took everyday, it became a new moment to bring something unseen to light. This creative interest was not intentional, but birthed a creative eye and passion within me.

My interest continued on when I challenged myself creatively by taking AP 2D Art & Design. I was able to take an enriching class that challenged me to not only think critically, but creatively. As I created my AP portfolio, my overarching theme became focused on the unseen socio-economic disparities within our world. It allowed me to think outside of myself and focus on ideals that many people ignore daily such as wealth gaps, active gentrification, and the homelessness crisis. Carrying this different perspective about photography brought me so much joy, but also true intention regarding how I saw the world.

Presently, as I continue on with my journey, photography has opened up many opportunities that I had not once considered. Photography being focused on composition and spaces, began to eventually lead my focus to pursuing Architecture. Understanding spaces, communities, and disparities, I was given a new outlook on how I could help reshape my local community through mindful design. While photography was not an intentional creative interest, it became a true passion within my life that sparked a new mindset, allowing me to grow & develop individually.