In January 2026, Trinity Prep will explore a new educational opportunity to expand student learning and experience: the Interim Term. For the first two weeks of the spring semester, students will immerse themselves in classes ranging from “Taylor Swift & All the Tortured Poets” to “Bioethics: Navigating the Science of Right and Wrong.” After a three-year process of approval and planning, Trinity is ready to roll out the initiative, which is set to make waves in the lives of students.
“The Interim Term is a break in the typical curriculum that (Trinity) has and provides teachers an opportunity to offer courses that are outside of what would fit in the regular course curriculum,” Director of the Interim Term and journalism advisor Erin Miller said. “It allows students to take some things that maybe they wouldn’t have the opportunity to take, to explore topics and maybe discover a new hobby or activity.”
Head of School Byron Lawson first raised the idea of offering an interim term nearly four years ago to the senior administrative team. After visiting the Kinkaid School, St. John’s School and the Episcopal School, Associate Head of School Dennis Herron pushed the idea forward and created a committee dedicated to researching if the program would be a fit for campus. Now, after careful planning, the administration is confident that the Interim Term will serve as a long-term, mission-oriented way of boosting the student experience.
“(Students) are going to get a chance to experience what we hope is some valuable community service, relationship building, classroom experience, travel experience and more over a period of four years,” Herron said.
Interim term programs have been implemented in numerous independent schools across the country, offering courses like snowboarding and antique car rehabilitation. The pass-fail courses offer students an academic experience different from the traditional core academic classes.
“In a college preparatory school, we are so focused on preparing for an AP exam or getting a certain grade … on a transcript that sometimes we lose track of learning for learning’s sake,” Miller said. “I think that the (Interim Term’s) kind of courses can front-load that and help put that as the primary goal.”
These classes go beyond the scope of Advanced Placement system, providing hands-on learning opportunities like field trips to Spanish forts to study architecture, a visit to talk to Hurricane Hunters to learn about aviation and crude flare creation to experiment with pyrotechnics.
The Interim Term also includes a program for seniors to engage in a four-day practicum or an eight-day internship experience, with an outside organization of their choosing.
“The (Interim Term is) scaffolded such that (students) are experiencing something at the junior and senior level that has applicable real application to what they are going to be doing in college,” Herron said. “If they’re interested in a career field and we have connections, then we can give them a couple of weeks to spend somewhere like that.”
However, embracing the Interim Term does come with drawbacks. The foremost concern is the loss of instructional hours as the first two weeks of the spring semester are converted into new courses. Students, parents and teachers have voiced concerns about the implications in course pacing and AP testing.
“I think it might make tests more rushed,” senior Ben Demetriades said. “I’ve had experiences where I have less time to cover a unit, and I feel a lot more lost. I feel kids might need to do a lot more studying at home.”
Trinity is proactively trying to solve the problem of lost instructional time by putting an additional A day into the schedule and removing online half days.
“We’re not ignoring (lost instructional time),” Miller said. “We’re not just barreling through and saying, ‘Suck it up. Don’t worry about it.’ We’re finding those days and those hours in other places.”
Even with a potential challenge in course pacing, many believe that the program is worth losing class time for.
“Learning encapsulates so much more than just these core academic classes, and we should be open to adjusting schedules and making time for these other experiences,” ninth grade parent Brooke Kells said.
The Interim Term will be a lasting change to the Trinity community and curriculum that administrators hope fosters a deep love of learning.
“(Interim) is a time (students) can just go in, take a deep breath and get into something that (they’re) really interested in,” Herron said. “Get to know (their) teachers, and maybe even classmates that (they) don’t normally take a class with. That to me adds to the Trinity Prep family.”
