Triniti West developed an interest in public policy issues after transferring to UMSL’s sociology program. In March, West had the opportunity to explore that interest as a panelist during a community discussion with local legislators. Upon graduating in May, she plans pursue graduate school. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
Triniti West began her college career as a biology major, but as her education progressed, she realized it was the philosophical side of science that truly piqued her interest.
“For example, how cells interact or how the body is seen as a system,” she explained. “I’m not a balancing equations type of person.”
After transferring to the University of Missouri–St. Louis, West changed her major to sociology and found a place in the College of Arts and Sciences where she could explore her passions.
“When I transferred to UMSL I was like, ‘I’m gonna choose something that will allow me to be creative, allow me to do what I love,’” she said. “I love to write. I love to research. Sociology felt like the best subject that would allow me to do that.”
West has excelled academically in UMSL’s sociology program and has become interested in public policy issues such as housing and municipal fragmentation. West has also thrown herself into campus life. She serves as the president of the Associated Black Collegians, and in addition to that role, she has served on the 2025 Homecoming Planning Committee, volunteered with the University Program Board, worked at the University Tutoring Center and participated in a panel discussion with local legislators.
In May, she will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, after which she’ll pursue graduate school. Right now, she’s considering options such as a master’s program in public policy administration or law school.
West graduated from the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy in her hometown of Houston in 2019, and then enrolled at Colgate University, a private liberal arts college in upstate New York. However, unhappy with her course of study in biology, West left the university in 2022 and moved to Ohio for a full-time job with a public health agency. A job with Allsup, a firm specializing in disability claim services, brought her to the St. Louis region in 2023.
UMSL provided the flexibility West needed to work full-time while going to school, and she found the sociology faculty members, and the university in general, to be incredibly welcoming.
“Sociology can feel a little intimidating because it’s a bunch of theory, and you’re learning the ideas of folks who you’ve never met and will never meet,” West said. “But your professors make it engaging in a way where you feel like your opinion on these things matter, and you get to share your perspective.”
Assistant Teaching Professor Brian Adler is one such faculty member.
“Triniti exemplifies so many of the remarkable features of our UMSL student body,” he said. “Having her as a student in several of my classes has been such a privilege because her commitment to building community is matched by her bountiful knowledge and experience related to public policy. I have no doubt that her leadership will be something that St. Louis will benefit from as it faces challenges and opportunities well into the future.”
Adler encouraged West’s interest in public policy issues, and in his “Social Research Methods” course, she completed a research project that explored the effects of municipal fragmentation on coordinating emergency services in the aftermath of hurricanes in Houston.
The St. Louis region has faced its own challenges in that arena, and Adler worked with David Kimball, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, to organize a community conversation about the potential for a city-county merger on March 14. Adler noted West’s interest in the topic and invited her to participate in the event.
West sat on a panel that included Adler and Kimball as well as Missouri Rep. Ian Mackey and Missouri Rep. Marla Smith. The event, hosted at the Millennium Student Center, was mostly a forum for community members to express their ideas and concerns. But it was also an opportunity for West to see public policy discourse in action. She was impressed with the audience’s passion for the St. Louis region and intrigued by the array of perspectives on the matter.
The other panel members did most of the talking during the discussion, but West does have thoughts on the issue. She sees both perspectives – for and against a merger – but believes a middle road is possible.
“I think centralized resources is where we need to start,” she said. “Centralizing road repairs, centralizing the Department of Transportation, making sure that everybody’s roads are getting plowed when it snows. I think centralizing services and also preserving autonomy and leadership and the voices of folks who would otherwise be bulldozed through this process, I think those should all be factors to consider.”
Apart from her appearance on the panel, West has become a familiar face on campus at the University Tutoring Center and at events with the Associated Black Collegians. Being a transfer student, she felt it was the best way to integrate herself into the UMSL community and meet new people. Her involvement on campus has also informed what she’s learning in the classroom as a sociology student.
“You have to be involved on campus,” West said. “You have to make it a point to explore other cultures, you have to make it a point to get out there and explore other perspectives that you otherwise might not have either had access to or might not have even considered. I think, for me, it just gives me a deeper perspective on how different things are important to people.”
UMSL has left a lasting mark on West’s life, and May’s impending graduation is only the beginning of her higher education journey.
“It’s been one of the greatest experiences,” she said. “So, I’ll be sad to leave UMSL, but I definitely feel like I got the best experience out of my time that I could have gotten.”
