UHart Architecture Students Envision a Healthier Hartford

"So I wrote a letter of support as the HASA advisor," Horowitz continues. "The grant was ultimately won because of the hard work of the students and the hard work of Carolyn and her team. Basically, I left the grant proposal to the students to handle on their own. And they were incredible! They followed up when they had to, went to all the pertinent meetings, collaborated with all the stakeholders, and turned this idea into a reality."

Aziel Rivera, one of the students involved, is immensely proud of his team's role in the project. "Our work will play a crucial part in getting the final design funded and approved, as well as giving the eventual developers a guideline as to what to build," says Rivera, a second-year architecture master's student. "My own primary role is with social media, marketing, and public outreach to help get the HASA competition fully underway."

The Hartford Healthy Living 2026 Design Competition is part of an earlier initiative called the Healthy Living Residential Model, anchored by Trinity Health's Saint Francis Hospital. Over $1 million was invested to engage residents in addressing community health challenges, focusing on municipal policies, environmental considerations, and other factors.

"In past years, we have engaged University of Hartford students through shadowing opportunities within our department," notes Alessi. This marks the first time, however, that Trinity Health has partnered directly with a student organization on a community-driven initiative of this kind.

The HASA students at CETA, Alessi says, played an exceedingly important role in preparing the grant application by accurately describing their proposed contributions to the project. "Once the $5,000 grant was awarded, we worked collaboratively with the students and community partners to launch the competition. The students have been instrumental in developing promotional materials, helping with early design concepts, recruiting fellow students to participate, and so much more. Their creativity, leadership, and enthusiasm have been invaluable to this project's eventual success."

Lubonja, HASA's president, says one of the most important lessons she learned is to believe that any idea, regardless of scope, is achievable. "Especially," she emphasizes, "if the right people are passionate enough to bring their ideas to life. When we started our club, the idea of a design competition was just that-an idea. Now we have a significant grant to do what we want to do, and we're thinking of all the next steps. Anything and everything is possible."