News Detail (Connections)

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A Part of the Family

9/12/2025

By Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement

A week on a Colorado working ranch was a tough but inspiring challenge for math teacher and Faculty Discovery Award winner Charlotte Morris

Charlotte Morris has a passion for problem solving. This comes as no surprise for a veteran math teacher celebrating her 25th year at Trinity. What does come as a surprise is how she applied this passion to cows, sheep, chickens and horses at 10,000 feet elevation while on horseback in the wilds of Colorado. Was this some kind of wilderness IB training or a Pi Day experiment gone awry? No, it was Charlotte Morris living Trinity’s tagline of discovering her path.

Every year, Trinity’s faculty and staff can apply for the Faculty Discovery Award, a financial grant given by the Board of Trustees that allows a staff member to follow a passion unrelated to their professional life. Morris sought to combine her lifelong love of horses with pushing herself to learn a brand new discipline: the true wrangler style of Western riding. “I have ridden my entire life since I was 6 years old, always English,” she said, “but I wanted to challenge myself to really learn the working, Western way.”

Upon learning she had received the award, Morris reached out to Trinity alum AC Tetterton ’22, whom she had taught in 10th grade, for instruction in the Western style. “We had always talked horses, and we would compare and contrast styles,” said Morris. “Before she graduated, she asked me to come and ride with her.” In a role reversal, Tettert, along with fellow alums Jack ’23 and Kyle Plaugher ’25. “They helped me get comfortable with Western riding,” said Morris. “It was so much fun working with them.”

Equipped with new skills and a sense of determination, Morris set off on the trail. “I knew I wanted to work and really have an authentic wrangler experience,” said Morris. “I did not want a dude ranch.” She eventually found Badger Creek Ranch, 7,000 acres of beautiful Colorado country, with help from a ranching expert, aptly named Cowboy Bob. “They take guests (6 at a time) who want to work and who have a solid foundation in horsemanship,” she said.

Much like a complex math equation, the ranch journey required Morris to take a leap of faith and have trust in the process. She took a series of cross country flights then rented a truck and drove alone, using handwritten directions and navigating sans cellphone signal, to Badger Creek. Upon arrival, she realized she was the only guest there that week, meaning she would work especially closely with the owners, Crissy and Dave, their two wranglers and an intern. Many would have found this prospect daunting, but Morris, with her trademark enthusiasm, met the situation with zest. “I could not have scripted it better,” she said. “I became a part of their family.”

With only a week on the ranch, Morris’ work began quickly. “Each day we would get up and see the sunrise and then do chores: round up the horses using three-wheelers, then feed them, feed the sheep, the Angus beef and lambs, and the chickens,” she recalls. “We’d take long rides out to explore the ranch and mend fences, which require constant maintenance primarily due to the antelope.”

Morris was inspired by the ranch family and their commitment to land stewardship. “They practice regenerative ranching,” she said, which involves rotating cattle or other livestock through each pasture, testing the soil and recycling compost from the animals for use as a natural fertilizer. “I was drawn to the mathematical element to it because it involves so many numbers in soil testing, rainfall, number of animals on the land, etc.,” explained Morris.

She was even more impressed with the care taken with all of the animals. “At Badger Creek, they don’t ‘herd’ the cattle, they ‘move’ them and treat them with dignity,” she said. “They believe that causing animals stress causes you to lose the ability to communicate effectively.” Morris immediately saw parallels between these approaches to ranching and the work she does with students back at Trinity. “Always operate with kindness,” said Morris.

A master of challenging students to be their best and working collaboratively, Morris was put in a new position — having to conquer these unknown challenges by herself in an unfamiliar place. “I had to allow myself to make mistakes and to absorb and learn everything I could,” she said. “I had to grow in every way imaginable.”

Morris felt a sense of pride in being able to be a productive and contributing member of the ranch team, “one of them,” in her own words. Morris brought back with her a trove of wonderful memories and renewed inspiration from the experience. Said Morris, “To see people living that passion to protect our environment and the kindness they exude in every element of their lives is inspirational.”

Many students would say the same of Morris within the Trinity community.

Morris has been a guiding light in the math department for 25 years and has chaired the department nearly that entire time. Her energy is infectious, so much so that an observer might think she is a newly minted teacher.

The same zest that she admired in the ranch staff is mirrored in her own love of math and the Trinity community and the variety that each day brings. “You wake up every day not knowing exactly what your day will look like,” said Morris of what she loves most about her job. “That could be walking into your classroom and finding a new student at Tutorial or a group of students who want your help with a club,” she said. “There is always something unexpected and I love that.”

As department chair, Morris has cultivated that same family feel that she saw when working at the ranch. The department clearly has a love of math and a sense of collaboration, and they also seek to make math accessible to everyone at Trinity with week-long events for Pi Week and the Mathletes club creating the Math Games. Morris hopes her classroom, C-1, is a welcoming space with an open door and a rotating series of guests. It is also her favorite spot on campus.

And while Morris has seen plenty of change during her tenure, the core of the community and the institutional values remain the same. Said Morris, “Even with significant growth, we have been able to keep our core values at heart and truly live the mission of everyone finding their place (friends, clubs, classes) and how we can look at students as individuals.”

A major contributor to students and faculty finding their place is Morris, with her unending hospitality and the joy her work brings. “You feel like you are contributing in some way to something greater than yourself,” she said. “It is challenging work but at the end of the day, I touched someone, I’ve helped someone in some way. They may not even realize it for a long time, and that is okay. The joy is being able to give that gift to others.”

Whether on horseback in the open range or in the colorful confines of C-1, Charlotte Morris is a problem-solver, a confidence-builder and a joyful educator with a true joie de vivre.

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About “Connections”

Connections is a regular online column, written from the first-person perspective of Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement:

In this space, I have the privilege of sharing stories of Trinity students, alumni, and faculty and staff who are carrying our mission beyond the boundaries of campus. Many of these stories might not make the headlines, but they will illustrate how every member of the Trinity community has a unique path to discover, and the ability to make an impact on both the Trinity community and the world beyond.

I am fortunate to have been a part of this community since my own adolescence. I have been a student, a teacher, a coach, and an administrator, and in these roles I have witnessed the school’s growth and evolution through the years. We have grown in size as well as spirit.

Stories here will capture how seeds planted at Trinity have taken root and flourished into full-grown passions. You’ll also read stories of those in our community who bring their gifts from outside to help us learn. At Trinity, we seek to develop lifelong learners, and stories here will illustrate real-life examples of that beautiful symbiosis.