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<< BackAlumna Keeps Trinity Community Caffeinated  Freshly roasted coffee wafting through the air. A friendly smile behind
the counter. A professor grading papers at one table. Students studying
at another. Perhaps some live music in the corner. For many Trinity
alumni, the sights, sounds, and smells of Newport Coffee are
inextricably linked to their memories of life as a Trinity student.
Located just two miles down the road, at times Newport seems almost
an extension of Trinity’s Deerfield campus. A favorite with students
and professors alike, it seems fitting then that Newport should be
owned by a member of the Trinity alumni family.
Nevair Jindoyan (BA ’05) took ownership of Newport Coffee in 2007,
but her love for Newport had taken root long before. While a student at
Trinity, Nevair worked part-time at Newport. Having no prior experience
in the coffee business, she was schooled under her manager, also a
Trinity student at the time, Joel Mueller (BA ’00). Working at Newport
for over two years, she grew an appreciation for the art of coffee
making and the process that begins with a raw bean and ends with a
perfectly brewed cup.
Newport is unique in that they roast their own beans onsite, and as
result, customers enjoy fresher coffee. “The staff and baristas are
educated on the quality and descriptions of beans,” Nevair explains,
“And, we focus on catering more to what the needs of the customer are.
Instead of prepackaging the beans, we blend them, so that whatever the
customer wants is what they are getting.”
Nevair never quite said goodbye to Newport. Even when she exchanged
her part time Newport job for a full time position as a second grade
teacher, she still drove the twenty-five minutes from Arlington Heights
three times a week to grade papers at Newport while sipping her
favorite drink, a cafe latte.
After five years of teaching, in the summer of 2007, she heard the
owners had put Newport up for sale. “I’ve always had a dream to own
this particular coffee house, but I never actually pursued it or
thought it would happen. It was just a fun dream that I always talked
about,” Nevair reflects. On a whim, she inquired with the realtor to
find out more about the sale. One thing led to another and by the fall
of 2007, she had taken ownership and realized her dream.
| While Nevair was no stranger to the day-to-day operations at
Newport, she had little or no experience running her own business. An
English major at Trinity, there were no business classes in her
schedule. However, Nevair reflects that her time at Trinity prepared
her for something beyond the mechanics of operating a business. It
helped her consider and answer questions like, “Wherever God leads me,
how can I depend on him? And how do I run business as a Christian?”
Nevair reflects, “Just remembering to glorify the Lord with whatever
decisions I make and to honor him in everything. I would say that is
something I learned throughout my classes at Trinity and [through] the
relationships that I’ve built with professors and students.”
Despite a steep learning curve and a struggling economy, Nevair’s
efforts at Newport have been successful, although she gives most of the
credit to Newport’s fiercely loyal customers. Nevair observes many of
those customers to be Trinity students, faculty or staff, oftentimes
getting to know each other for the first time. “Many of the seminary
students have met a lot of the undergraduate professors in here. People
notice what books are on someone else’s table and then conversations
happen from there. When I was a student, you didn’t see a lot of the
undergraduate and seminary students socializing on campus. In here
[Newport] I see a lot of the seminary and undergraduate [students]
talking and getting to know each other.” These days, personal
relationships like these are what Nevair enjoys most about Newport…
besides the coffee, that is. | 
For alumni who miss those roasted-to-perfection
Newport beans, they can be purchased online at www.mynewportcoffee.com.
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