Science and Nursing at Trinity

Trinity Nursing, Healthcare and Human Services Programs

Nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, counseling and related human services programs are Trinity’s largest major fields. For the first time in Trinity’s history, the Payden Academic Center will make it possible for these disciplines to co-locate classes and laboratory experiences, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary conversations and partnerships that will ensure the strength and growth potential of these and other programs.
With the new facilities and technologies, Trinity also now has the capacity to expand academic programs particularly in the health sciences, and to respond more nimbly to changes in expectations for credentials and continuing education for professionals in these fields.

Science at Trinity

Founded as Trinity College in 1897 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as one of the nation’s first Catholic colleges for women, Trinity continues the women’s college today in the College of Arts and Sciences, the university’s liberal arts core. Trinity today is a university enrolling 2,200 students in five academic schools, including the College of Arts and Sciences and Schools of Education, Professional Studies, Nursing and Health Professions, and Business and Graduate Studies.
Trinity has a distinctive niche in the nation’s capital for the education of students from the District of Columbia and nearby counties. 95% of Trinity students are African American and Latina, and 85% are eligible for Pell Grants. Trinity’s success in educating low income women of color earned a prestigious Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award in 2015, and recognition by the TIAA Institute with the 2016 Hesburgh Award. Trinity is also a recipient of a Mellon Grant for revitalization of arts and humanities, and is one of 13 designated institutions in the Clare Boothe Luce Program for women in mathematics, science and engineering.

Trinity Sciences and the Clare Boothe Luce Program

Since its inception 25 years ago with the bequest of Clare Boothe Luce and administered by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce Program is the largest and most significant program in the country supporting women faculty and students in math and science disciplines. Luce Professors and Scholars at Trinity have made great strides in developing Trinity’s program in undergraduate research. Examples of student success in the sciences at Trinity include:

  • Trinity science majors earned distinguished summer research internship appointments at Harvard, MIT, Baylor, Rice, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health and other laboratories of note;
  • Trinity students have presented research and won awards at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS);
  • Trinity science students conduct regular research presentations on campus demonstrating their success in mastering a broad range of research topics.