Trinity will be front and center on Thursday, December 4, at the second White House Summit on College Opportunity.  This event follows a similar gathering earlier this year during which President Obama challenged a smaller group of presidents of Ivy League and other elite institutions to enroll more low income students.   At that time, I expressed concern to the White House that Trinity and many colleges and universities like us — institutions with long and strong experience in promoting success for low income students — were left out in favor of schools that, while prestigious, have little experience supporting students with a broad range of service needs.   I’m pleased to say that the Obama Administration listened to these concerns and opened the door more broadly for this second convening of schools and collegiate partners focused on promoting more educational opportunity.

The event will be live-streamed during the day.  President Obama will speak in the morning, with remarks by Mrs. Obama and Vice President Biden later in the day.

I will be participating on a panel with other college and university presidents discussing strategies for improving retention and completion for all students, and particularly for those who are low income.

Trinity is recognized as a leader in providing significant college access opportunities for women of color in the Washington region.   For the White House Summit, we are pledging to increase our efforts to promote academic readiness for student entrance into major pathways to Nursing, other Healthcare majors and the sciences.  We are developing a partnership with the D.C. Public Schools to encourage greater college and career preparation for the health professions, with particular emphasis on math readiness in high school.  We also plan to develop more cohorts of students who want to major in Math and Science.

I will report more on Trinity’s commitments to expand access as well as more on the White House Summit through the day tomorrow — follow me on Twitter @TrinityPrez — and I will update this blog tomorrow night.