Related: Academics, Celebration, Trinity Alumnae, Women, Women's Leadership

Congratulations, Red Class of 2016!

 
 

Rain is pouring down on Commencement Day for the Red Class of 2016, so perhaps it is fitting to recall the day 116 years ago when the very first students arrived on Trinity’s campus, the young women who went on to become the very first Red Class, the Class of 1904:

ss11132009p01phb.img_assist_custom-500x150(Trinity College Red Class of 1904, the First Graduates!)

“And this is how Trinity first opened its doors to its students.  It was Saturday noon, November 3, 1900, when amidst a depressing downpour of rain four students and one Sister wended their muddy way from the car track to the front door… Once safely inside, our welcome was warm….and we began, under its beneficent influence, to feel our zeal for learning and our responsibility as pioneers grow and increase within us.”  (Elsie Parsons, Class of 1904, in the Trinity College Record, as quoted by Sister Columba Mullaly in Trinity College: The First Eighty Years)

south hall original cutout(Above, South Hall, the only building that existed at Trinity on November 3, 1900 when the first Red Class arrived on campus — and even that part of the building was incomplete!  Photo from Trinity Archives)

Generations of Trinity graduates — Red classes, Gold, Green and Blue — have experienced similar moments of trepidation and triumph across the years.  And each graduation day is a moment of considerable triumph, the celebration of fulfillment of once-daunting requirements for degrees, and the true commencement of the next stage of the lives of Trinity graduates.

IMG_20160519_172055676Fast forward to the Red Class of 2016:  these are Trinity students who have accomplished much in their student days here, and now are going to take on the world that will be so much better for their influence and leadership.  Congratulations, Class of 2016!  Some of the highlights of this class include:

  • Sandra Reyes, Biochemistry major, will enter the Ph.D. program in Biochemistry at Howard University
  • Anna Roland, Luce Scholar, Rotterman Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, will take a master’s in Physiology in preparation for later doctoral work
  • Naya Eady, Biology major, will be at Virginia Tech in the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program
  • Duyania Cephas, Biology, will be in a summer program at the National Institutes of Health
  • Patrice Dixon, Biochemistry, will participate in the MCAT immersion program at Quinnipiac University
  • Sana Sumbals, Sociology, will be in the MSW program at George Mason University
  • Diamond Green, Nursing, will be a nurse at Innova Hospital in the med/surg unit
  • Michele Lee, Nursing, will be a Community Health Nurse at Christ House
  • Martece Yates, Nursing, accepted into the highly competitive New Nurse Residency Program at Georgetown Hospital
  • Aviya Maverick, Nursing, will be working at Children’s National Medical Center

Another graduate, Genette Comfort who is earning her M.B.A. today, received her Trinity B.A. in 1993 while she was a working mom.  She came back to school when she found that doors were increasingly difficult to open on her career path into management.  With her M.B.A. she has now secured a position as a Vice President at NeighborWorks America.

Congratulations to these and so many other students!

I will be adding to this achievement list all week, so if you have an announcement about graduate school or a new career position, please send it along and I will add you to the list!

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Patricia A. McGuire, President, Trinity, 125 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20017
Phone: 202.884.9050   Email: president@trinitydc.edu