{"id":5346,"date":"2016-05-21T12:02:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T16:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=5346"},"modified":"2016-05-21T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2016-05-21T16:02:16","slug":"congratulations-red-class-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2016\/05\/congratulations-red-class-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations, Red Class of 2016!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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:<\/p>\n

\"ss11132009p01phb.img_assist_custom-500x150\"<\/a>(Trinity College Red Class of 1904, the First Graduates!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“And this is how Trinity first opened its doors to its students.\u00a0 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.”<\/em>\u00a0 (Elsie Parsons, Class of 1904, in the Trinity College Record, as quoted by Sister Columba Mullaly in Trinity College: The First Eighty Years)<\/p>\n

\"south<\/a>(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!\u00a0 Photo from Trinity Archives)<\/em><\/p>\n

Generations of Trinity graduates — Red classes, Gold, Green and Blue — have experienced similar moments of trepidation and triumph across the years.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160519_172055676\"<\/a>Fast forward to the Red Class of 2016:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Congratulations, Class of 2016!\u00a0 Some of the highlights of this class include:<\/p>\n