{"id":5876,"date":"2017-03-07T19:28:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T00:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=5876"},"modified":"2017-03-07T19:30:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T00:30:55","slug":"legacy-and-future-international-religious-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2017\/03\/legacy-and-future-international-religious-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy and Future: International Religious Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day.\u00a0 Around the world, some will observe this day as part of a general strike in the #DayWithoutAWoman movement.\u00a0 Others will wear red in solidarity with all who proclaim the rights of women.\u00a0 Still others will patronize woman-owned businesses.\u00a0 In whatever way you choose to observe this day, please remember this:\u00a0 gestures are lovely, symbols are inspiring, but actions are essential for social change.<\/p>\n

At Trinity, it’s spring break for CAS students, so many faculty and students already have the day off.\u00a0 For other students and faculty, and for staff, everyone is free to observe the day as they wish, and many of us will wear red while going about the day’s work in transformative education.<\/p>\n

Trinity continues today as one of the nation’s great success stories in women’s education and advancement.\u00a0 As we observe International Women’s Day, let’s take a minute to reflect on a bit of our own history, and particularly the ways in which international women made our education possible.\u00a0 Sr. Columba Mullaly’s massive history of Trinity tells the tale of those early days:\u00a0 Exactly 120 years ago, on March 7, 1897, Sister Julia McGroarty (an immigrant from Ireland, by the way) and Sister Mary Euphrasia Taylor took a carriage ride from their convent at North Capitol and K Streets out to the “countryside” of Eckington and Brookland.\u00a0 They were surveying property to establish a college for young women of that time who were denied admission to then-new Catholic University.\u00a0 Through March and April 1897 they continued to survey properties, meet with the head of Catholic University Dr. Philip Garrigan, and even with Cardinal James Gibbons whose support for the founding of Trinity was essential.\u00a0 The history is a remarkable testament to what Sr. Columba termed the confluence of “woman and the moment” to organize the elements necessary to establish Trinity.\u00a0 While the SNDs had the support of a few powerful men like Dr. Garrigan and Cardinal Gibbons, when it came to the actual work of raising money, buying land, building Main Hall and creating a curriculum, they worked largely alone.\u00a0 Sr. Julia McGroarty’s pride in her own business acumen sang through a letter she wrote on April 3, 1897 to Sr. Mary Euphrasia, “We are considered by the outside world immensely wealthy because we manage our own affairs, have no man of business, have never asked anything of anyone, gone on by degrees…. We must not fail…”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Above: Trinity College Archives:\u00a0 Main Hall 1904, Michigan Avenue a dirt road)<\/p>\n

With grit and determination, they found the money, they secured the approval of the Pope despite fierce opposition (at one point accused of heresy for promoting women’s education), and they built the great Main Hall with its sturdy granite face and proud red dome.\u00a0 They recruited students and secured faculty including a sister who had college-level experience at Notre Dame Teacher Training College in Liverpool, England.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>(Above:\u00a0 Red Classes, 1904 and 2016, Sisters Across the Years!)<\/p>\n

Across the last 120 years, as Trinity has grown and changed, we have continued our passionate commitment to the education and advancement of women even as we have welcomed men into our graduate and professional program; all Trinity students reap tremendous benefits from a mission in higher education that is rooted in action for social justice, the mission commitment we receive from the Sisters of Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

Founded by St. Julie Billiart 200 years ago in France, and later moving to Namur, Belgium, the SNDs today are a global congregation of women with ministries in 20 countries.\u00a0 Through the important work of the Billiart Center for Social Justice at Trinity, the moral force of the SNDs continues to galvanize our students and challenge all of us to remember that our education is not for ourselves, alone, but to give us the knowledge and skills we need to serve others and to help them transform their lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Above:\u00a0 Sisters of Notre Dame:\u00a0 Srs. Vivien Echekwubelu, Josita Colbert , Cristina Garces and Mary Johnson)<\/p>\n

Last week, Distinguished Professor Sr. Mary Johnson, SND, led a team of researchers who released a new study on International Sisters in the United States<\/a>.\u00a0 The study identified more than 4,000 religious women living and working in the United States from all over the world, and their story is part of the growing diversity of the Catholic Church in the United States.\u00a0 The authors note that,<\/p>\n