Constance Battle donates $100,000 to the Sr. Margaret Claydon Scholarship
Constance Urciolo Battle MD, Trinity class of 1963, has donated $100,000 to the Sr. Margaret Scholarship Endowment. She credits her parents, Raphael Urciolo and Florence Sari Urciolo for their love of Trinity and commitment to philanthropy. “My parents always esteemed Trinity, even more as it transformed into an institution of exemplary education for women of color. The Trinity I attended was different from the Trinity of today and my parents recognized and applauded the evolution into an institution that primarily serves minority populations.”
Dr. Battle was further inspired to make the gift in recognition of famed educational rights activist Anna Julia Cooper. “When I asked Trinity archivist, Sister Mary Hayes, to identify someone as an inspiration to young women of color today, she told me about Dr. Cooper who epitomized the leadership, activism, and values of social justice and women’s rights that Sister Margaret embraced during her long tenure at Trinity.”
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, 1858– February 27, 1964) moved to Washington in 1887 from her birthplace, Raleigh, North Carolina. Dr. Cooper earned her doctorate at the Sorbonne (Paris), her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Oberlin College, and a certificate from St. Augustine’s Normal School and Institute. She was a teacher and principal at the M Street-Dunbar High School. Declaring that her principal interest was the education of the underprivileged, she lived out her strong social concerns as an organizational leader and community worker throughout her long life. After her retirement, she founded an institution of higher education, Frelinghuysen University and served as its president up to three years before her death.
The Sister Margaret Claydon Scholarship Endowment was originally established in 2014 by Dr. Battle and her classmates in celebration of 1963’s 50th reunion class gift effort. The class contributed nearly $320,000 at that time to create a permanent endowment fund in recognition of Sister Margaret’s legacy of leadership at Trinity for over 50 years. The fund provides critical scholarship support for many deserving Trinity women, each and every year.
Give to the Sr. Margaret Claydon Scholarship Fund
Sr. Margaret Claydon, SNDdeN, ’45, left an indelible mark on Trinity. In commemoration of her life and legacy, Trinity invites gifts to the Sr. Margaret Claydon Scholarship Fund. Originally established with generous gifts from the Class of 1963, the Sr. Margaret Scholarship will support high achieving young women in the College of Arts and Sciences who exemplify Sr. Margaret’s intellectual strength and leadership.