The Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports

Celebrating Five Years

Eva is a delightful young woman who becomes a fierce warrior with a lacrosse stick in hand. Danielle’s reserved presence grows wings when leaping for basketball rebounds. Ashleigh’s military training in ROTC powers her team leadership at the volleyball net. Zulema’s quiet focus explodes in backhand rips across the tennis net.

Eva and her friends Danielle and Ashleigh and Zulema and so many other student athletes are the beneficiaries of the remarkable sports facilities and programs that Trinity’s benefactors made possible through the Centennial Campaign.

In November 2000, when benefactors, alumnae and friends from the community gathered to break ground for the Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports, we looked to a future that would be bolder than anything we had previously imagined at Trinity. With generous support we created this remarkable new space where students would learn and grow in astonishing new ways. We worked with the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Girl Scouts to be sure that Trinity’s athletic and recreational programs incorporated the kinds of co-curricular learning objectives for women that are the specialty of those organizations: teamwork, healthy lifestyles, resourcefulness, leadership.

Today, five years after the doors opened for the Trinity Center, our best hopes are daily realities in the lives of thousands of students, faculty, staff, neighbors and patrons of the Trinity Center.

Thanks to the tremendous generosity of more than 1,600 benefactors who contributed $12.2 million to support the Trinity Center, we have achieved the goals we established for the Trinity Center, including:

Significant Increase in Trinity’s Student Body

Trinity’s enrollment in our women’s college, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, has increased steadily from 420 to nearly 650 since 2001. We are on track to enroll another record-breaking freshman class in the Fall of 2008. While other facets of Trinity’s institutional development have certainly been part of this great success story, the development of the Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports stands out as the single most prominent driver of increased traditional-aged enrollment.

Significant Improvement in Trinity’s Visibility in the Community

More than 30,000 visitors a year now come to Trinity’s campus because of the Trinity Center. These visitors participate in an astounding range of activities – from weekend coed soccer, to the career fair of the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Schools, to hundreds of children playing soccer every weekend, to basketball and volleyball tournaments, to the Girl Scouts step dance shows, to summer camps and amateur athletic competitions in a range of sports. More than 600 patrons are members of the Trinity Center at any given time, neighbors who find the Trinity Center to be a preferred location for their early morning lap swimming, water aerobics, mid-morning workouts on the walking track, or late afternoon fitness center times on the treadmills and bikes.

A Sustainable Economic Model for the Trinity Center

During the last five years, Trinity has operated the Trinity Center with business principles in mind. Outside organizations pay fees to use this facility, and patrons also pay modest membership fees. As a result, the Trinity Center has become a self-sustaining operation, contributing in so many ways to the life of the campus without draining resources away from academic needs.

With the success of the Trinity Center now clearly established, we are now laying the foundation for the next great building project: the Trinity Academic Center. Trinity needs more classrooms and instructional spaces that are every bit as modern and functional as our beautiful sports complex. We have learned much from our experience with the building and launch of the Trinity Center, and this experience will ensure that the new Academic Center will be even better!

Many thanks to all benefactors who made the Trinity Center possible! When you come to Washington, please stop by to enjoy the results of your great generosity – and don’t forget to bring your bathing suits and sneakers!