The New Pioneer Women of Trinity
(Top: Trinity’s Pioneer Women Class of 1904 – Bottom: New Pioneers Class of 2029)
The New Pioneer Women of Trinity
Remarks to New Students in the College of Arts and Sciences
August 22, 2025
President Patricia McGuire
125 years ago this year, on a cold, rainy November morning, in the Year 1900, 4 intrepid young women first set foot on Trinity’s campus in what was then considered the “countryside” of the nation’s capital. Michigan Avenue was a dirt road, and the college they came to inhabit had one building — or, should I say, a single wing of one building (the south wing of Main Hall) under construction. Their class scribe told the story of their first encounter with Trinity: “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 heir muddy way from the car track to the front door….” But they could not find the front door because that south wing of Main Hall was still being constructed. Eventually they found their way inside, and soon, other young women and sisters joined them and classes began on November 8, 1900 with 19 students.
(Above left: Main Hall was just the south wing in 1900 when the first students arrived; Above, right: four years later in 1904 Michigan Avenue was still a dirt road and Main was still six years away from completion)
A century and a quarter later, we may look back at the quaint tale of those women, the first Class of 1904 — a Red Class – and marvel at their fortitude and determination to make a go of it in a place that must have seemed very strange and foreboding to them. Like many of you, most if not all of them were the first in their families to go to college — because women, for the most part, were not allowed to go to college in the 19th Century. Trinity was founded because Catholic women who applied to the then-new Catholic University were barred from admission.
Not everyone was happy about the idea of women going to college back then. Some conservative priests at Catholic University wrote to the Pope complaining that the Sisters of Notre Dame who were trying to start Trinity were engaging in heresy — a heresy called “Americanism” because the idea of women’s education was considered very liberal, which is how Europe used to view America (alas, no longer).
The sisters persisted, the Pope (Leo XIII) said ok, the women came, and history began to roll forward.
Today, you are the women of destiny, you are the new generation of pioneer women poised to make history yet again.
Who are you? We know some things about you from your class data profile:
40% aspire to be nurses; others plan to study Business, Criminal Justice, Biology, Psychology, Early Childhood Education and other subjects;
82% are first time in college
15% transferred from another college
74% were born in the United States
26% were born in 28 other countries, with El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico topping that list
84% identify as American citizens
66% are D.C. residents with another 23% from Maryland
44% identify as Black or African American while 42% identify as Hispanic
You are Baptist and Muslim, Buddhist and Catholic, Hindu and Methodist and many other faiths
You are coming to Trinity because you have big dream for yourselves and your families — you know that a great education will make all the difference in helping you to realize your full potential throughout your lives.
Today we welcome you into this grand community and tradition of women scholars arrayed in a long line back to those first 19 students in 1900. They started traditions that continue to this day — traditions like the class colors (The Class of 2029 is a Blue Class) and, most important, the Honor System This morning you will take the Honor Pledge and sign the Honor Roll, and then you will receive your Trinity medals.
The Honor Agreement and Medal Ceremony
The Honor Agreement has been our tradition since the founding of Trinity. We expect you to live lives of honor and integrity, and to help each other to do so. This sets Trinity apart from many other schools and many places of business today.
The mission and values of Trinity, as embodied in our Honor System, reject any and all acts and words of hatred against other individuals; we welcome, honor and respect everyone here at Trinity and we expect you to treat every other person you encounter here with the respect and dignity they deserve.
This is the essence of the Honor Code, along with, of course, a deep commitment to being truthful in everything.
As part of this ceremony you will also receive the Trinity Medal, a symbol of your entrance into the Trinity community and commitment to the values of the Honor System.
The Trinity Medal has, on its front, the image of Our Lady – Notre Dame – the patron of the Sisters of Notre Dame who founded Trinity in 1897. On the back is the Celtic triangle symbolizing the Trinity. Your Trinity Medals are symbols — symbols of the power of women to change the world. Wear them well, wear them with pride, never do anything to disgrace them!
Challenges and Expectations for Trinity’s New Pioneers
You are starting your Trinity journeys at a time of considerable challenge and even peril for our Democracy in America and for freedom and justice throughout the world. Even as I speak, military personnel who have no lawful basis for patrolling our city streets are doing just that at the behest of a political leader who has shattered conventional notions of how a president of the United States should govern. We hear talk of fascism, authoritarianism, tyranny in tones that are not joking. We see delivery drivers snatched from their mopeds by masked men allegedly doing the government’s business. People are stopped and asked for their “papers” at train stations as if this were a movie from prewar Germany. The fragile pact called Home Rule for the District of Columbia is in tatters as our mayor and councilmembers do their best to keep knitting the pieces back together again while trying to find a pathway to peace with the federal administration.
Some of you have shared your anxieties and fears with us, going so far as to say you are worried about leaving your homes to come to college. You may have very good reasons for feeling this way, but here is now what I must say to you as your new teacher and leader of your college:
- You must not let the forces that seek to diminish your horizons do so.
- You must not concede a single step to the bullies who want you to be afraid, who want you to stay home, who hope that you will abandon your dreams of high achievement and powerful women’s leadership for the future.
- Do not ever let anyone tell you that you should accept less — less than what you deserve, less than what is your right — as the price of safety and security.
- Do not become a hostage to an agenda that deliberately and with malice seeks to repress and defeat your potential because you are female, because you are Black or Brown, or speak with an accent, or don’t have certain documents, or are too familiar with poverty,or are different in ways that diverge from what those in power say you should be to merit the benefits of this society.
Here’s why you are at Trinity: For 125 years, from the day those first brave students slogged through the mud to find our front door, Trinity Women have learned how to overcome obstacles, figure out solutions, speak truth to power, move ahead with change and triumph over adversity.
You are safe here at Trinity, but our real job is not to shelter you but, rather, to prepare you for active engagement with a challenging and often dangerous world.
Students before you triumphed through world wars, depressions, terrorist acts and global pandemics. They did this through the power of higher learning, acquiring the knowledge and skills that you will gather as you study human behaviors in psychology and sociology, the construction of political societies and the corruption of power, the philosophies of both oppression and revolution.
You will examine the molecules of life through microscopes and feel blood coursing through veins as you learn to be nurses and healthcare practitioners. You will study the root causes of racial and ethnic hatreds both here in the U.S. and around the world, the cruel intents of those who perpetrate horrific wars in places like Gaza and Ukraine; your study and research will lead you to conceptualize solutions for building new communities where diverse people can thrive together in peace.
You will learn why it is necessary for universities, libraries and museums to proclaim the truths that so many find uncomfortable about our history and our society; that slavery was an abomination not a mere distraction; that racism is truly America’s Original Sin; that hatred of persons who are “other” by race or nationality or gender or sexual orientation or belief or immigration status is an offense against faith teachings on human life and human dignity which are the bedrock teaching of the Catholic faith in social justice that animates Trinity and many other faith traditions.
As you learn all of this, you will become powerful advocates for yourselves and your communities, you will become trusted, valued leaders for the future, you will become fearless warriors for justice and peace.
And you might be saying to yourselves right now: who is she kidding?
Maybe you are a young Black woman who has suffered too much racism and marginalization as you have tried to move ahead with your dreams. Maybe you are an undocumented student who is holding that knowledge to yourself, afraid to let anyone know, and the repression of that truth is too much to bear. Maybe you are not afraid, feel just fine with things the way they are, don’t understand what the fuss is all about.
You will learn here how to respect and listen to all points of view, to let each person be herself whether you agree or disagree with opinions. But you will also learn that there cannot be bystanders when the times call for action. Whatever positions you espouse, at Trinity you will learn how to stand up, speak out, and most importantly, contribute to building a healthy community that serves the common good. You see our purpose stated on our banners along Michigan Avenue, and on our logo everywhere: Education for Justice. You will work for justice each day so that our communities can find the peace we must have to thrive.
Through all of that learning and growth, you will be sustained by the knowledge that you are part of that long line of activists and women leaders who have proudly carried the mission and values of Trinity into this world. For 125 years, Trinity has educated the next generations of citizen leaders, teachers, corporate entrepreneurs and nonprofit innovators, nurses and doctors and practitioners of the healing arts, women determined to make this world a happier, healthier, more just and free place. Their presence, their hard work, their strong voices and clear influence have, indeed, changed our world.
The first women who did that here were the Founders of Trinity, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. 125 years ago, a small group of very courageous women started their own revolution for justice. These religious sisters certainly did not think of themselves as radicals, and yet look at this room today, a room they could not have imagined in the segregated world of 1897 —but they would be so proud of you today!
As you leave this Chapel today, wearing your Trinity medals proudly, go with the blessings of the Trinity. May you find the strength, the wisdom and the love of the Trinity as inspiration, support and a call to action each day. Congratulations!
And so many thanks to our student leaders and peer advisors who are leading the way for our new students!
