WGRAC Hosts Annual Open House to Welcome New and Returning Students

Caitlin Doherty ’26

Executive News Editor

On Thursday, Sept. 19, Trinity’s Women & Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) held its annual open house event to welcome members of the first-year class and bring together returning students. WGRAC, which was originally founded as the Women’s Center in Sept. 1977, is a part of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and serves as a space of support for Trinity students, with a particular focus on women’s empowerment and social justice advocacy. The open house included opportunities to meet leaders of WGRAC, lunch from Hartford restaurant El Sarape and two visiting therapy dogs named Jake and Millie from non-profit organization Tails of Joy. “This event is really important because it showcases all of the diversity that we have within WGRAC,” said Gabbie Marccucio ’25, the co-coordinator of Students Expecting Consent, in an interview with the Tripod. “There’s really a space for anyone in WGRAC and anything that you might be particularly interested in.” 

WGRAC houses numerous student organizations: Students Expecting Consent, Promoting Healthy Awareness of the Body, IGNITE and the Masculinity Project. The Center also runs numerous programs, including Green Dot, Big Sister/Little Sister, the Flag Project and Women’s Herstory Month. “I joined [WGRAC] because I was passionate about consent education,” said Isabella Zohreh ’26 to the Tripod. She is the co-coordinator of Students Expecting Consent, which works to prevent sexual and domestic violence and increase consent education at Trinity. Throughout the open house, leaders of WGRAC organizations spoke with new students about the work they are doing on campus. “WGRAC for me is a really unifying space,” William Smith ’26 told the Tripod. He hopes that his leadership of the Masculinity Project will help lessen stigma surrounding men’s mental health and alleviate other issues of toxic masculinity on campus. “The message of WGRAC’s organizations is what unifies all of us,” he continued.

Katherine Meslow ’25 has been working at WGRAC since her sophomore year as the coordinator of IGNITE, an organization that promotes women’s leadership in politics.  “It’s always been nice to go into the [WGRAC] lounge or to any event and really just feel like you have a sense of place beyond other activities on campus, beyond your classes and your friends,” she said to the Tripod.  

“WGRAC’s a special place because it means so much to so many different students on so many different levels,” said Director of WGRAC Laura Lockwood M’95 in a conversation with the Tripod. “It’s not only a cool and safe and brave place to be, but it’s a place of social activism and social change and social justice.” She has served as the director of the center since 1998 and leads the organizing of the open house each year. She hopes that the open house will inspire students to become involved in the initiatives WGRAC plans throughout this academic year.  

“WGRAC has been an important space for me because I think it especially seeks to uplift women’s voices and women’s leadership… It’s a space where we are always encouraged to have ideas, to be leaders,” said Gabbie Marcuccio ’25. “I think that’s really important to have on a college campus.”