{"id":185,"date":"2018-10-01T15:02:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/?p=185"},"modified":"2018-10-02T18:46:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T18:46:04","slug":"houston-philanthropist-gives-students-strong-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2018\/giving-opportunities\/houston-philanthropist-gives-students-strong-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Philanthropist Gives Students Strong Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"187\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2018\/giving-opportunities\/houston-philanthropist-gives-students-strong-start\/attachment\/trinimendenhall\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"800,1200\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1406764969&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;102&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;640&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0166666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"TriniMendenhall\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-200x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-683x1024.jpg\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\" wp-image-187 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Trini Mendenhall, who was honored in May with the Catholic Charities Legacy Award\" width=\"279\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/10\/TriniMendenhall.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/>Trinidad &#8220;Trini&#8221; Mendenhall is a soft-spoken, humble, philanthropic leader who believes that \u201cto those whom much is given, much is expected.\u201d She combines business savvy and a creative flair with a heart for strengthening Catholic charities and education, protecting women and children, supporting the Hispanic community and finding a cure for diseases that have taken the lives of people she loved.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, Mendenhall contributed $4.5 million to UST\u2014at the time, the largest gift ever made by an individual donor\u2014to establish the Mendenhall Achievement Center, located in Crooker Center. The Center\u2019s professional support team provides essential services to UST students that foster personal growth, well-being and academic success. They include advising, mentoring, tutoring, career services, testing, counseling and support for first-generation students.<\/p>\n<p>The Center\u2019s flagship program, the Mendenhall Summer Institute, is a five-week summer program for select incoming freshmen. It helps students transition to college and prepares them for majors in the sciences and mathematics. Students also have the opportunity to earn scholarships to assist with tuition.<\/p>\n<p>The Mendenhall Achievement Center this year celebrates 10 years of achievement, and, thanks to Trini Mendenhall, a Life Member of UST\u2019s Board of Directors, the program is going strong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Mendenhall Summer Institute program has contributed to hundreds of UST students and their collegiate and personal journey,\u201d said Dr. Rebecca Dowden, director of the Institute. \u201cBecause of Mrs. Mendenhall\u2019s generous heart and contributions to helping incoming freshmen, many students have learned valuable leadership skills, gained a strong sense of community and much-needed confidence as they begin their collegiate careers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trini Mendenhall, who was honored in May with the Catholic Charities Legacy Award, is an invaluable part of our Celt community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trinidad &#8220;Trini&#8221; Mendenhall is a soft-spoken, humble, philanthropic leader who believes that \u201cto those whom much is given, much is expected.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13,32,31,30,16,11,29],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving-opportunities","tag-13","tag-catholic-charities-legacy-award","tag-mendenhall-achievement-center","tag-mendenhall-summer-institute","tag-summer-2018-issue","tag-summer-issue","tag-trini-mendenhall"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Houston Philanthropist Gives Students Strong Start - Encounter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2018\/giving-opportunities\/houston-philanthropist-gives-students-strong-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Houston Philanthropist Gives Students Strong Start - Encounter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trinidad &quot;Trini&quot; 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