Try Everything

For alumna Zoe Thompson McDaniel, the well-roundedness of her Trinity experience keeps getting more and more valuable.

“I loved Trinity because I got to experience so many different things,” says Thompson McDaniel ’93, P’25, P’28. “I just remember feeling like anything that interested me, I had an opportunity to pursue.”

A religion and economics double major at Trinity, Thompson McDaniel felt just as at home in her opera appreciation course as she did studying abroad in Shanghai, just as stimulated by discussing Eastern mysticism as she was writing papers about global sugar consumption. She joined the Spurs sorority and participated in the University’s student government. “I really loved my liberal arts approach to school,” she says. “And my mom felt that a degree from a place like Trinity would just continue to mean more and more.”

A career consultant (who serves as the lead client partner for a global Fortune 15 account), Thompson McDaniel says she regularly leans on skills honed at Trinity, from critical thinking skills and conflict resolution to studying people, processes, and organizations. Now at a major professional services and accounting firm, Thompson McDaniel says she “didn’t know when I was a student just how well Trinity was preparing me to be a consultant.”

Thompson McDaniel says she reconnected with Trinity in a more meaningful way after seeing the campus through the eyes of her kids: Henry ’25 (an accounting major who serves as the manager for Trinity’s men’s basketball team) and Phoebe ’28 (a first-year Spur who’s already inherited her mom’s ’90s sorority jersey). “To see that my kids have found their people, I just love it,” she says. 

Now, Thompson McDaniel wants to give back to the other students taking the same road as her children. A donor at the associate level, she has also been Trinity True for four years—a University distinction that recognizes consecutive years of giving. McDaniel is also currently serving as a member of the volunteer Campaign Executive Committee in support of Our Time: the Campaign for Trinity University.

“Trinity is going to make sure we not only get students to campus, but that they’re successful, and we support them throughout the beginning of their careers and beyond,” Thompson McDaniel says. “Trinity is focused on preparing its students to be leaders and compassionate citizens, and I find that inspiring.”

“I look back on Trinity, and I felt limitless,” Thompson McDaniel adds. “I just felt like I could do anything. I remember thinking, ‘This is what college is supposed to be.’ When I see what Trinity is trying to accomplish, I really want to be part of it. I want to see new students try everything, any topic that they want to explore. I want everybody to find their people.”