Pride Foundation- LGBTQ Community Foundation

What another amazing year for scholarships! We are so happy to be awarding 101 fabulous students over $360,000 in Pride Foundation scholarships – that’s $25,000 more than last year! Our scholarship partners at the Greater Seattle Business Association awarded $150,000, for a grand total of $515,000 awarded this year! Since 1993, Pride Foundation donors and volunteers have helped to award $2.36 million to nearly 1,100 scholars!

People always ask me to tell them about our scholars. What I can tell you is that they are leaders in so many different ways. We have scholars in community colleges, trade programs, public state colleges, and private universities. Our students are are pursing a variety of degrees. They are as young as 16 and as old as 53 (our average recipient age was 26). All Northwest states are represented and five scholars, who are originally from the Northwest, are now studying internationally! 40% of our recipients are students of color and 95% of our scholars identify as LGBTQ. Like I said, this is a pretty incredible group!

Read about the 2011 scholars

With nearly 1,300 applications to review, more than 250 volunteers from across five states (and even a few who were traveling internationally and connected via web technologies!) helped us review and select which applicants moved forward to the interview stage. I repeatedly heard “this is SO difficult – almost everyone is SO incredibly qualified and doing such amazing things!”

I am equally struck though by the number of qualified applicants to whom we could not award scholarships because of limited funds. I would like to encourage those individuals to know that they are incredible and we believe in them and their contributions. I would encourage them to apply again next year, as we continually strive to increase the funds available to award.

Every year, it is my honor and privilege to send a letter to each of the volunteers thanking them for their time and service. I tell them the scholarship program would not exist without them. And that is true. It is equally true that Pride Foundation would not be able to award scholarships without the incredible students who are out there defining what it means to be LGBTQ or an ally leader in their community.

From the 40 year old student who wants to pursue a degree in the medical field to make sure no one ever gambles with their health like he did to the young woman who overcame abuse and homelessness to become a major activist on her campus, these are the individuals who make the Pride Foundation scholarship program what it is and ensures the LGBTQ community shines now and into the future. To them and to the countless other student leaders, whether receiving a scholarship from us or not, I say thank you for who you are and what you do. We believe in you; we support you; we are proud to stand with you!

For more information about our 2011 Scholars, please visit www.pridefoundation.org/scholarships/2011-scholars. Online applications for the 2012 process will be available October 2011. To receive Pride Foundation news, including updates about our grants and scholarship programs sign up for our monthly eNewsletter at www.pridefoundation.org/subscription-form.