Pride Foundation

Get Involved: Scholarship review volunteers needed

It’s Pride Foundation Scholarship time! This means we need your help to review and interview scholarship applications! This is a great opportunity to get involved in your community, help students, and meet new people! We realize many people have busy schedules, so we have several different options for volunteering!

You can be on a general screening team – this is the initial stage where we read ALL the completed applications and determine which are the best fit for our scholarship program. This stage happens in February and can be done from anywhere, since reading is done online (you can also print the applications if you choose). General screening requires about two hours with your review team and about 10 hour reading applications on your own time.

You can be on a specific scholarship selection team – this is the second step where we match applicants to specific scholarships by criteria. This stage happens in March and April and, depending on your physical location, we may match you with a committee based on geography, academic interests, or identity. You will review about 25 applications and interview 5-6 students. This requires one two hour meeting with your review team, about 8-10 hours reading applications on your own time, and one 1/2 day commitment for interviews.

We sincerely hope that you are interested in volunteering because it is such an impacting experience. In fact, volunteering with scholarships is how many Pride Foundation staff and Board members first became involved with Pride Foundation. If you have questions about scholarships, contact Anthony Papini at [email protected] or contact your local regional development organizer for your state or region:

Alaska: Email Tiffany McClain
Idaho: Email Steve Martin
Montana: Email Caitlin Copple
Oregon: Email Jett Johnson
Eastern Washington: Email Farand Gunnels
Western Washington: Email Uma Rao

Please contact us by January 13 if you’d like to volunteer or want more information.

Fellowship Program now accepting applications

Six internships available located in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Are you looking for a meaningful leadership development opportunity this summer?

Pride Foundation Fellowship Program is for you! The Fellowship Program seeks to cultivate leaders and strengthen the Northwest LGBTQ community. This fellowship experience will provide an opportunity for professional development as well as an introduction to the work of community leadership organizations by matching exceptional Pride Foundation Scholarship recipients and other LGBTQ and ally students with Pride Foundation grantees and other organizations committed to LGBTQ equality.

This program is open to current college students only (this includes students enrolled in community college, four year public or private colleges/universities, graduate school, professional programs, vocational or trade programs) pursuing any degree or major. High school students are not eligible for Pride Foundation Fellowships; however, high school seniors can apply for our scholarships!

Pride Foundation Fellows will have the opportunity to work with select Northwest non-profit organizations on various projects, events, and programs that have a positive impact on the LGBTQ community. Details about the available opportunities are in the application. There are six internship opportunities this year. They are located in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Please visit pridefoundation.org/scholarships/fellowship for more details and to apply. Applications are due January 30, 2012.

APPLY – Scholarships: Jan 31 deadline countdown begins

Pride Foundation scholarship applications are now available! Visit www.pridefoundationscholar.org to begin your application!

Pride Foundation’s scholarships are for students from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Full details on who qualifies for a scholarship are available here.

We do not accept late applications. Applications are due January 31, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. PST

Interview decisions are announced in early April. Interviews are held on various dates throughout April as determined by the specific scholarship(s) for which you are selected. Final award decisions are announced in May.

Attention high school students: high school seniors are eligible and encouraged to apply, however, high school freshman, sophomores, and juniors are not eligible unless they are enrolled in running start programs.

If you have any further questions regarding scholarships, please email [email protected]

Pride Foundation Scholarships – Apply Online Today!

Apply online today!

It’s that time of year again where many high school students are starting to think about college admissions and current college students are headed back for their fall term – everyone is thinking about how to pay for their education!

That’s where Pride Foundation can help!

Since 1993, we have awarded millions in scholarships to support education and leadership development has been awarded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and straight-ally students. Pride Foundation would like to encourage students of any age or sexual orientation from Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington who are pursuing any post-secondary education (including community college, public or private colleges & universities, trade apprenticeships, or certificate programs) to consider applying for our scholarships!

Along with our scholarship partner, the Greater Seattle Business Association, we offer 50 different scholarships, but have only one application to complete.

It’s an intense but worthwhile process. You can go online to PrideFoundationScholar.org, register for a new account (or log in using your existing account if you’ve applied for a scholarship in the past) and complete the application. Not to worry – you can do a little each day and complete it over time. And you have until January 31, at 5:00 pm PST to submit it – but don’t wait until the last minute. In addition to a few essay questions, you’ll also need to submit two letters of recommendation plus your most recent transcripts.

By now you might be asking, “well, I do need help with money for school, but should I apply?” And the answer to that is all dependent on you! Our scholarships take into account a wide variety of experiences and academic levels. All scholarships require that students be committed to LGBTQ advocacy and equal human rights in their community. That can look different depending on where you are and who you are. We have straight allies who help start GSAs in their schools. We have LGBTQ students who have organized queer youth rallies. We have students who are in their 40s or 50s who have spent much of their lives fighting for equity and equality and now are returning to school or going for the first time.

The bottom line: leadership can take a lot of different forms and we want to encourage everyone who believes they have made a difference in their communities to apply! We’ll ask you to share your academic and professional goals, ways in which you have contributed to your community, how you have overcome challenges in your life, and why receiving a scholarship will make a difference in your life.

So, apply today! And if you need help along the way, just email [email protected] or call 800-735-7287 x110 and we’d be glad to offer you support.

Fellowship Program: More than internships

Pride Foundation Fellowship Program Coordinator Dylan Yu

It has been incredibly exciting to track the development of our Summer Fellowship program over the past three years. This year, we have another incredible group of students, including one immensely bright and dedicated individual, University of Washington student Dylan Yu, who is working with Pride Foundation to implement the program. I asked him to shed some light into the process. Enjoy reading his fabulous post on our 2011 Fellowship Program:

Two years ago, Pride Foundation Fellowship Program was created in order to connect Scholars with summer internships in the community. The purpose was twofold. Scholars would familiarize themselves with organizations which were advocates within the LGBTQ community, and would gain valuable experience leading substantive, project-based internships.

The organizations themselves, however, would also benefit from bringing onboard highly motivated workers with fresh perspectives, interns who, in five or ten years, would become the superstars of their fields.

Last year, there were two Fellows accepted into the program, one who worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound, and the other with The Q Center in Kitsap County.  We knew that we wanted to expand the program for this year, and possibly include multiple states within the region. After researching nonprofit organizations focusing on social justice initiatives in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, Anthony and I came up with a list of six groups to approach. They were: Basic Rights Oregon, Seattle Education Access, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound, City of Seattle LGBT Commission, Equal Rights Washington, and Skagit PFLAG.

We were fortunate enough to have all six groups enthusiastically accept a summer Fellow, after which we began crafting an application to send out to Scholars. At the same time, we sent out a survey to previous scholarship recipients asking what they would like to see in a revamped Fellowship program. The responses were focused around more choice in host organizations, more monetary compensation, and a transparent application and recruitment process.

Potential applicants were given a description of the organizations participating in the program, and were asked to rank them in order of preference. In the application, they were asked to explain what “community leadership” and “service leadership” meant to them, as well as why they wanted to be a Pride Foundation Fellow. In addition to increasing the number of organizations participating from two to six, we increased the stipend for Fellows from $1,500 to $3,500 for a ten-week period. This, coupled with more aggressive advertising among Pride Scholars via email, the number of completed applications increased from around a dozen last year to 47 this year. In order to read and process this number of applications, I put together a committee consisting of two volunteers as well as Anthony and myself. In retrospect, this was not nearly large enough to cope with the number of applications, and I would at least double the size of the committee in future years.

The committee narrowed down the 47 applications to six “finalists,” each of whom we were able to place with an organization that was in their top two choices. It was crisis mode when two of those six applicants declined our offer, one due to another summer job and the other due to logistical problems. Luckily I contacted our second choices for each position and had them filled immediately, so we were able to place a Fellow at all six of our participating organizations. They were to begin work in mid-June and work through mid-August, at which point they would receive their stipends.

Planning the summer curriculum for the program proved to be more difficult than I had expected. Logistically, two of the Fellows are working more than a hour away from Pride Foundation’s office, so we decided to use web-based video conferencing in order for them to participate in the meetings. I wanted the Fellowship program to be more than just a summer internship; if possible I wished for a “cohort” feeling among Fellows, a community of individuals going through similar experiences. And I wanted our time together to be meaningful. We decided to have four agenda-based meetings throughout the summer, preceding a final celebration to which we would invite Fellows and their families, site supervisors, Pride Foundation Staff, and Donors. Anthony and I created discussion points and a “syllabus” of articles for Fellows to read that focused on LGBTQ advocacy, the state of the nonprofit field, and how it relates to their Fellowship work.

Most of our Fellows started work on Monday, June 13, and so by next Friday the 24th they will have familiarized themselves with the workspace and their role.  That’s the date of our first meeting together; I have only seen two of the six Fellows in person, and am very excited to have everyone meet each other and get started. This first meeting will simply be spent with introductions, logistics, and a discussion of social justice and non-profits as a means of advocacy. Hopefully we can generate some productive dialogue and start the summer off strong!

Dylan Yu
Fellowship Program Coordinator

2011 Scholars: Incredible stories of leadership & vision

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.

QUEERS IN SPACE: a dance party for queer youth and their allies

Join Queer Youth Space for a dance party for queer youth and their allies!
It’s happening Friday, April 15 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm at The Vera Project @ Warren and Republican in Seattle.

It’s an all-ages dance party with LICK!, featuring DJs Mathematix and Dewey Decimal! Both adults and youth are encouraged to come!

QYS is working on creating a queer youth space, so come in SPACE GEAR to help us launch off!

This is a fundraiser, suggested donation is $5 for youth and a bit more for adults. Nobody turned away! More information on why we are fundraising at: – http://threewings.org/support.html

Accessibility is our value. Email us or contact us so we can accommodate you at [email protected]

For more details check out http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198878183473541

College students: PAID summer internships available!

Pride Foundation has partnered with six fabulous Northwest nonprofits to offer college students an opportunity to apply their skills and abilities to social change! The Pride Foundation Summer Fellowship Program runs from June 13 to August 19 and participants are paid a $3,500 stipend. Students can attend any post-secondary educational institution (community college, four year public or private, graduate school, trade/vocational programs, etc.) and be pursuing any major.

To learn more about the six fellowship opportunities and to apply, visit our Fellowship application page. Applications are due January 31 (same day as the scholarship application!)

Last chance to apply for scholarships!

The January 31st deadline to apply for a Pride Foundation or GSBA Scholarship is just weeks away. Applications and additional details for the 2011 scholarship cycle are available online at www.PrideFoundationScholar.org!

Since 1993, more than $2 million in scholarships to support education and leadership development has been awarded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and straight-ally students. Pride Foundation would like to encourage you to share this excellent opportunity for students of any age or sexual orientation from or studying in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington who are pursuing any post-secondary education. There are fifty different types of scholarships with awards up to $10,000 – but only one web-based application to complete!

Applications must be submitted by January 31, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. PST and can be completed online at www.PrideFoundationScholar.org

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD

We need your help to bring these scholarships to the attention of students in your school or organization! LGBTQ students often do not have access to traditional means of support from families making it more compelling for organizations and schools to work together to reach these students. Our scholarships have the power to make a huge financial and emotional impact on their lives!

Please share this post to help announce these scholarships in your bulletin, newsletter, or student newspaper. Some LGBT students may not be “out” to others and straight ally students are often unaware that our scholarships are available to them as well. We rely on them seeing the poster or hearing the announcement to know that our scholarships exist.

To further assist students applying for these scholarships, we will hold Scholarship Application Workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest this fall – for specific times and locations or to request a workshop, please email [email protected] or call 800-735-7287 x110.

Apply now! 2011 Scholarship apps now online

Apply online today!

Applications for the 2011 scholarship cycle are now available online at www.PrideFoundationScholar.org!

Since 1993, more than $2 million in scholarships to support education and leadership development has been awarded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and straight-ally students. Pride Foundation would like to encourage you to share this excellent opportunity for students of any age or sexual orientation from Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington who are pursuing any post-secondary education (including community college, public or private colleges & universities, trade apprenticeships, or certificate programs)! There are fifty different types of scholarships with awards up to $10,000 – but only one web-based application to complete! Applications must be submitted by January 31, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. PST and can be completed online at www.PrideFoundationScholar.org

We need your help to bring these scholarships to the attention of students in your school or organization! LGBTQ students often do not have access to traditional means of support from families making it more compelling for organizations and schools to work together to reach these students. Our scholarships have the power to make a huge financial and emotional impact on their lives! Please post the enclosed posters prominently and announce these scholarships in your bulletin, newsletter, or student newspaper. Some LGBT students may not be “out” to others and straight ally students are often unaware that our scholarships are available to them as well. We rely on them seeing the poster or hearing the announcement to know that our scholarships exist.

To further assist students applying for these scholarships, we will hold Scholarship Application Workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest this fall – for specific times and locations or to request a workshop, please email [email protected] or call 800-735-7287 x110.