LGBTI Scholarships Awarded
Scholarship Opportunities for the LGBTI Community Grow

The Family Pride Coalition and COLAGE announced the recipients of their Lee Dubin Scholarship this week, wrapping up a year in which a record number of scholarships for the LGBTI community were available to aspiring students. The Lee Dubin Scholarship benefits children of LGBT parents. Four students received $1,000 scholarships this year.

"By confronting homophobia directly and lending their voices to the movement for social justice, each has made significant positive change in their respective communities," said Beth Teper, executive director of COLAGE. "All of the applicants represent the next generation of young COLAGE leaders raised by LGBT parents and families who are speaking out and taking action."

The Dubin Scholarship is one of many scholarships that benefit the LGBT Community. Advocacy Groups such as PFLAG, the International Foundation for Gender Education, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, provide numerous partial scholarships, which range anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. There are some scholarship specifically for groups within the LGBTI community like lesbian students (Uncommon Legacy Foundation) and transgender students (International Foundation for Gender Education). There are also some scholarships focusing on specific interests, like PFLAG's Esera Tualo Athletic scholarship, named after former pro-football player Esera Tualo.

LGBTI Scholarship Opportunities
Name	Type	Contact
Family Pride	Children of LGBTI Parents	www.familypride.org
PFLAG	Numerous Scholarships	www.pflag.org
NGLTF	Messenger-Anderson Journalism Scholarship	www.thetaskforce.org
Point Foundation	Numerous Scholarships	www.thepointfoundation.org
IFGE	Transgender Scholarships	www.tself.org
Uncommon Legacy	Lesbian Leadership Scholarships	www.uncommonlegacy.org

The biggest chunk of LGBTI scholarship money, however, was awarded this year by the Point Foundation. The Point Foundation, which focuses exclusively on supporting students in the LGBTI Community, awarded 27 scholarships this year, ranging between $5,000 to $28,000 per year.

For some recipients, a college education simply would not be possible without scholarship at this level. Ryan grew up near Denver in a physically abusive family. After he came out, his mother and father disowned him and forced him to leave home before his eighteenth birthday. In Ryan’s own words: “Last spring I was unable to attend the schools I was accepted to because my parents withdrew all monetary support. Without The Point Foundation, I fear this year would have been the same.”