Campus Pride Launches National LGBTQ Scholarship Database

Two national organizations have joined forces to launch an online resource for LGBT students seeking financial aid.

Campus Pride has created the National LGBTQ Scholarship Database, a comprehensive list of scholarships, grants, and fellowships that are available to LGBT students and their allies. The group, a leading nonprofit in college outreach, has partnered in this initiative with Point Foundation, an organization that provides its own scholarships and financial support to this demographic.

Curated for both undergraduate and graduate students, the database, which is available at CampusPride.org, is intended to be an ever-growing catalog of national, regional, state, and campus-specific financial resources. Users can search for scholarships by location or by opportunities that are specific to major, Greek association, athletics, and more.

One of the goals of the database is to encourage qualified students to apply for educational opportunities they may have thought were beyond their monetary means, said Shane Windmeyer, wxecutive director of Campus Pride.

"Everyone has a fundamental right to education," Windmeyer said in a statement. "For our LGBT youth, especially those who are first generation college students and those from low to middle income backgrounds, the dream of going to college is still a dream. This national database is another step toward creating greater accessibility to higher education for LGBT youth. There is much more work to be done."

Jorge Valencia, the executive director of Point Foundation, which provides many LGBT and ally students with financial assistance, believes this initiative will raise awareness of options these students may have otherwise not knew existed.

"Every year we receive thousands of applications for our Point Foundation scholarships. These are young people hungry to invest in their future and help society by getting a college degree, but are in great need of financial assistance," Valencia stated. "While Point is able to help some individuals, we are eager to raise awareness of other diverse higher education scholarships."

"It is our hope that through discovering opportunities in the National LGBT Scholarship Database, students will realize their dreams of getting a higher education degree," he concluded.

Campus Pride encourages those with knowledge of additional financial resources for LGBT scholars to submit the entry on its website or at info@campuspride.org.