17 Students Receive eQuality Scholarships

A crowd of more than 200 people was on hand to offer congratulations to 17 students who received eQuality scholarships at the organization's recent dinner gala.

Equality Scholarship Collaborative, as it is known, is a collaboration among several LGBT employee resource groups at some of the Bay Area's largest companies and nonprofit partners. This year marked the collaboration's 25th year.

"Tonight we have 17 students who have shown a dedication and a commitment to doing whatever needs to be done to make their schools and their communities a safer and better place to be," Mary Issel, with PG&E Pride Network, said at the May 16 event, held at the Hotel Nikko. "It's important to keep in mind that our queer youth face additional challenges than non-queer, including not always having the support of their parents in their own identities."

Most of the students were graduating high school seniors. Each offered a remarkable story of bravery and courage, for in addition to facing the difficult issues of coming out and disclosing their identities to family, friends, and teachers, each went the extra mile by devoting part of their school lives to working for queer equality through groups like Gay-Straight Alliance Network and special projects on campuses across California.

But by the time 18-year-old Esteban Baiz left the stage after his remarks, it's hard to imagine that there was a dry eye in the room. Baiz, a soft-spoken youth from Newman (Stanislaus County) who plans to use his scholarship to attend California College of the Arts, told a story that many of those in attendance may have found familiar.

"I didn't grow up with a father - my mother was my only parent," said Baiz. "She is a very devout Catholic from Mexico who came here to give us a better life. When I told her I was gay, she told me she was very disappointed in me and that I had to leave."

After a suicide attempt, Baiz took on the task of raising himself, relying on an art teacher to give him support and guidance and validation for his identity. Joining his high school gay-straight alliance as a freshman, by the following year he was the group's co-president and became its president in his senior year.

Throughout the dinner, the repeated refrain of being isolated and alone in their identities, even among such accomplished young people, illustrated the ways in which the needs of LGBT youth often extend beyond the basics like money for college, and also for mentors and others within the community to help care for them.

On hand for the event was gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who presented the group with a proclamation from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declaring May 16 as "eQuality Fund Scholarship Day."

"It's important that we take care of our own," said Wiener, 44, who is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law, as well as the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. "Despite a boom time in San Francisco, young people are still struggling. With housing, with health care, and with having the funds necessary to go to college to better their communities. We know that people have better lives with education, and awards like this make someone's life better and the community at large a better place to be."

For each scholarship recipient, someone close to them - a parent, a teacher, a best friend - was on hand to offer personal anecdotes and testimonials as to the courage of these young people to take their identities and become activists for the sake of the lives of others.

EQuality was founded in 1989 in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, and the first awards ceremony featured a single recipient, who was given a scholarship for $250. This year, eQuality was able to offer $6,000 each to all 17 recipients.

"We like to say that we've been able to adjust for inflation," said Matt McCabe, a spokesman for eQuality and chair of the publicity committee. "Each year, we give out almost exactly what we receive, as there is no paid staff for eQuality. If we had more money, we'd give away more. We differ from other scholarship funds in that we pay the institutions directly," he said - though a student remarked from the podium that she did receive a "ridiculously oversized check like from a television game show," upon learning of her award.

Funding for the group is provided by a variety of corporate and nonprofit sources such as the United Way, Out and Equal Workplace Advocates, GSA Network, and the LGBT employee resource groups at PG&E, KPMG, Kaiser Permanente, and Genentech, as well as through gifts from many individual donors.

The total number of applications received for the awards this year was 72, with many of the applicants learning about the fund through their local gay-straight alliance. Applications were received via an online system and were evaluated based on the student's involvement in LGBTQQIATSA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, ally) community activity and leadership. Three categories of awards were given: high school seniors, community college students, and medical school students.

In addition to Baiz, other high school scholarship recipients included Nekeisha Barnett McNeil of Pacifica; Sam Blanchard of Fairfax; Schuyler Borges of Bakersfield; Jenny Chen of Campbell; Cassie Contreras of Fresno; Neeozzi Dickerson of Sonoma; Laura Jacobs of Windsor; Narina Jones of Oakland; Lara Loesel of El Dorado Hills; Alexa Lopez of Walnut Creek; Rhozi Niebauer of South Lake Tahoe; and Maximus Yearian of San Francisco.

Michael Nedelman was the recipient of the Permanente Medical Group Scholar Award. Currently attending Stanford University Medical School, where he is the president of the LGBT Meds group, Nedelman received an undergraduate degree in film from Yale University, where he produced a documentary called The Camouflage Closet, a documentary on LGBTQ veterans' experiences with trauma and recovery.

"All of us have had the experience where we were the only one in the room who are different in the way we are different, where if we didn't speak up about our issues, no one else would," said Nedelman. "This was the case for me both in high school and in medical school. Fortunately, I can say with some confidence that through my experience of speaking out, I found a lot more support than I ever could've imagined."

The three other community college and medical school scholarship recipients were Katrina Craton of Chico; Victor Romos of Santa Rosa; and Greg Zahner of San Francisco.

McCabe noted that some of the students come from conservative areas of the state.

"It takes enormous courage to be out in places like Chico or Bakersfield, but to place themselves in a position of being out, loud, and proud, and active, takes a level of commitment that elicits awe among eQuality staffers as we review the applications - and which brings pride and honor to our community as a whole," he said.

For more information about eQuality Scholarship Collaborative, visit www.equalityscholarship.org