IU launches GLBT scholarship campaign

A scholarship campaign recently announced by the IU Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Association will be the first university-sanctioned scholarship fund for GLBT students in the nation.

The fund will be supported largely by an anonymous donor, who has promised to match any donations, not to exceed the amount of $500,000. More than $200,000 have been raised so far to support the campaign, which aims to raise a goal of $1 million.

The GLBTAA has been awarding scholarships since 2003, but this will be the first time the scholarship fund will be University sanctioned, Mike Shumate, president of the GLBTAA, said. 

The fund will provide academic scholarships to students who have been involved within the GLBT community as well as emergency scholarships to students who have been financially disowned by their families due to their expression of sexual orientation or gender identity, said GLBT Student Support Services Director Doug Bauder.

“It’s actually been several years in the planning,” Bauder said. “The campaign has been discussed for three years.”

Shumate said the fund currently provides up to $3,000 per academic year in emergency funding for students who are in need of financial aid due to being financially cut off from their families. Academic scholarships are available for students in amounts of up to $2,000 per academic year.

The GLBTAA has awarded 11 emergency scholarships and more than 20 academic scholarships since 2003, eight of which were awarded for the 2013 school year, Shumate said.

“We made the determination that we need to do a campaign to raise an endowment so we can assure the financial ability to help our students well into the future,” Shumate said.

Zach Bailey, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said he was excited to be a part of the campaign as a recipient of an academic scholarship from the GLBTAA.

“I’m very proud that IU is the first to have this,” he said. “It’s kind of amazing to be out in the forefront of this and to be a recipient of this scholarship.”

Bailey said the scholarship not only aided him in achieving his academic goals, but also affected him on a personal level.

He said he one day hopes to give back to the scholarship fund that helped pave the way for him to return to school.

“This is something that, when I graduate, I plan on donating to,” he said.

Daniel Rossi, a past academic scholarship recipient, echoed those sentiments. Rossi said the scholarships made available to GLBT students help relieve the stress experienced by those students on a daily basis.

“Especially with a lot of LGBT students, we tend to take on more debt, we have lower job prospects,” he said.

Rossi said the Bloomington community is still a difficult place to identify as a GLBT person. He attributes this to a low awareness of GLBT needs, including a lack of “LGBT-competent medical providers” and “transphobia and ignorance in the community.”

Rossi said he volunteered frequently with GLBT groups on campus and worked toward providing gender neutral bathrooms for trans-identified students on campus.

For Rossi, who recently received his Master’s in Public Affairs from SPEA, the academic scholarship removed the burden of trying to find an additional job while paying part of the tuition for the last semester of his graduate program.

Rossi said receiving the scholarship was empowering for him because he felt he would eventually be able to give back to students.

“Knowing that we can move forward and that I could extend the support from the alumni to help other students, that was really empowering for me on a personal level,” Rossi said. Rossi said his personal goal is to continue to work toward improving the lives of trans-identified individuals.

“That’s the dream,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I entered the program I did was to get more involved in advocacy and non-profit support.”

Both Rossi and Bailey said they hope to one day be able to give back to GLBT students who need financial aid. Bailey said he would eventually like to become involved with the GLBTAA, either as a member or in a leadership position, due to the scholarship’s impact on his academic career and in his personal life.

“It helped a lot to know that there are a lot of people out there that want to see you succeed and to help you in any way they can,” Bailey said.

Follow reporter Holly Hays on Twitter @hv_hays.