National Rainbow College Fund Recipient: Finding Identity, Community, and Purpose

April 16, 2025 | By NRCF Recip­i­ent

This Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund stu­dent has cho­sen to remain anony­mous.

One of the defin­ing fea­tures of Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund is its stead­fast com­mit­ment to privacy—especially impor­tant now, when many stu­dents choose not to dis­close their LGBTQ+ iden­ti­ty due to per­son­al safe­ty or fam­i­ly con­cerns.

“I haven’t come out to my fam­i­ly. I think my mom sus­pects some­thing because it feels like she might know. But I’m afraid to tell my dad. I think it might upset him,” she shares.

“My sis­ter knows I’m bisex­u­al, but it’s my father’s reac­tion I wor­ry about most. His opin­ion means every­thing to me, which is what makes it so dif­fi­cult. My par­ents immi­grat­ed from Mex­i­co and have been in Amer­i­ca for 20 years now. They’ve assim­i­lat­ed to Amer­i­can cul­ture and have become more open-mind­ed, but I’m still uncer­tain about shar­ing this part of my iden­ti­ty.”

This Cal­i­for­nia high school grad­u­ate is cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing com­put­er sci­ence at a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege with plans to trans­fer to a Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia or Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty school.

“Being in debt ter­ri­fies me, and the finan­cial sup­port from Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund is invalu­able. But it’s not only about the funds—it’s the com­mu­ni­ty sup­port that’s equal­ly crit­i­cal,” she reflects.

“My col­lege has LGBTQ+ groups I can join which helps, but men­tor­ship is par­tic­u­lar­ly vital to me. As a LGBTQ+ stu­dent, see­ing myself reflect­ed in role mod­els means every­thing. Noth­ing inspires me more. With­out rep­re­sen­ta­tion, stu­dents start to doubt them­selves because they don’t see oth­ers like them suc­ceed­ing.”

As a Mex­i­can Amer­i­can stu­dent whose par­ents immi­grat­ed, she finds dual sig­nif­i­cance in rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

“See­ing Lati­na peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty who are also role mod­els is huge. Dur­ing a Lati­no her­itage cel­e­bra­tion event, I met pro­fes­sion­als who shared how they over­came strug­gles to accom­plish their goals. While the net­work­ing was ben­e­fi­cial, it was real­ly the atmos­phere and shared expe­ri­ences that were trans­for­ma­tive. Hear­ing their sto­ries gives me the moti­va­tion to keep going.”

She recalls the moment she began under­stand­ing her iden­ti­ty dur­ing high school.

“I was out shop­ping and saw this girl who was so cute. When I told my friends about her, their imme­di­ate sup­port meant every­thing. I’m incred­i­bly grate­ful to have such an accept­ing friend group. And, although I am close to my fam­i­ly, I was care­ful not to men­tion Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund by name—I sim­ply told them in Span­ish how excit­ed I was to have won mul­ti­ple schol­ar­ships.”

Look­ing toward her future, she hopes to become a soft­ware engi­neer or work in anoth­er com­put­er sci­ence field.

“I real­ly enjoy prob­lem-solv­ing and cod­ing. I’m keep­ing my career options open, espe­cial­ly as AI con­tin­ues to devel­op. I’m excit­ed to explore dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ties and keep learn­ing.”

The cur­rent polit­i­cal cli­mate weighs heav­i­ly on her mind.

“It’s tru­ly dis­heart­en­ing to see our cur­rent sit­u­a­tion com­pared to the progress we’ve made. What’s worse is how quick­ly things have shift­ed. I think about all the peo­ple who fought for social change but did­n’t live to see it real­ized. I remem­ber hear­ing about an old­er cou­ple who want­ed to mar­ry but could­n’t. Sad­ly, they both passed away before same-sex mar­riage became legal.”

Social medi­a’s tox­ic envi­ron­ment also affects her deeply.

“The hate­ful mes­sages online hit espe­cial­ly hard. When peo­ple can hide behind anonymi­ty, they become even more aggres­sive,” she empha­sizes.

“But my com­mu­ni­ty keeps me mov­ing for­ward. I’m for­tu­nate to have main­tained the same sup­port­ive friend group since ele­men­tary school. Their unwa­ver­ing sup­port and humor lift me up every day, along­side my fam­i­ly.”

This sto­ry high­lights why Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund’s mis­sion is so vital. The finan­cial assis­tance cre­ates path­ways for LGBTQ+ stu­dents to thrive aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly while nav­i­gat­ing their authen­tic iden­ti­ties. Sup­port­ing Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund means invest­ing in these brave, young schol­ars who now, more than ever, need our sup­port to build brighter, more inclu­sive futures for them­selves and gen­er­a­tions to come.

Donate today to make a dif­fer­ence in the life of a LGBTQ+ col­lege stu­dent. Every gift mat­ters.
https://rainbowcollegefund.org/donate/