Reflections from San Diego Pride: A Year in Review

July 29, 2025 | By Roge­lio Espinoza

By Roge­lio Espinoza, Pro­gram Man­ag­er, Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund

As I walked through San Diego Pride this year, sur­round­ed by col­or, com­mu­ni­ty, and resilience, I felt a wave of reflec­tion wash over me. Almost exact­ly one year ago, in Sep­tem­ber 2024, I joined San Diego Foun­da­tion and began work­ing on what would become Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF). At the time, it was just a concept—a bold, hope­ful idea to uplift LGBTQ+ col­lege stu­dents through schol­ar­ships and sup­port.

To stand there this July, less than a year lat­er, and wit­ness the fruits of that vision brought to life was noth­ing short of incred­i­ble.

This year’s Pride was a reminder of what’s pos­si­ble when a com­mu­ni­ty com­mits to show­ing up for its peo­ple. Our recip­i­ents were present, proud, vis­i­ble, and stand­ing con­fi­dent­ly along­side pro­fes­sion­als, advo­cates, and allies who reflect­ed their iden­ti­ties and aspi­ra­tions. That vis­i­bil­i­ty mat­ters. It sends a mes­sage to our schol­ars: You belong here. You are seen. You are val­ued.

Meet­ing our recip­i­ents face-to-face—after months of appli­ca­tion reviews, plan­ning ses­sions and impact reports, was incred­i­bly reward­ing. Not only are these stu­dents bright and dri­ven, they are coura­geous. Many are nav­i­gat­ing per­son­al and soci­etal chal­lenges that most adults would find over­whelm­ing. Yet here they were, rep­re­sent­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers, change­mak­ers and dream­ers.

San Diego Pride offered a vibrant reminder of com­mu­ni­ty, love and accep­tance. It remind­ed me why we do this work—why schol­ar­ships alone aren’t enough, and why con­nec­tion, men­tor­ship, and vis­i­bil­i­ty are just as crit­i­cal to a student’s suc­cess.

I’m proud of what we’ve accom­plished this first year. We launched a bonafide pro­gram. We reached stu­dents across the state. We built bridges between foun­da­tions, schools and com­mu­ni­ties. But more than any­thing, we plant­ed seeds of possibility—and this Pride, I saw them bloom.

To every­one who has sup­port­ed NRCF in its first year: thank you. Here’s to many more.

Want to Make a Dif­fer­ence?

Here’s how you can sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents: