From Scholarship Recipient to Champion of Dreams

June 12, 2025 | By NRCF Vol­un­teer

Aman­da Cheyney: NRCF Vol­un­teer Spot­light

Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) is ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing edu­ca­tion­al equi­ty for LGBTQ+ stu­dents, many of whom face unique bar­ri­ers to access­ing and com­plet­ing high­er edu­ca­tion. Through schol­ar­ships, men­tor­ship, and vol­un­teer engage­ment, NRCF fos­ters a pow­er­ful com­mu­ni­ty of sup­port for stu­dents.

One such vol­un­teer is Aman­da Cheyney, whose own jour­ney from strug­gling stu­dent to suc­cess­ful pro­fes­sion­al fuels her pas­sion for help­ing the next gen­er­a­tion thrive.

“I need­ed hope and NRCF gives me hope,” shares Aman­da Cheyney, a NRCF vol­un­teer whose own jour­ney from strug­gling stu­dent to suc­cess­ful pro­fes­sion­al fuels her pas­sion for sup­port­ing the next gen­er­a­tion.

“Hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty as an NRCF vol­un­teer to read the schol­ar­ship essays and hear direct­ly from these amaz­ing and dif­fer­ent human beings about their lives and dreams was tru­ly inspir­ing. These stu­dents have incred­i­ble poten­tial. It was almost like I could hear each of the stu­dents’ voic­es ask­ing to be select­ed as an NRCF schol­ar­ship recip­i­ent.”

What struck Aman­da most pro­found­ly was wit­ness­ing young peo­ple con­nect their lived expe­ri­ences to their future aspi­ra­tions. “I loved learn­ing how their expe­ri­ences impact­ed them and how they want to help oth­ers because of that through their edu­ca­tion­al goals. I was par­tic­u­lar­ly struck by how so many stu­dents at such a young age were able to tie it all together—to explain how they were ready to do good in the world. See­ing how stu­dents con­nect­ed the dots from their respec­tive back­grounds to their future career goals was very spe­cial.”

Roots of Resilience

Aman­da’s appre­ci­a­tion for edu­ca­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ty runs deep, root­ed in her fam­i­ly’s immi­grant sto­ry. In San Diego, her moth­er was one of twelve siblings—all first-gen­er­a­tion immi­grants. Her moth­er was the only one in her fam­i­ly to fin­ish high school and pur­sue high­er edu­ca­tion, instill­ing in Aman­da from an ear­ly age that “edu­ca­tion is a way to improve your life and have options for the future.”

But Aman­da’s path was­n’t straight­for­ward. She over­came sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers in her child­hood, nav­i­gat­ing chal­lenges stem­ming from men­tal health issues, alco­holism, and chron­ic dis­ease with­in her fam­i­ly sys­tem. The respon­si­bil­i­ty was overwhelming—she ulti­mate­ly became head of her house­hold dur­ing high school.

The Non­tra­di­tion­al Jour­ney

“As a non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dent my whole young adult life, I knew edu­ca­tion would open doors for a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life,” Aman­da reflects. Hav­ing attend­ed school in Mex­i­co her­self, she found deep res­o­nance with many of the schol­ar­ship appli­cants’ sto­ries. “A lot of the schol­ar­ship appli­cants are the first in their fam­i­ly to aspire to get a col­lege degree, and they will have to grap­ple with mul­ti­ple chal­lenges to get there. They have to work, and they also need finan­cial sup­port. The FAFSA is not enough. It will take a sec­ond job in some cas­es.”

The mem­o­ries of her own strug­gles remain vivid. “This took me back to my own expe­ri­ences. I was old­er when I was going to school than the aver­age stu­dent. I was also a care­giv­er for my fam­i­ly mem­ber and con­tin­ued to con­tend with being low-income through­out this time. Hon­est­ly, I was always on the verge of a men­tal break­down because I was jug­gling way too much.”

The Pow­er of Belief

It was dur­ing this chal­leng­ing time that Aman­da expe­ri­enced first­hand the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of schol­ar­ship support—not just finan­cial­ly, but emo­tion­al­ly and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly. “I remem­ber the pow­er of my own first schol­ar­ship. It was­n’t the actu­al dol­lar amount—this par­tic­u­lar schol­ar­ship was about $500. It was the fact that an orga­ni­za­tion believed in me.”

That moment of recog­ni­tion changed every­thing for her. “It was­n’t just my dream any­more. Oth­ers saw some­thing in me and what I could bring to the world. I real­ized I have to be suc­cess­ful. I have to keep going. This orga­ni­za­tion believed in me. Validation—that’s what this schol­ar­ship meant to me. I mat­ter. I can do this. There are peo­ple who believe in me and sup­port me.”

Pay­ing It For­ward

Read­ing the NRCF essays brought those mem­o­ries flood­ing back, remind­ing Aman­da how trans­for­ma­tive exter­nal val­i­da­tion can be for strug­gling stu­dents. “It was the ray of light I need­ed to keep per­se­ver­ing. Being a vol­un­teer at NRCF is a way for me to cheer these young stu­dents on. I want­ed to say to every sin­gle appli­cant: you can do this! I could tell from their essays that they know it’s a long jour­ney. They’re aware of all the injustices—whether social, polit­i­cal, or eco­nom­ic.”

What par­tic­u­lar­ly res­onat­ed with Aman­da was rec­og­niz­ing the inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty of the stu­dents’ iden­ti­ties and expe­ri­ences. “I’ve by no means had a tra­di­tion­al career path­way. I fol­lowed my pro­fes­sion­al abil­i­ties and per­son­al inter­ests. I had a strong dri­ve and am for­tu­nate to now have a very hap­py life. I bring all of my lived expe­ri­ences with me to my cur­rent work and per­son­al life. I don’t com­part­men­tal­ize.”

She sees this same inte­gra­tion in the schol­ar­ship appli­cants. “I can see how many of these stu­dents are also start­ing the path of bring­ing all aspects of their past his­to­ry and cur­rent life togeth­er in non­tra­di­tion­al ways to do good in the world.”

Con­nect­ing Peo­ple and Pos­si­bil­i­ties

Today, Aman­da works as a client advi­sor to small busi­ness­es, where she enjoys con­nect­ing dif­fer­ent types of peo­ple and busi­ness­es to resources. She helps them iden­ti­fy chal­lenges and goals while con­nect­ing them with sub­ject mat­ter experts and grants. “By remov­ing bar­ri­ers and clear­ing the path to suc­cess, I bring peo­ple and resources together—much like my vol­un­teer role as an essay review­er at NRCF.”

Her com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty extends beyond her pro­fes­sion­al work. She serves on the board of Com­mu­ni­ty Health Improve­ment Part­ners, where she applies both her lived expe­ri­ence and pro­fes­sion­al exper­tise. “This orga­ni­za­tion devel­ops lead­er­ship and offers sup­port for hous­ing, inde­pen­dent liv­ing, recov­ery hous­ing, sui­cide pre­ven­tion, food sys­tems, and more. We work on sys­temic issues, pub­lic pol­i­cy, and fund­ing needs.”

A Bea­con of Hope

Through her vol­un­teer work with NRCF, Aman­da has found a way to trans­form her own strug­gles into a source of hope for oth­ers. “Read­ing these essays offered a glimpse into the beau­ty of so many dif­fer­ent sto­ries and human beings’ lives. It gives me hope in these times of uncer­tain­ty and neg­a­tiv­i­ty.”

From a young woman jug­gling impos­si­ble respon­si­bil­i­ties to a pro­fes­sion­al ded­i­cat­ed to remov­ing bar­ri­ers for oth­ers, Aman­da’s jour­ney embod­ies the rip­ple effect of believ­ing in some­one’s poten­tial. Through NRCF, she con­tin­ues to pay for­ward the val­i­da­tion and hope that once car­ried her through her dark­est moments, ensur­ing that the next gen­er­a­tion of stu­dents knows they, too, can do this—and that some­one believes in them.

Want to Make a Dif­fer­ence?

Here’s how you can sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents:

Every action counts — thank you for being part of this move­ment for edu­ca­tion­al equi­ty and oppor­tu­ni­ty. No LGBTQ+ stu­dent should ever have to choose between their safe­ty and their edu­ca­tion­al dreams.