From Borrego Springs to Changemaker: Edward Rivera’s Journey with San Diego Foundation and National Rainbow College Fund

May 02, 2025 | By NRCF Team

In the heart of Bor­rego Springs — a small, iso­lat­ed desert town two hours from down­town San Diego — Edward “Eddie” Rivera’s sto­ry of resilience and hope takes root.

Grow­ing up where “the desert was your back­yard, front yard and side yard,” Eddie expe­ri­enced first­hand what it meant to be part of a close-knit com­mu­ni­ty.

“Folks will kind of look out for each oth­er and they’ll take care of each oth­er,” he reflects.

Today, Eddie con­tin­ues to embody that spir­it of care — as a vol­un­teer, men­tor and advo­cate for stu­dents across San Diego Coun­ty.

Find­ing a Path For­ward

After grad­u­at­ing from Bor­rego Springs High School in 2018, Eddie set his sights on Cal Poly Hum­boldt, choos­ing the fur­thest uni­ver­si­ty he could find from home.

“I was kind of like run­ning away from some­thing,” he laughs, “but I was also on a jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery.”

Though Hum­boldt was even more iso­lat­ed in some ways, Eddie found com­mu­ni­ty with­in the Crit­i­cal Race, Gen­der, and Sex­u­al­i­ty Stud­ies Depart­ment.

“I would read about expe­ri­ences and think, ‘Oh my gosh, I went through this. I didn’t know it had a name.’”

Those class­es empow­ered Eddie not only aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly but per­son­al­ly — giv­ing voice to inter­sec­tions of his iden­ti­ty as a queer, Mex­i­can Amer­i­can stu­dent from a small town.

Eddie switched his major, built life­long friend­ships, and cul­ti­vat­ed a pas­sion for social jus­tice — a pas­sion that still defines his work today.

The Pow­er of Schol­ar­ships: A Life­line to Dreams

Nav­i­gat­ing col­lege life was not just emo­tion­al­ly chal­leng­ing — it was finan­cial­ly daunt­ing.

For­tu­nate­ly, Eddie’s path crossed with the San Diego Foun­da­tion’s Com­mu­ni­ty Schol­ar­ship Pro­gram. A high school coun­selor, Eliz­a­beth Stevens — her­self a San Diego Foun­da­tion (SDF) vol­un­teer — intro­duced Eddie to schol­ar­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties he had nev­er heard about.

At first, Eddie doubt­ed whether he even qual­i­fied.

“I had some low grades in math,” he admits, “and I wasn’t even going to qual­i­fy for a four-year uni­ver­si­ty with­out some inter­ven­tion.”

But with guid­ance and deter­mi­na­tion, he and sev­er­al class­mates applied for the Weil Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion Schol­ar­ship, which is admin­is­tered by SDF.

“When we applied, there were only sup­posed to be four schol­ar­ships, but they read all our sto­ries and decid­ed to give all of us one,” Eddie recalls.

The renew­able schol­ar­ship pro­vid­ed crit­i­cal sup­port.

“It helped a tremen­dous amount. I could just focus on school and rent — not wor­ry con­stant­ly about how to pay tuition.”

Thanks to that sta­bil­i­ty, Eddie thrived at Hum­boldt, grad­u­at­ing with an impres­sive GPA — and a heart full of grat­i­tude for the peo­ple who believed in his poten­tial.

Giv­ing Back: Lift­ing Up the Next Gen­er­a­tion

After col­lege, Eddie returned to Bor­rego Springs and joined a local non­prof­it, Basic Assis­tance to Stu­dents in the Com­mu­ni­ty (BASIC), as Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ty Out­reach Direc­tor. There, he cre­at­ed and ran a lit­er­a­cy pro­gram for local fam­i­lies.

“If you don’t have child­care, folks won’t be able to make it,” he explains. “We made sure to offer that, plus free books and tablets for the kids.”

Through grant writ­ing — includ­ing secur­ing funds from SDF — Eddie helped the pro­gram grow.

“It was prob­a­bly my favorite thing I did there,” he shares warm­ly.

Today, Eddie serves on the board of the Bor­rego Springs Com­mu­ni­ty Resource Cen­ter and vol­un­teers with the SDF’s Com­mu­ni­ty Schol­ar­ship Pro­gram exec­u­tive com­mit­tee, pay­ing for­ward the sup­port he once received.

“It’s been a lot of fun to help out in any way I can,” he says. “It’s grat­i­fy­ing to give back to an orga­ni­za­tion that gave so much to me — and to Bor­rego.”

Build­ing New Avenues: Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund

In 2024, Eddie stepped into a new role, help­ing to review appli­ca­tions for what even­tu­al­ly became the Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund — a schol­ar­ship for LGBTQ+ stu­dents, includ­ing those who may not be out to their fam­i­lies.

“When the Rain­bow Fund was intro­duced, we all got a lit­tle gid­dy about it,” Eddie says. “Espe­cial­ly at a time when there are lit­er­al attacks on the trans com­mu­ni­ty, it felt like a life­line. It felt like some­thing I would have loved when I was in col­lege.”

As a queer per­son who came out at 16, Eddie feels a deep con­nec­tion to the fund’s mis­sion.

“I want stu­dents to know — whether they’re out or not — that there’s a place for them. That their iden­ti­ties are seen and val­ued.”

Read­ing appli­ca­tions from schol­ar­ship hope­fuls, Eddie sees echoes of his own sto­ry.

“It takes me back. I know exact­ly how they’re feel­ing. I was there sev­en years ago.”

He is con­tin­u­al­ly inspired by the next gen­er­a­tion. “They’re so capa­ble. They’re going to kill it.”

Look­ing Ahead: Hon­or­ing Roots, Embrac­ing the Future

Now, Eddie is work­ing toward a mas­ter’s degree at San Diego State Uni­ver­si­ty. His the­sis will focus on queer expe­ri­ences in rur­al desert com­mu­ni­ties like Bor­rego Springs. His goal is to lift up the untold sto­ries of small-town queer youth — sto­ries often over­looked in broad­er cul­tur­al nar­ra­tives.

“I want kids from places like Bor­rego to see that their sto­ries mat­ter,” Eddie says. “There’s beau­ty in where you come from. There’s joy and resilience, even when it’s hard to see it day-to-day.”

To queer stu­dents feel­ing iso­lat­ed, Eddie offers a pow­er­ful mes­sage: “Use your joy as resis­tance. Don’t rush to grow up. Know that you are not alone — and your future is so much big­ger and brighter than you can imag­ine.”

Through his lead­er­ship, schol­ar­ship and unwa­ver­ing heart, Eddie Rivera shows that com­mu­ni­ty sup­port — and the belief that every sto­ry mat­ters — can change lives. His jour­ney is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of endur­ing phil­an­thropy and the infi­nite poten­tial unlocked when we invest in each oth­er.

Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund

Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) is among the ini­tia­tives launched dur­ing SDF’s Fifty & For­ward Cam­paign, which has set a 50th anniver­sary goal of grant­i­ng $500 mil­lion to real­ize our region’s great­est oppor­tu­ni­ties in three key areas: edu­ca­tion, chil­dren and fam­i­lies, and the envi­ron­ment – and rais­ing $1 bil­lion to help shape our community’s future.

NRCF is the first schol­ar­ship designed to exclu­sive­ly sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents pur­su­ing their ambi­tions for high­er edu­ca­tion regard­less of the pub­lic nature of the student’s sex­u­al iden­ti­ty. Set­ting the prece­dent in Cal­i­for­nia, SDF’s vision is for the fund to grow to be a nation­al source of finan­cial aid for LGBTQ+ stu­dents to attend the tech­ni­cal school, col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty of their choos­ing.

Learn more and donate to Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund.