Survey Data Prompts National Rainbow College Fund to Launch Student Advisory Council

San Diego, Dec. 04, 2025 – A new sur­vey of Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents shows sig­nif­i­cant and per­sis­tent men­tal health chal­lenges and dis­crim­i­na­tion with many strug­gling to afford basic needs such as food, hous­ing and trans­porta­tion. To help address these issues, NRCF has launched a Stu­dent Advi­so­ry Coun­cil to ensure stu­dents have a for­mal voice in the future of the pro­gram, includ­ing the sup­port and resources they need to suc­ceed.

The online sur­vey ran between Octo­ber 22 and Novem­ber 14 and was sent to 136 cur­rent NRCF schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents. NRCF received 98 respons­es, 92 per­cent from new schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents and 8 per­cent from return­ing schol­ars. These stu­dent attend cam­pus­es across Cal­i­for­nia – from major metro areas like San Diego, Los Ange­les and the Bay Area, as well as com­mu­ni­ties out­side major city cen­ters, includ­ing the Cen­tral Coast, North­ern Cal­i­for­nia and the Cen­tral Val­ley – with a small num­ber study­ing out of state.

Among respon­dents, 79 per­cent report­ed expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety in the past year and 63 per­cent report­ed depres­sion. Near­ly two-thirds said they are fac­ing finan­cial inse­cu­ri­ty, and 43 per­cent report­ed food inse­cu­ri­ty while enrolled in col­lege. Many stu­dents also report­ed dis­crim­i­na­tion from peers, friends and fam­i­ly.

“These find­ings are heart­break­ing,” said Mark Stu­art, NRCF Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee Mem­ber and Pres­i­dent and CEO of San Diego Foun­da­tion, founder of NRCF. “When stu­dents are strug­gling just to stay enrolled, schol­ar­ships aren’t the whole solu­tion. The Stu­dent Advi­so­ry Coun­cil is anoth­er way we’re putting stu­dents at the cen­ter of our response so their lived expe­ri­ences direct­ly shape how we sup­port them.”

Addi­tion­al sur­vey find­ings include:

• 30 per­cent of stu­dents report­ed strug­gling with eat­ing dis­or­ders.
• 25 per­cent report­ed expe­ri­enc­ing sui­ci­dal ideation, and 20 per­cent report­ed engag­ing in self-harm behav­iors.
• 47 per­cent expe­ri­enced or wit­nessed dis­crim­i­na­tion from oth­er stu­dents.
• 38 per­cent faced dis­crim­i­na­tion from friends or fam­i­ly.

Click here to learn more about the sur­vey.

These find­ings under­score why NRCF cre­at­ed the Stu­dent Advi­so­ry Coun­cil: to ensure stu­dents most affect­ed by these chal­lenges have a direct role in shap­ing men­tal health sup­port, schol­ar­ship process­es and access to basic-needs resources.

The five Coun­cil mem­bers bring lived expe­ri­ence to the schol­ar­ship pro­gram and will serve in lead­er­ship roles to gath­er feed­back from stu­dents, ampli­fy­ing authen­tic stu­dent per­spec­tives to NRCF lead­er­ship, cam­pus part­ners, news media and the broad­er pub­lic.

Student Advisory Council Members

Stu­dent Advi­so­ry Coun­cil mem­bers are avail­able for inter­views.

Abril Col­in – Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty San Mar­cos
A fresh­man from Escon­di­do study­ing to become a pedi­atric nurse, Abril served as pri­ma­ry care­giv­er for her two younger sis­ters from age 7. She uses her graph­ic design skills to cre­ate art that shat­ters the stig­ma of men­tal health.

Jorge Bernal – San Diego State Uni­ver­si­ty
A for­mer fos­ter youth from San Diego, Jorge aspires to become an envi­ron­men­tal health and safe­ty pub­lic offi­cial. Wit­ness­ing the dev­as­tat­ing effects of wild­fires and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters inspired him to pur­sue work in dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion. He pre­vi­ous­ly worked with his school board dis­trict and site coun­cil to improve test scores and school cul­ture.

Saman­tha Rivera – Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les
From Chu­la Vista, Saman­tha hopes to work in nurs­ing or pre­ven­ta­tive med­i­cine to give back to her com­mu­ni­ty. As the old­est sib­ling in a sin­gle-par­ent house­hold, she bal­anced dri­ving her sib­lings to activ­i­ties, man­ag­ing house­hold respon­si­bil­i­ties, and excelling aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, serv­ing as Vice Pres­i­dent all four years of high school while intern­ing at Scripps Mer­cy Chu­la Vista Hos­pi­tal.

Bey Koch – Glen­dale Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege
A first-gen­er­a­tion col­lege stu­dent and adult reen­try stu­dent from Los Ange­les, Bey is pur­su­ing a career in social work to become a licensed ther­a­pist spe­cial­iz­ing in LGBTQIA+ men­tal health. As a trans and neu­ro­di­ver­gent case man­ag­er at a non­prof­it, he has wit­nessed first­hand the urgent need for affirm­ing, cul­tur­al­ly com­pe­tent men­tal health care.

Saiv­ionn Williams – Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty Chico
From San Diego, Saiv­ionn wants to pur­sue a dual career in account­ing and real estate to help indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies in his com­mu­ni­ty achieve finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and home­own­er­ship. Through­out his life, he has over­come sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, includ­ing peri­ods of home­less­ness dur­ing high school.

NRCF annu­al­ly awards $2,500 per select­ed stu­dent. The appli­ca­tion is open to all stu­dents and opens Jan­u­ary 15, 2026, and clos­es March 5, 2026. San Diego Foun­da­tion pri­or­i­tizes stu­dents’ pri­va­cy through­out the appli­ca­tion process. For more infor­ma­tion or to apply, vis­it rainbowcollegefund.org.

About Nation­al Col­lege Rain­bow Fund
Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund is pow­ered by San Diego Foun­da­tion, one of the largest com­mu­ni­ty foun­da­tions in the U.S. and a lead­ing schol­ar­ship provider in Cal­i­for­nia. The fund sup­ports efforts to reduce edu­ca­tion­al dis­par­i­ties for stu­dents who have faced bar­ri­ers relat­ed to sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, gen­der iden­ti­ty or gen­der expres­sion, and is open to all appli­cants and allies who sup­port these prin­ci­ples.

About San Diego Foun­da­tion
San Diego Foun­da­tion believes in just, equi­table and resilient com­mu­ni­ties where every San Die­gan can pros­per, thrive and feel like they belong. We part­ner with donors, non­prof­its and region­al lead­ers to co-cre­ate solu­tions that respond to com­mu­ni­ty needs and strength­en San Diego. Since our found­ing in 1975, our com­mu­ni­ty foun­da­tion has grant­ed $1.8 bil­lion to non­prof­its to improve qual­i­ty of life in San Diego Coun­ty and beyond. Join us in com­mem­o­rat­ing 50 years of impact — and look­ing toward the next 50 — by learn­ing more at SDFoundation.org.

For inter­views with stu­dents and to access the com­plete sur­vey data, please con­tact: Maken­zi Jor­dan Rodriguez, (424) 239‑8891 makenzi@landispr.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Maken­zi Jor­dan Rodriguez
Lan­dis Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Inc.
(424) 239‑8891
NRCF@landispr.com
www.landispr.com