Last year, Indi­go shared her sto­ry of iden­ti­ty, com­mu­ni­ty and belong­ing as a Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) schol­ar. At the time, she was prepar­ing for her senior year at San Diego State Uni­ver­si­ty and look­ing ahead to grad­u­a­tion with hope, ambi­tion and a grow­ing sense of who she was.

You can read Indigo’s orig­i­nal sto­ry here.

Today, that future has arrived.

Indi­go recent­ly grad­u­at­ed from San Diego State Uni­ver­si­ty with a bach­e­lor’s degree in jour­nal­ism with an empha­sis in pub­lic rela­tions, along with minors in soci­ol­o­gy and lead­er­ship. Even more remark­ably, she grad­u­at­ed debt-free.

“For me, one of the biggest impacts of the schol­ar­ship was being able to grad­u­ate with­out stu­dent loans,” she said. “It feels incred­i­ble to start this next chap­ter of my life with­out that bur­den hang­ing over me.”

For Indi­go, the schol­ar­ship pro­vid­ed more than finan­cial assis­tance. Sup­port from NRCF donors helped reduce finan­cial pres­sure dur­ing her final year of col­lege, allow­ing her to stay focused on her course­work and com­plete her degree with­out tak­ing on stu­dent loan debt. Through NRCF, she also gained access to a com­mu­ni­ty of fel­low schol­ars, donors and men­tors invest­ed in her suc­cess. One of her most mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences was attend­ing an NRCF donor salon, where she con­nect­ed with fel­low schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and many of the donors who sup­port­ed her jour­ney. Those rela­tion­ships expand­ed her under­stand­ing of what sup­port can look like and helped her build con­nec­tions that con­tin­ue today.

As grad­u­a­tion sea­son unfolds across the coun­try, thou­sands of stu­dents are prepar­ing to take their first steps into the work­force. For many, that tran­si­tion comes with uncer­tain­ty. Thanks in part to the sup­port she received through NRCF, Indi­go is begin­ning that next chap­ter with a full-time posi­tion already secured and with­out the bur­den of stu­dent loan debt.

While many grad­u­ates are nav­i­gat­ing uncer­tain­ty about what comes next, Indi­go recent­ly secured a full-time posi­tion with Live Well San Diego, where she will serve as a Youth Sec­tor Coor­di­na­tor. In the role, she will help guide young peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing in lead­er­ship and civic engage­ment pro­grams designed to improve health and well­ness through­out San Diego Coun­ty.

The posi­tion feels espe­cial­ly mean­ing­ful because it allows her to sup­port young peo­ple in much the same way oth­ers sup­port­ed her.

“I par­tic­i­pat­ed in pro­grams like this when I was younger,” said Indi­go. “Now I get to be on the oth­er side and help guide the next gen­er­a­tion.”

One of her most mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences was attend­ing an NRCF donor salon, where she met fel­low schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and many of the donors that sup­port­ed her jour­ney. The event intro­duced her to stu­dents from her uni­ver­si­ty and helped her build con­nec­tions that con­tin­ue today.

“I dis­cov­ered this whole com­mu­ni­ty that exist­ed around me,” she said. “I met oth­er schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents, con­nect­ed with donors and even found peo­ple who I now look to as men­tors.”

Those rela­tion­ships expand­ed her under­stand­ing of what sup­port can look like.

Like many stu­dents, Indi­go entered col­lege focused on earn­ing a degree. Through NRCF, she also gained access to a broad­er net­work of peo­ple invest­ed in her suc­cess.

That expe­ri­ence helped rein­force some­thing at the heart of NRCF’s mis­sion: schol­ar­ships are not only about help­ing stu­dents enroll in col­lege. They help stu­dents remain enrolled, con­tin­ue build­ing toward their goals and access oppor­tu­ni­ties that might oth­er­wise feel out of reach.

While Indi­go is for­tu­nate to have a strong sup­port sys­tem, she rec­og­nizes that many LGBTQ+ stu­dents nav­i­gate high­er edu­ca­tion with­out the same lev­el of fam­i­ly accep­tance or sta­bil­i­ty. That per­spec­tive has deep­ened her appre­ci­a­tion for NRCF’s pri­va­cy-first schol­ar­ship mod­el, which allows stu­dents to access sup­port with­out requir­ing them to pub­licly dis­close their iden­ti­ty.

“A lot of stu­dents don’t have the same sup­port sys­tem that I do,” she said. “That’s why I’m so grate­ful the schol­ar­ship exists. It’s there for stu­dents whether they’re out or not.”

Indi­go hopes to remain involved with NRCF and con­tin­ue shar­ing her sto­ry to help oth­er stu­dents dis­cov­er oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able to them.

“If my sto­ry can encour­age some­one else to apply, then I’m hap­py to keep shar­ing it,” she said. “You nev­er know who might need that sup­port.”

Her jour­ney reflects what becomes pos­si­ble when stu­dents are met with sta­bil­i­ty, oppor­tu­ni­ty and a com­mu­ni­ty that believes in them.

One year ago, Indi­go was prepar­ing for her final year of col­lege.

Today, she is a col­lege grad­u­ate, a young pro­fes­sion­al and a future men­tor prepar­ing to help oth­ers build their own path for­ward.