The iPod Generation
In Their Own Words
Point Foundation is the nation’s largest publicly-supported organization granting scholarships to (LGBT) students of merit. The following section contains testimonials from five of the Foundation’s scholarship recipients - a bright and articulate bunch that, as you’ll see, clearly nailed the essay section of the application process.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Jack Cen, 18, studies Bio Sciences at Harvard University. Zachary Lundin is a freshman at Columbia University majoring in Sociology & Education. Steven Dry attends Emory University, where he studies Chemistry and Religion. Daan Erikson, (pictured/on left) who identifies as "a transguy; a female-to-male transgender person," is a 21-year-old Junior at New York University in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study who concentrates in Entertainment Media and Marketing. Sol Kelley-Jones(pictured/on right), 21, is a Junior at Hampshire College who self identifies as "queer and person-specific rather than bisexual ... I also identify as a second generation or queerspawn as I was born into a lesbian parented family."
On Coming Out & Being Out
Cen: "I’m out. I came out to my friends at the age of 13, but only just came out to my parents a few months ago, at 17." Dry: "I am out to everyone who asks. I came out to myself at the beginning of my junior year. I had my first boyfriend during my junior year, but did not come out to my parents until the summer before my senior year of high school. I kept the secret from all my friends and extended family until the summer after my senior year."
Erikson: "I identify as a transguy and I have no problem talking to anyone about the fact that I am transgender. I originally came out as a lesbian in high school, but I came to realize myself as a transguy very early-on in college." Kelley-Jones: Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin the queer child of ’out’ lesbians, I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be ’in.’ From age six on, the most pressing question asked by the public was about my own sexual orientation. Even as a young child I understood that whatever my answer might be, it would somehow prove or disprove something about the worthiness of all gay and lesbian parented families ... I chose to claim the complexity of my identity and live out loud."
Support Network, at School & Home
Kelley-Jones: "As a queer person, I had the rare experience of coming out already being connected to, and having a strong identity in, a larger LGBTQ community where I still garner much support. Growing up in a lesbian family that faced marginalization and discrimination at every turn, I learned from a young age to carve out and create my own spaces of support and connection ... Although my sexual orientation clearly has marked me further outside, I find strength in this difference; not deficiency. I have learned to harness my heartbreak from the injustices of ’otherness,’ invisibility, and oppression."
Cen: "Harvard has a lot of great LGBT resources to offer, which is one of the reasons I chose to come here. Coming from San Francisco, I’ve always had a lot of resources available to me. However, my parents are somewhat of a blank slate on the matter of my sexuality. When I came out, the only reaction was really confusion. Being Chinese immigrants, they were brought up in a very traditionalist culture where sexuality was never encouraged as an expression of who you are - you grow up and get married and have kids. So, they did try to talk to me about ’changing,’ but in the end they sort of forgot about it. Today, they’re still in silent denial about it, so I will have to come out again someday. However, I strongly believe that they still support me in whatever I do and whatever makes me happy, and that’s really all I can ask of them."
Dry: "My mom is a United Methodist Pastor, and my dad is a Boy Scout leader. For several years, I grappled with how they might react to knowing their son was gay. Then, at the end of my junior year of high school, I came out. My mother was especially affected; it propelled her into a new life. She took the same zeal that brought her to cold Massachusetts stadiums for my track meets or drove her to organize Boy Scout events, and transferred it to supporting this new aspect of my life. She has joined other clergy in the area in support of marriage equality and has joined me on the Boston Commons in rallies for marriage equality."
Lundin: "I have the best parents I could have asked for, who have provided me with great emotional support. High school was somewhat of a challenge for me, and my support network consisted mostly of a few very close friends at school, buttressed by a larger groups of friends I had met outside of school. By the end, I had more close friends at school, but I still spent a lot of time as the ’token gay’ - the one to go to with questions (however ridiculous, inappropriate, or rude they may have been). As a college student now, I have more freedom to construct my own support network, and I feel for the first time in my life that it is a reciprocal relationship. Not only do my close friends at school (and the ones I’ve kept from high school) serve as support for me, but I am also able to feel comfortable supporting those to whom I feel the closest as well. My family to this day continues to be my largest source of infallible support, though."
Erikson: "All of my friends at NYU are great. Like any good group of friends, we’re supportive of each other as people, and identity is not so important. Many of my friends do happen to identify as queer (somewhere on a spectrum of LGBT identities), but that is just something that we have in common, not something we obsess over. Back where I grew up, I have the most awesome, supportive dad anyone could hope for. Our family understands that being myself is about my happiness and ability to succeed as the person I am. I am extremely thankful for that."
