Below are those who were granted awards from the Audre Lorde Scholarship Fund in the year 2007. For descriptions of the awards and their sponsors, see Award Sponsors.

For information on applying, see Scholarship Application. To donate, see Contribute to the Fund

Amber Andersen, recipient of the Rhonda Freeman-Sarah Crymes Award is in her final year as a communications major at St. Vincent's University in Austin, Texas. Through her work with a gay and lesbian nonprofit seeking to change the perception that Americans are inherently homophobic with a t-shirt campaign, Andersen helped to inform 80 schools last semester about the Fine By Me T-Shirt Project. She's written two unpublished research papers, "The Black Church's Changing Attitudes Towards LGBT People: A Culture of Homophobia" and "Who Do I Have To Blow To Get Some Pussy Around Here?: Sexual Incompatibility in Kissing Jessica Stein". Andersen opted not to major in journalism when she realized she could not be a journalist and openly support gay and lesbian rights. "I could never quench my opinions about gay rights. I could never hide my sexuality to maintain journalistic impartiality. I'm too idealistic and too outspoken about my beliefs."
June Berry, recipient of the Sheryl Burke Award, enrolled in the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York to become a Chef. Her goal is to develop and implement a mobile cooking program for nursing homes and senior centers to provide instruction about the proper foods to eat for prevention and/or the onset of diseases. She also wants to build linkages with doctors, hospitals and clinics to provide education about diet and menu planning to individuals dealing with diseases such as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes and HIV/ AIDS. Berry says, "My success does not need to be measured by large numbers of people but by those closest to me. My mother and grandmother both lost their battles to cancer and my success at sharing knowledge of healthy eating will be reflected in the meals at my family gatherings as well as the ways my family support those members who are ill or diagnosed with diseases."
Sophia Bowens, the recipient of the Brenda Banks-Kerrie Cotten Williams Award is in a hurry to change the world. At 22 years of age, Bowens has been "out" and fighting injustice since she was fourteen years old. "I created the GLSA(Gay Lesbian Straight Alliance) in high school because I witnessed so many hurtful stereotypes, misconceptions and prejudices, and I wanted to build a bridge to bring people together." Her actions led to a revision in the school's code of conduct prohibiting discrimination based on sex, race, or sexual orientation. As a junior at Texas Woman's University, Bowen is preparing for a career as a school psychologist because she knows firsthand that many youth reared in violent and traumatic homes often suffer low self- esteem, and a lack of determination. "I want my life to be an example of achievement; I'm the first to overcome poverty in my family, the first to finish high school and will become the first college graduate."
Ejeris Dixon, recipient of the Mandy Carter Social Justice Organizing Award is in her second year of a Masters program at New York University focusing on Public Administration with a concentration in Public Policy. For the last eight years Dixon has been involved with social and economic justice activism and organizing around LGBTQ people of color issues. "Being out to me is about forging solidarity within LGBTQ communities of color across different gender expressions, levels of public expression (i.e. outness), race, age, and class. It's about no longer rationalizing violence away but finding ways to support each other without fear, blame, or shame. Avoiding this work has devastating consequences. Every single time we choose to believe that those who were killed were too blatant, and too flamboyant we voluntarily step further and further away from our own liberation."
As a self-identified lifelong student of learning, Melissa Gordon, recipient of the Fourth Tuesday Award entered graduate school this fall at the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. Her primary goal is to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker focusing on youth development. Gordon maintains that many therapists are still attempting to re-program gay youth and failing to address the needs of adolescent African Americans. She says her drive to create a residential facility for gay youth in state custody is fueled by the insensitivity she received from professionals as an adolescent battling homophobia and suicidal ideation. While working in diverse communities whether tutoring youth, registering voters, counseling battered women, conducting grassroots fundraising, facilitating groups, or providing financial assistance to the uninsured and underinsured, Gordon says, "I am out despite homophobia in America. I am out despite the African American tradition of suppressing homosexuality under black consciousness. I do not and will not choose one identity. At 27, I have journeyed too far to be uncomfortable in my own skin to be closeted. Being out is not a choice; it is a necessity to live a healthy, honest, and open life."
Crystal A. Jones, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts in Boston is the recipient of the Cherie Caldwell Award. Jones who will receive her MBA in 2008 is specializing in human resource management and information systems. Growing up in a very religious, Southern Baptist family in Georgia, she learned early on that education would be the prize of her ticket. She knew well before her teens that she was lesbian, but chose to stay in the closet while succeeding academically and climbing up the ladder at several Fortune 500 companies. And although Jones was reaching some professional and educational goals she had set for herself, she was not very happy hiding who she was. "As time passed and I became more confident in myself, I felt compelled to live freely. Being "out" now is a very important aspect of my life. People from all walks of my life, family, church members, co-workers, teachers, and fellow students now know that I am gay." Jones is involved with QUEER Women of Color and Friends and the Mautner Health Project which is a support organization for lesbians with cancer. Her goal is to become a successful business professor and entrepreneur enabling her to give back some of the abundance that has been given to her.
Kalvin Leveille, a recipient of the Sandra Jones-Ronald Moore Award is a senior studying Communication Arts at St. John's University in Queens, NY. While not in school, he spends many hours conducting outreach throughout New York City targeting teens at risk by distributing condoms and facilitating health workshops. Leveille is involved with Manhattan's Pridefest and is also a member of HEAT (Health Education & Alternatives for Teens) Program's Youth Advisory Board serving as a representative for gay young men throughout the program. He exclaims that working with the staff at HEAT taught him a new found love for himself. "I tried to substitute the love I never received from my father with the affection I perceived as love, from a boyfriend. I do not want a relationship to define my love for myself. I want to define the strength of the relationships in my life through positive self love and what I can offer"
Naima Lowe is the recipient of the Margaret Ntombi Howell Power & Presence Memorial Award funded by Rhesa M. Jenkins & Ama Saran. She is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Temple University in Philadelphia with a focus on Film and Media Arts. Lowe who comes from a long line of professors, musicians, elementary school teachers, painters, actors and Sunday school teachers loves teaching, and making art. She is a writing instructor for PHAT CAMP, a Youth Empowerment Organization focused on body image, anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-homophobia and serves as Curator for BEYOND BEYOND, Arts Programming for the National LGBTI Health Summit. Lowe credits the support of LGBT and feminist writers for giving her the confidence needed as an artist. She is currently working on a multi-media installation about a 19th century black cowboy named Stagecoach Mary where she is exploring race, gender, and sexuality. "Being out not only to my family, but to the community at large, has given me artistic opportunities and a sense of voice beyond what I could have had by trying to hide that aspect of my identity."
Teanna Medina, the recipient of the Linda Bryant Award attends the University of Missouri- Columbia where she is a sophomore English major. John Faughn, Coordinator of the LGBT Resource Center at the University writes in his recommendation letter, " Ms. Medina is a true emerging leader within the LGBT community. She seeks first to understand, then to be understood. She reaches out to students, is a mentor to her peers, and is a true social justice advocate. Columbia Missouri is not an easy campus for a student to identify as a member of the LGBT community, much more as a woman of color who identifies as a member of the LGBT community.´" Medina has created bulletin boards on Transgender, Latino/a and African- Americans who identify as LGBT and facilitated InsideOut, a weekly LGBT discussion group. She has also been active in programming for Pride Month, Pride Prom and panel discussions. Medina asserts, "I have been out since the age of fourteen and I am proud of my identity whether anyone else accepts it or not."
Mark Norris is the recipient of the Jerrald Lynn Boswell Memorial Award funded by Collette Strother, Laura Brooks, Ada Long and K.M. Griffin. A sophomore at California State University in Los Angeles, Norris is pursuing a Social Work degree with a Gerontology specialization. He has a long list of awards for his community work and currently volunteers his services for Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Center as a Case Manager Assistant, helped to establish MYTE (Mentoring Youth through Empowerment Program), is a Program Assistant with APT-AIDS Prevention Team, volunteer hours with the Mary McCloud Bethune School for Homeless Children and works the phones for Gay AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) Help Line. Norris is eager to obtain his degree so that he can develop programming for two groups that are dear to his heart: gay seniors and troubled youth who are homeless and caught up in a web of addiction. "Being out is important because every young lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender kid growing up should have someone positive in our community to pattern their life after and identify with. I truly believe I am here to help someone who has gone through some or all of the same things I have gone through. That is my sole desire."
Pam Reed, the recipient of the Angelina Huguely Award, is a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in liberal arts and women studies. In addition to her work as co-founder and active member of Spectrum, an LGBT organization and the Feminist group, Reclaiming Eve, Reed and her partner of ten years are also raising a teenage daughter. "I'm teaching my daughter not to accept unequal treatment from anyone. Being ‘out' and being honest about who I am everywhere I go is the best lesson for my daughter." She hopes to use her education to teach in a University setting as a Professor in Gay and Lesbian Studies. Reed believes she can make a difference in the lives of gay and lesbian youth. "Working within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community will allow me the opportunity to educate and be a mentor to those in need."
Charles Rice-Gonzalez, recipient of the Tony Daniels Community Ally Award funded by ADODI Muse: A Gay Negro Ensemble is working toward a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing with a concentration in fiction at Goddard College in Vermont. Since 1986, he has actively created supportive environments for queerness in the Bronx by helping to found Queer Men of the Bronx, and BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, a 70 seat performance space that presents empowering works for/by women, people of color and the LGBT community, finished a coming out novel, had a workshop production of his play that deals with race and desire and will soon have his first short story published in a Puerto Rican anthology. Rice-Gonzalez says, "Being gay to me is not only about subverting from the norm, it is also about expansion from the norm. My gayness is integrated into what I do, what I create and what I want to keep doing throughout my life. I want to continue giving to the development and empowerment of a strong gay community that is part of the larger world."
Brandee Stephens, recipient of the Wendy Belkin Award, is a senior Sociology major and Psychology minor at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte. "Kool-Aid" as she is affectionately known on campus is an active member of UNC Charlotte's P.R.I.D.E (People Recognizing Individual Differences and Equality) organization whose purpose is to provide education and awareness about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. She also works as a SAFE Counselor providing mentoring to incoming freshman and received the 2005-2006 awards for SAFE Counselor of the year. Stephens says that embracing her sexual orientation has been a struggle but it has impacted her life in a very positive way. She quotes Barack Obama "Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."
Craig Washington, the recipient of the David Gillespie Award, will receive his Master of Social Work from Georgia State University in 2008. While continuing to work full-time as a volunteer and training coordinator at Positive Impact, an agency providing mental health and prevention services for people affected by HIV, he remains involved in many social justice activities, too numerous to mention. Washington says "It is my goal to help establish a series of cultural arts community centers in the South that primarily serve Black queer communities. I would like to work with activists, performing artists, health providers, community leaders and elected officials to build and sustain centers for the empowerment of Black lgbtqiq people and our allies. These centers would provide services and activities such as training on job skills, film, literature and performance art programs; conflict resolution for organizations; leadership development; youth support; as well as recreational activities for various generations. Our communities suffer sorely from disconnection, isolation and the cumulative effects of unhealed internalized oppressions. As a social worker and a writer I will help develop services and create art that addresses our needs in some ways both innovative and traditional."