Twenty-six students were awarded scholarships this year from the Point Foundation, an organization that recognizes LGBT students in both the undergraduate and graduate fields. Point’s mission is to empower LGBT students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential, despite the obstacles often put before them.
Among the scholars are three University of Pennsylvania students: Mira Patel, Savannah Shange and Saidzhan Abdul.
Mira Patel
Philadelphia will welcome the special advisor and policy-planning staffer for Secretary Hilary Clinton next month. The proud Wellesley College graduate will start work on her master of business administration at Penn this fall.
Patel, 30, previously worked on defense and finance-policy issues for Clinton when the latter was in the Senate, and she was later asked by Clinton to join the State Department’s policy-planning team. Patel advised Clinton on gender and human rights issues, as well as LGBT issues.
Patel helped organize the Global Equality Fund, one of the largest public-private partnerships in the U.S. government to fund LGBT human-rights work.
“I worked with a team of individuals and we put it all together and now it has reached $5 million,” she said. “That money has been programmed out, sent through our State Department all around the world to fund local LGBT organizations.”
Patel, who currently lives in Washington, D.C., grew up in Massachusetts and attended Wellesley, where she came out during her first year.
“It was the best decision I have ever made. I had a wonderful experience. I played field hockey and lacrosse and had very supportive teammates. My parents are not supportive and I don’t have a relationship with them,” she said. “It was a challenging time but coming out at Wellesley was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. It created a safe space I never had with my family.”
Patel said she’s humbled to be included among the list of Point scholars.
“To have my name associated with these amazing people is wonderful. Point has been around for more than a decade now and the number of people it has touched and where they have gone and what they have accomplished has been inspiring.”
She’s excited to see what the next phase of her life in Philadelphia has to offer.
“I am excited to interact with hundreds of new MBA students that are going to come in with me. Getting to meet them and establishing connections with them will be interesting and they will have fascinating ideas about social justice and improving the world.”
Savannah Shange
Shange, 32, knew she wanted to help people since middle school, when she walked into HIV/AIDS organization BEBASHI and asked how she could contribute.
“My mom was a smoker and inside one of the matchbooks, it said, ‘The average age of sexually active people of color in Philadelphia is 12-13. For more info, call this number,’” Shange said about BEBASHI’s messaging. “I remember thinking that was so young for people to start being sexually active. I wanted to make a difference and not tell people what to do with their lives, but how to keep people safe. It was the first time any organization didn’t say, ‘Don’t have sex, you’re too young,’ but instead promoted a healthy message.”
While volunteering for BEBASHI, she was surrounded by youth from all backgrounds.
“I liked connecting with other young people and it was a mixed group, with kids from all over the city. Some were straight or queer and it felt good to have a diverse street-outreach community.”
Shange came out at a young age as bisexual, but it wasn’t until she was a young adult that she realized her queer identity.
She taught high school for seven years before starting work on her doctorate in education and Africana studies at Penn. The New Orleans resident is working on a dissertation based on an ethnographic study of social-justice education in San Francisco, focusing on how racism and heteronormativity are perpetuated in multiracial progressive movements.
Shange expects to complete her doctorate in 2015.
“After I complete my doctorate, I hope to become a professor and work at a university that is committed to serving the community it is in,” she said. “I want to support teachers who are teaching marginalized communities and bring an ethnic-studies and queer-theory lens to education.”
Saidzhan Abdul
For Soviet Republic native Abdul, growing up gay was anything but a positive experience; however, the 22-year-old now has much to celebrate, as the first member of his family to go to college.
“One of my biggest accomplishments was being accepted into university because none of my family ever went,” he said. “My parents worked hard to let me live my dream.”
Abdul, who identifies as gay, lives in Bethlehem and was born and raised in the Soviet Union, where he said LGBT identity was not celebrated.
“I was born in Soviet Republic where it was bad to be different. Growing up, I heard that being gay was wrong. I felt so much hate and was bullied every day. It came to the point where I had to make the decision between becoming a bully myself or starting my vision of social justice,” he said.
He went on to found youth-empowerment agency Youth for Peace Initiative.
He said his coming-out experience continues to this day.
“I found a friend who I came out to and they supported me. I eventually came out to my dad, and three months ago, I sent coming-out letters to 100 people. Unfortunately, I didn’t come out to my mom, who passed away this year. It is the biggest regret but she always pushed me to embrace myself and I realized that being gay is a blessing.”
Abdul is an international transfer student who will join Penn as a junior, studying international relations with hopes of attending Harvard for law school.
“I would like to become a champion for human rights,” he said, noting that, after the struggles he’s faced, being named a Point scholar was gratifying.
“It felt great and it felt like a celebration of who I am from an organization that told me that it is OK to be who I am and that celebrates diversity and appreciates me for who I am.”