These LGBTQ Bay Area Students are Making a Difference

The eQuality Scholarship Collaborative proudly announces its 2024 scholarship awards to 17 California students who have demonstrated service in support of the LGBTQ community. eQuality awarded $6,000 scholarships to eight graduating high school seniors, four Oakland Unified School District high school graduates, two community college transfer students, and three medical students. With the addition of the 2024 awards, the cumulative total given to students by the eQuality Scholarship Collaborative exceeds $2.1 million. We are proud to share and introduce the 2024 scholarship recipients here. 

Created by PG&E’s lesbian and gay employee resource group (ERG) in 1989, the eQuality Scholarship Collaborative was the world’s first ERG-run scholarship program created exclusively to recognize and foster high school graduates. eQuality awarded the first scholarship of $250 on July 29, 1989. In its second year, the program partnered with the Bay Area Network of Gay and Lesbian Educators, which initiated the Bobby Griffith Memorial Scholarship. That collaboration grew with the participation of other ERGs, nonprofits, and individuals, adopting the eQuality Scholarship Collaborative name in 2001. The types of students supported expanded in 2003, with the first scholarship for medical students being awarded, and again in 2014, with the first scholarship for community college students transferring to four-year colleges.

eQuality is a volunteer-led effort, keeping administrative costs low and are a fiscally sponsored project of Horizons Foundation.