Hear directly from Point Scholars and Alumni.
Rosie from Virginia asked: “What social activities can I host in my community to combat homophobia?” HSBC Point Scholar Lucas Dickerson responded: To battle homophobia, it’s best to start small and with love. In my case, having an area full of homophobia has a dire lack of community for those who may feel […]
Never having been to Los Angeles before, I was excited to see the city and visit the USC campus for the Point Foundation Community College Transfer Symposium. Because of a last-minute itinerary change, I was dropped off only a few hours before our tour, so I unpacked, relaxed, and took in the unprecedentedly best view […]
Six years ago, four friends and I sat at a tall wooden table near the entrance of Darwin’s Pub and waited to see if anyone else would show up. We had just come from the keynote presentation after a full day of conference talks at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s annual conference. That […]
The University of Southern California, my very-soon-to-be alma matter, is surrounded by four walls. That line could be taken as a cute expression to represent the usual college-student campus isolation, but I am being quite literal when I say the university park campus is surrounded by four, heavily-guarded fences. Though they have been here for […]
On the evening of October 13, 2018, I gave a speech in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The room was packed with nearly hundreds of LGBTQ professionals, entertainers, writers, and dignitaries whose eyes and ears were transfixed on me. With clammy hands gripping the well-lit podium, I looked into […]
International Transgender Day of Visibility is important for so many reasons. Imagine living in a world where 90% of the population doesn’t really believe you are real, that you are characters horrifically portrayed in films, or caricatures paraded on television screens across the globe like circus freaks for the amusement of an insensitive and oftentimes […]
Throughout middle and high school, I was an enthusiastic participant of the National History Day program in Minnesota. For those who may not be familiar with the program, History Day is a project-based learning program (à la Science Fair) where students get to choose a historical topic to investigate. After conducting extensive research, students […]
Being a Point Scholar means that I have the opportunity to create a Community Service Project each year. This year, I am building off work that I did last year and creating a program that will offer free HIV tests to all students at Grinnell College. I think when we hear about people or organizations […]
I’m a Pisces sun, Aquarius moon, Virgo rising. Have no idea what any of that means? I didn’t either! That is, until I got to college. Reed College is the most queer place I have ever been, and unsurprisingly, the most astrology-filled, so it only took me three weeks to become familiar with the language […]
It was 9:30 am on a Sunday. I looked at my latte, out the window, and at the table – anywhere but at the professor sitting next to me. This meeting was my idea, but a seemingly simple question about spring course advisement had taken an introspective turn. “Look, Landon. It’s not really a question […]
