Today's youth is tomorrow's leadership: this is the driving principle guiding the Men of Essence® (MoE) Youth Scholarship Program. We wholeheartedly realize the importance of investing in our youth. The development of the MoE Youth Scholarship Program is a testament to this fact. The key to ensuring that society embraces uniqueness is the encouragement of education. Through educational channels, intellectual development can diminish intolerance and heighten diversity awareness and acceptance.

The MoE organization has reserved the right to focus the Youth Scholarship Program on supporting LGBT youth, a severely under-represented and often mistreated community of need. Nearly one-third of LGBT students drop out of high school to escape the violence, harassment, and isolation they face there - a dropout rate nearly three times the national average. Thus, the MoE Foundation wants the LGBT Youth Scholarship to be a source of inspiration and escape for LGBT youth. We want to encourage them to stay firmly committed to gaining an education of higher learning. The MoE LGBT Youth Scholarship is intended to benefit young members of the LGBT community who are either college-bound or in college pursuing a fulltime, postsecondary course of study. We seek to reinforce achievement of their educational goals so that they can in turn become the next generation of positive role models advocating diversity awareness and tolerance.

DID YOU KNOW?

• 97 % of students in public high schools report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers[1]
• 1.5% of gay and lesbian youth report being physically attacked by family members[2]
• 42% of homeless youth self-identify as gay/lesbian[3]
• 42% of adolescent lesbians and 34% of adolescent gay males who have suffered physical attack also attempt suicide[4]
• 30% of gay and bisexual adolescent males attempt suicide at least once[5]

REFERENCES

[1] Making Schools Safer for Gay and Lesbian Youth: Report of Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, 1993.
[2] Hetrick-Martin Institute Violence Report, 1988.
[3] Victims Services/Traveler’s Aid, “Streetowork Project Study,” 1991.
[4] Hetrick-Martin Institute Violence Report, 1988.
[5] Remafedi, Gary, et al. “Risk Factors for Attempted Suicide in Gay and Bisexual Youth,” in Pediatrics, 1991.

MoE LGBT Youth Scholarship applicants must be:

(1) young members (ages 17 – 25) of the LGBT community
(2) maintaining a 2.5 average GPA or above
(3) pursuing or planning to pursue a fulltime, postsecondary course of study in a degree program at an accredited United States institution of higher learning

All application submittals with supplemental documentation are reviewed by the MoE Board of Directors. The MoE Board of Directors thus selects the best qualified applicant.