California colleges cater to LGBT students with special programs
Programs include LGBTQ+ "affinity" spaces, professional development programs, and separate graduation ceremonies.
Across various college campuses in America, universities are creating programs to affirm the identities of LGBTQ+ students.
Across various college campuses in America, universities are creating programs specifically for students who identify as LGBTQ+. These programs give students access to unique resources not provided to other students at the universities.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the LGBTQ+ Campus Resource Center offers several resources marketed toward LGBTQ+ students: career development programs, financial wellness programs, special scholarships, and study-abroad opportunities. UCLA’s website states, however, that “the LGBTQ CRC supports community members of all sexual and gender identities and serves the entire UCLA community.”
UCLA also has weekly programs such as “Queer Fandom Fanatics” and a “Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC) Affinity Space.” At the end of the year, the university holds a Lavender Graduation to “honor” LGBTQ students’ “achievements and contributions.”
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The University of Southern California LGBTQ+ Student Center provides opportunities to its LGBTQ+ students, such as conferences, scholarships, and leadership development programs. “Queer Rising” is an annual leadership retreat for the LGBTQ+ Community.
The university also offers weekly affinity groups, some of which “aim to serve a specific, intersectional community and are intended for folks who hold those identities.” Some of the groups are titled “Beyond the Binary,” “Friends of Sappho,” “QTPOC Lounge,” and “Rainbow International.”
Stanford Graduate School of Business offers a week-long LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program, which provides a professional support system for LGBTQ mid-level managers and executives.
Bob Witeck, a member of the first cohort of the LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program in 2016, and Lisa Blair, the Associate Director of Programs in Executive Education, explained why Stanford’s program is important in an email to Campus Reform.
“Whether overseas or here in the U.S., it’s not uncommon for any LGBTQ professional and rising leader to face not only deeper self-doubts and many forms of the ‘professional closet,’ but also invisible and visible barriers to their future success,” Blair said.
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“It is designed to ensure a climate of learning that gives all participants a safer, knowledge-rich and welcoming place to learn, reflect, grow and grasp the skills that all business and organization leaders must have,” Blair added.
“LGBTQ business professionals are found in all employment, in all industries, sectors, and spaces. Stanford’s hope is that many more will achieve their full potential and find career success being who they are,” Blair concluded.
As Campus Reform previously reported, Bentley University offers a Rainbow Scholar Program to its LGBTQ+ students. This initiative grants students $1000 upon compilation of the few requirements of the program. Bentley also celebrates its LGBTQ+ students with a rainbow graduation ceremony at the end of the year.
Campus Reform contacted all parties mentioned for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
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