Students encouraged to apply for porn-funded scholarship
Porn star Mercedes Carrera created a scholarship for college students interested in math and science.
She hopes the scholarship will help “build bridges” between the porn industry and charities.
Carrera solicited donations to fund the scholarship during a live, erotic webcam show.
Sex sells—or, in this case, fund-raises.
Beginning in February, current and prospective college students considering careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) will be eligible to apply for a scholarship funded entirely by porn.
In January, Mercedes Carrera, an American pornographic actress, teamed up with the Fine Young Capitalists, a self-described radical feminist group, to create a merit-based scholarship for students considering careers in the aforementioned fields.
The STEM scholarship is the first philanthropic endeavor of what Carrera calls “The Porn Charity,” an initiative she hopes will “[build] bridges between the adult industry and charities.” To fund the scholarship, Carrera hosted a free erotic stream on Webcams.com featuring herself and five other women engaging in various pornographic activities.
In addition to raising over $8,000 on the popular crowdfunding website Indiegogo, the three-hour live show generated $1,550 in tips, a figure matched by Webcams.com.
T-shirts and posters depicting Carrera as the Greek Goddess Athena and coffee mugs adorned with Gloria Steinem quotes were also made available for purchase on the scholarship’s Indiegogo page to generate funds.
Carrera chose to establish The Porn Charity after witnessing the difficulties businesses in the porn industry encountered when attempting to make charitable donations to different organizations.
“We came up with the idea when Pornhub [, a large pornographic site,] attempted to raise funds for breast cancer research. When they were denied, despite offering to double their raised funds because they were an adult site, it made us realize how unfair that was,” Carrera said on the Indiegogo page.
Before entering the adult industry, Carrera worked as an aerospace engineer. Her belief that STEM degrees are particularly difficult to obtain is the reason she designated the scholarship for students entering those fields.
“While I may no longer work actively in engineering, the opportunity to take courses in the sciences allowed for a foundation in logic and reasoning which I might not have otherwise,” Carrera told GamePolitics.
The scholarship application will open in February and students will be required to submit their school transcript and a short essay articulating their reasons for applying.
Via Vice.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @gabriellahope_
