Congratulations Emily Wunderlich & University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse on winning $10,000* in FREE OUTmedia Entertainment for campus!!!

Winner of Campus Pride & OUTmedia's 1st International Video Contest & Campaign

When reviewing all of our submissions there was only one that stole our hearts and perfectly spoke the message of Campus Pride and OUTmedia's "Be Queer, Buy Queer!" International Video Contest and Campaign. With simple engineering and her empowered voice, Emily Wunderlich is a student not only making change, she's creating it. Her video embodied the message of BQBQ! She used her voice to show that every member of the LGBTQQIA community can stand together and make a difference. So take note and remember "dollar signs change times".

After endless banner making, facebook spamming, and rainbow-ifying, OPEN’s Week of Awareness went off with a minimal number of hitches and horror stories. Alright, well no real horror stories, but the realization that you’re out a sound tech before a benefit concert is mildly gut-wrenching. Ahem, let me recap:

NEW YORK TIMES FEATURES CAMPUS PRIDE

How to Find a Gay-Friendly Campus?

CAMPUS PRIDE'S NATIONAL LGBT COLLEGE FAIR PROGRAM

THEY ARE HERE TO RECRUIT YOU
Colleges Reach Out as Never Before
by John Schwartz

READ THE ENTIRE STORY ONLINE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18guidance-t.html

The scene was similar to one that plays out thousands of times a year in gyms and auditoriums around the country: a college fair. The folding tables, the school banners, the admissions officers with a student representative or two, and the brochures and tchotchkes laid out. The only thing that might have made this one appear out of the ordinary was the preponderance of handouts with rainbow designs, and the fact that the fair was being held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village. This college fair, and several like it around the country, was devoted to recruiting gay students.

“Actually going out and recruiting a gay student — that’s a very new thing for colleges,” says Shane L. Windmeyer, the co-founder of Campus Pride, a national organization that promotes safe college environments for gay students and sponsored the event.

While Ivy League schools are often represented, the fairs also attract lesser-known institutions like Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Scott A. McIntyre, associate director of admissions there, says that his university attends some 500 fairs each year, and that including one for gay students made sense.

THE SUMMER CAMP
EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT...

"I have come to realize that without Campus Pride & Camp, I would have never felt the true empowerment that I feel everyday. I would never have truly voiced my opinion on what is needed on campus. It is because of Camp that my fire can never ever again be put out. It is because of Camp that I know even if only small changes are made, I will still be leaving my campus better off." -- Roxie Schmidt, (Camp Class of 2009) University of Wisconsin -- Eau Claire

CAMPUS PRIDE
SUMMER LEADERSHIP CAMP

July 20-25, 2010
hosted by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN

REGISTER NOW
Learn more online at www.campuspride.org/camp.asp

SPACE IS LIMITED
Register Before April 16, 2010
for Happy Camper Discount Rate

Campus Pride organizes the only Summer Leadership Camp for LGBT and Ally college students. The five-day camp experience works to develop stronger undergraduate student leaders and safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. Participants have the opportunity to learn valuable campus organizing skills, coalition building and strategies for creating change at colleges and universities.

Believe In -- Campus Pride. Campus Pride is the leading national nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) for student leaders and campus organizations working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. It exists to give "voice and action" in building future LGBT and ally leaders. More info online at www.campuspride.org.

What rides on eight wheels and wears pink flannel?

Me. :)

OPEN recently attended Roll-on America's Pride Skate Night. Everyone had a blast, and hopefully there will be more skate nights in the future. I suggest that other schools try this one out. Check out your local roller rinks, see how they feel about a pride skate. Or just go for a casual outing with members. Chances are at least a third of ya will fall on your butts—which really only makes it better!

OUTmedia's
"BE QUEER, BUY QUEER!"
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO CONTEST

in partnership with Campus Pride

WIN $10,000
in FREE OUTmedia Entertainment for Your Campus

LEARN MORE

In partnership with Campus Pride, OUTmedia is seeking college students throughout the world to submit original videos on the theme,“Be Queer, Buy Queer!”

Slams,rants, stand up, sketch, music frenzy, spicy splicing are all welcome.We want you to speak boldly, and outrageously on the vision, expressed by OUTmedia’s Founder, Shelly Weiss, “care about where you spend your every dime, invest in the businesses that believe and invest in you.Build your queer vision of your future, with what and where you buy today!”

Submit your own video responding to concept of "Be Queer Buy Queer," with a friend,your LGBTQQIA campus group, or run wild with your entire campus community! Present in video form "What Does Be Queer Buy Queer Mean To You?"

PRIZE: One winner will receive $10,000 in OUTmedia entertainment* and the opportunity to host the First Annual OUTmedia Queer Campus Culture Fest! at their university --hosted by Kit Yan and being developed for TVairing.

An additional prize of a performance by one OUTmedia artist will be given to the school with the most number of registered voters.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Submissions will be accepted through April 15, 2010, voting from April16-29, 2010 -- and the winner announced at the culmination of Diversity Month on April 30, 2010.

I remember being nervous as I sat there with my study abroad advisor. It was our final meeting. After months and months of meeting for advice on figuring out where I wanted to study, looking over final applications for programs and scholarships, helping me to get all of my forms and vaccines in order, it was our final check-in before I would be on an airplane to Tanzania. "There is one last thing," I nervously piped up after we'd gone over all of the checklists. "I...I'm kinda nervous about having a girlfriend while I'm abroad." Holly and I had only gotten back together in the last month of school, and I had only recently started thinking about what it would mean to have a girlfriend in a country that has a language without a word for lesbian and where male homosexuality is illegal--there was even a case of a European man being deported! None of this was going to stop me; I figured that our once-a-week phone calls would be private enough, and that I could pass off the picture of the two of us I kept by my bed as a picture of my "friend." Mostly, I couldn't believe this was a position I was actually in. I felt a lot of anger about having to step into a closet I had never even had to be in for that long. But, I also knew this was just part of the experience, one more opportunity in cross-cultural learning. And in the end, it made me grateful for the ability to be out and proud and makes it only that more important to create safe spaces for LGBTQ people.

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation provides grant funding for college and post-graduate students to receive compensation for skill-building internships at pro-LGBT 501(C) non-profit organizations.

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation is accepting applications for our 2010 internship grants. Additional information is available at www.scotthittfoundation.org Please feel free to contact us directly at scotthittfoundation@gmail.org

PAID LGBT INTERNSHIPS

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation Internships for 2010

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation is offering funding for qualified candidates with the vision to be future leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement.

The pro-LGBT sponsoring organization that you choose apply with will receive funding to compensate your internship position while you strengthen your resume and gain valuable skills towards becoming a leader of the future.

* POST-GRADUATE*
THE SCOTT HITT INTERNSHIP IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Application Deadline: May 7, 2010
Post graduate students with strong academic record
Duration: 7-9 months, 40 hour week - $20,000 Grant
Location: An established 501(c)3 nonprofit with a commitment to the advancement of LGBT equality
Applicant contacts host organization they want to work at and co-develops a successful curriculum encompassing these key elements: communications, fundraising, board development and grassroots policy
2-4 recipients per year

UNDERGRADUATE *
THE A.N.G.L.E. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERNSHIP

Application Deadline: April 16, 2010

• Current undergraduate students with strong academic record
• Duration: 8 weeks, 40 hour week - $4000 Grant to sponsor 501(c)3

So this is something to be excited about! That’s right, an LGBT skate night at the local roller skate rink/gaming establishment, Roll On America. It’s coming up this month, so I’ll be posting pictures! In the meantime, I’ll be encouraging my group to make sweet uniforms. It may not quite be roller derby, but it might just be a springboard. Oh yeah, it’s on.

On a more serious note, OPEN has recently come to realize that Clark University doesn’t account for any sort of gender and/or gender presentation in its nondiscrimination policy. This month we’re having a speaker on Transgender rights and showing the informative documentary Toilet Training, so hopefully we can use that momentum to work with administration and get some serious trans-friendly policies in place.

I have a good feeling about Spring 2010. I’ve been investigating the other schools in Worcester, thinking about something maybe a little Prom-esque we could share? Yeah, I dig it.

This blog caught me after all the action of last semester, so I’m excited to take you all along for the adventure that will be this year. We have our Week of Awareness to plan, fundraising through Day of Silence/Night of Noise, and hopefully some good movie screenings and an inexpensive speaker here and there. I’m personally looking forward to some serious collaborating, so I’ll keep you all posted.

And I've heard a few whispers about a gay skate night at Roll-On-America. That’ll make for an interesting blog, and one step closer to my dream of creating a gay roller derby team. :)