“You can think sometimes that you have to suffocate a part of your identity to try to get yourself into a door,” one of this year’s scholarship recipients told us. “Winning this has proven to me that that is not the case.”
This fall, thirteen LGBTQIA+ students and allies from across Chicagoland are starting or continuing college with a $5,000 scholarship from the Out With Purpose Scholarship Fund. This year, we granted scholarships to 8 new scholars and 5 returning scholars. Over the past decade, the fund has awarded more than $300,000 to local students. Every scholarship is paid directly to the recipient’s college, trade school or continuing-education program.
We began in 1989 as the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA). Our name has changed, but our commitment to uplifting the LGBTQIA+ community hasn’t. We’re entirely volunteer-run, and the fund depends on members, local sponsors and neighbors like you. Our largest fundraiser, the annual Scholarship Gala, filled the Nineteenth Century Club this October, and we’ll be back on Saturday, October 30, 2027. In the meantime, join us at our monthly potlucks and other community events. Details are at outwithpurpose.org.
For young people who don’t always feel seen, a scholarship from their own community says something money alone cannot. As another recipient put it: “The homophobic and transphobic laws don’t stop us from existing. That’s what Out With Purpose is all about. Living truthfully and purposefully.”
How many scholars we can support each year depends on donors, and every $5,000 funds one more.