2009-2010 Scholarship Awardees

Lambda Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement - Benjamin Gutierrez

Benjamin Gutierrez is a 21 year-old public relations and marketing student at the University of Southern California.  Although Ben was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, he has lived in three other countries.  At the age of 15, he traveled to Japan, where he lived with a host family and attended high school for approximately three months.  The following year, he took a similar adventure to Finland.  During his first two years at USC, Ben participated in the Daily Trojan, the Undergraduate Student Government and Trojan Vision’s CU@USC Talk Show.  He subsequently took nine months off of school and moved to South Africa, where he participated in an internship with Youth for Understanding, which allowed him to teach and volunteer in the townships throughout the country.  He is also one of the founders of Genesis 9:13, a gay Christian Bible study here at USC.  Ben is the recipient of three Mexican American Alumni Association scholarships and a National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association scholarship.  After receiving his undergraduate degree, Ben plans to pursue a doctorate in education.

Russell Gamble Scholarship in Architecture - Eric Solis

Eric Solis is in the fifth and final year of his architectural studies at USC. Eric has been an activist in the LGBT community since high school, having founded the Temecula Valley’s first ever gay-straight alliance. At USC, he serves as president of Alpha Rho Chi, a co-ed professional and social fraternity for architecture and its allied arts. Eric hopes to further strengthen the tie of gay-straight alliances within the USC Greek community by promoting self-expression and teaching the importance of mutual understanding and brotherhood. Eric’s ambitions are driven by a desire to learn about different cultural perspectives as a means to promote tolerance. Eric’s main professional goal is to enter a field of design that allows him to improve both the physical and social environments of the world.

 

Thomas J. Peterson Scholarship in Business Administration - Adam Hochschuler

Adam Hochschuler came to USC from New York City, where he had overseen a record label’s new media department.  During his four-year tenure at the record label, he led the charge in creating a dance music compilation album targeting the gay community. Eager for the next challenge, the Dallas, Texas-native enrolled in the USC Marshall School of Business M.B.A. program. Well aware that many LGBT MBA students stay closeted in business school to find peer acceptance, Adam has instead chosen to be open and honest with his classmates; as a result, he has changed his classmates’ perspectives on gay people for the better. Adam has also struck a successful balance between his studies and his advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community.  He is a member of both the Gay and Lesbian Association (GALA) and the Graduate Marketing Association (GMA), as well as the Jewish Association of Marshall Students (JAMS).  To date, Adam’s most empowering experience has been attending the Reaching Out MBA Conference in Washington, D.C., where he met LGBT MBA students from all over the country and secured a spot with Johnson & Johnson for a diversity-focused brand management mini-camp at the company’s corporate offices in New Jersey.

Scholarship in Cinematic Arts - Matthew Mallon

 Matt Mallon is a freshman majoring in writing for screen and television in the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Born and raised in Edwardsville, Illinois, he founded his high school’s first gay-straight alliance and sought to improve the school’s climate for LGBTQ students through activities such as Day of Silence, Ally Week, and Gay? Fine By Me t-shirt drives. A member of the GSA Leaders of St. Louis Network, which seeks to provide educational and social opportunities for LGBTQ and allied students around the St. Louis metropolitan area, Matt played a key role in organizing a 2008 GSA convention for local high school students. Matt has also been a fervent writer since he first got a hold of a pen and paper. He has won several writing contests and been published in a number of literary magazines and anthologies; he attended the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio at the University of Iowa’s creative writing workshop, and is the founder of a weekly teen writing workshop in the Edwardsville area. In the future, Matt aspires to write powerful scripts featuring prominent LGBT characters.

Don Thompson Scholarship in Cinematic Arts – Christophe Nassif

Christophe Nassif is a graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts in film and television production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Born and raised on the French Riviera until he was 18 years old, Christophe began his undergraduate curriculum in Madrid, Spain before transferring to USC in the fall of 2003.  While studying for his bachelor of science in industrial and systems engineering, Christophe performed in a USC production of the musical Anything Goes; served as vice-president of both the French Club and SCFX, the visual effects student organization; and traveled to Guatemala with the Volunteer Center to work with Habitat for Humanity during an Alternative Spring Break. As a master’s student, he founded “Queer Cut,” the School of Cinematic Arts’ LGBT student association, and focuses on bringing realistic and honest LGBT stories to the screen.  He also sits on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) film jury.

 

Doug Elliott Scholarship in Education – John Lee

John Lee drove across country from New York City in the summer of 2008 to pursue his Ed.D. in educational leadership at USC.  He received his B.A. in sociology from Long Island University–Southampton in 2004 and his M.S.Ed. in higher education administration from CUNY–Baruch College in 2008.  After graduating, he coached collegiate level volleyball for various teams before moving back to New York City to take a job as an admissions coordinator at the School of Visual Arts.  While at Long Island University-Southampton, John was a member of the men’s volleyball team and served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as an officer for two years. He hopes to one day work within athletic administration at the college level, where he plans to increase awareness of the needs of open and closeted LGBT student athletes in the NCAA.  Since attending USC, he has discovered the true meaning of the Trojan Family. He spent his first year here serving as a mentor for the Asian Pacific American Student Services and even earned a spot on the Dean’s List during his first semester. 

Amy Ross Scholarship in Lesbian Health Studies - Natalia Ramos

Natalia Ramos is a third year student at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.  She is currently completing her core clinical clerkships at various LA hospitals.  Although she has not yet chosen her residency, she plans to work in primary care and mental health.  She is particularly interested in community health programs that provide comprehensive care services to underserved urban populations. At Keck, Natalia has spent the last two years leading Keck’s Medical Gay and Lesbian Organization (MedGLO), a student group that promotes LGBT health care at the Health Sciences Campus.  She has worked on the Gender and Sexuality Committee of the American Medical Student Association and with the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.  Prior to attending Keck, Natalia graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a B.A. in Spanish and a minor in human biology.