New Scholarship Announced in Honor of Tyler Clementi

Just last year one student's tragic death sparked a media outpouring on the topics of gay/lesbian bashing, homophobia and bullying. The response from the nation and those who have lived through it was - "it will get better." That student was Tyler Clementi and last week the Point Foundation, the largest provider of scholarships to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered students announced a new scholarship created in his honor. The scholarship is meant to help LGBT students transition to college and raise awareness about the malicious bullying such students have faced according to an article on Ridgewood.Patch.com. Clementi fell victim to such bullying and attacks by his peers at Rutgers University where he was a freshmen in 2010. That bullying is believed to be the direct cause of Clementi’s suicide. According to a story on abcnews.com, Clementi was secretly taped in his dorm room while with another male student. The video was then said to be shared openly on the internet. On September 22, Clementi posted “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” to his Facebook page. A few days after the post various items of Clementi’s including his freshmen student ID card and driver’s license were found by authorities near the George Washington Bridge. The footage of Clementi is said to be taken by Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both 18 years old at the time and have since been charged with invasion of privacy, a crime that could result in up to five years in prison. As of December 10, 2010 according to an article that appeared on AOLnews.com, both students chose to leave Rutgers University instead of faceing disciplinary action by the school. According to the Point Foundation website, the Tyler Clementi Point Scholarship was created with the cooperation of Clementi’s parents, Joe and Jane, to honor Tyler’s memory and further the efforts to end the bullying that many LGBT youth face at school. "Our son Tyler was a kind and gentle young man who enjoyed helping people,” said Joe and Jane Clementi. “This scholarship will help college students and it will raise awareness of young people who are subject to abuse through malicious bullying - and it will help people in Tyler's memory.” Students can apply to the Tyler Clementi Point Scholarship this fall. For more information on this scholarship visit PointFoundation.org. Other LGBT scholarships on Fastweb include: The Pedro Zamora Public Policy Fellowship Harold Sylvester Scholarship The William R. Johnson Scholarship The Linfield Good Samaritan School of Nursing Scholarship The Gamma Mu Foundation Scholarship