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FFRF awards $20,000 in minority secular scholarships

 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is delighted to provide, in partnership with a freethinking African-American group, student scholarships for the sixth year running, this year doubling the total amount to $20,000.

FFRF is granting Black Skeptics Los Angeles, an African-American humanist-atheist community-based organization, $20,000 for four awards to outstanding secular students of color who will be first in their family to attend college. Each recipient will receive $5,000 apiece to support college education and expenses through FFRFā€™s Forward Freethought Scholarship fund, generously endowed by FFRF member Lance Bredvold. The application is available here, with a deadline of June 26.

In 2013, Black Skeptics Los Angeles spearheaded its First in the Family Humanist Scholarship initiative, which focuses on undocumented, foster care, homeless, LGBTQI, system-involved and secular youth who are underrepresented in the college population. FFRF previously has been underwriting annual $2,500 scholarships for four students in partnership with BSLA. Special consideration this year will be given to students on whom the pandemic has had an economic impact.

ā€œThe Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to continue supporting freethinking students of color ā€” a minority within a minority,ā€ says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. ā€œThey need all the encouragement they can get, even more so in the trying times weā€™re experiencing.ā€

Black Skeptics Los Angeles founder Sikivu Hutchinson explains the purpose of the scholarship program.

ā€œSecular African-American youth disproportionately come from religious backgrounds and communities,ā€ she says. ā€œThese youth are often marginalized in K-12 and higher education due to their nonconformity. This scholarship program provides a platform for their voices and experiences.ā€

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a nonprofit organization that ā€œworks as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church.ā€ The state/church watchdog sponsors publications and competitions and conducts outreach and education on secularism worldwide.

Black Skeptics Los Angeles is a 501(c)(3) community-based organization that provides resources and education for non-believers, humanists and secularists of color. It was created to provide resources for nonbelievers of color and combat stereotypes about atheists not being socially responsible. Responding directly to the school-to-prison pipeline crisis in communities of color, Black Skeptics is the first atheist organization to specifically address college pipelining for youth of color.

Freedom From Religion Foundation

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