Lots of Applied Psychology

I would like to share something that happened a couple weeks ago at Paseo Nuevo’s latest venue, Live Culture: The most generous members of the Gay and Lesbian Business Association (GLBA) of Santa Barbara gave out their annual scholarship awards to six highly deserving college students. John Chufar, president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors, is the scholarship chair. It was a free community reception, but I didn’t see any media there.

This group, headed by Terry Leftgoff, has awarded over $100,000 in scholarships since 1983. “We at GLBA are concerned by a recent rash of suicides of gay teens around the country,” Leftgoff said. “This is the real cost of homophobia. These GLBA grants are meant to tell our youth they are valued and we are proud of them.”

The scholarships were particularly welcomed in this strained economic year, as noted by proud parent Janet Carroll, who was there to accept the award for her son Sean Crawford. Sean was busy studying microbiology at UC Davis.

Besides Crawford, the winners are Danielle Aguilar, a mathematics and feminist studies junior at UCSB; Joseph Mejia an applied psychology junior at Antioch University; Edgar Vargas, a Chicana/o Studies senior, with a concentration in applied psychology and LGBTQ Studies at UCSB; Constantine Osepyan, an applied psychology junior at Antioch University; and Raymond Prince, going for a PhD in clinical psychology at Antioch University.