Two Alaska students, Kara Carlson of Fairbanks and Colleen McNulty of Anchorage, have been awarded $2,500 in scholarships from Pride Foundation, according to a press release from Tiffany McLain,  the foundation’s regional development organizer for Alaska.

Here’s the text of Pride Foundation’s media release about the awards:

Anchorage, AK — Kara Carlson of Fairbanks and Colleen McNulty of Anchorage have been awarded a total of $2,500 in scholarships from Pride Foundation. They are among 101 students who just received a total of $365,000 from the foundation in the 2011 scholarship cycle.

Pride Foundation’s scholarships are awarded to students who have a demonstrated commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) equality. A statewide committee of volunteers worked together to review applications and interview finalists. “Many of the applicants had heartwarming stories and had faced much adversity,” said two-time volunteer Gayle Schuh of Anchorage. “We were very focused on putting the money where it would do the most good to ease some of the burdens in their lives as well as further their education.”

Carlson, a 27-year old single mother who works for the Interior Center for Nonviolent Living in Fairbanks, is passionate about raising awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault in the LGBTQ community and working to ensure that her fellow service providers are prepared to respond to the unique needs of LGBTQ victims of domestic violence. She is pursuing a Master’s in Public Administration and Domestic Violence from the University of Colorado-Denver.

McNulty, Manager of the Southwest Region Itinerant Public Health Nurses, is pursuing a Master’s of Public Health at the University of Alaska Anchorage in hopes of increasing diversity education within the small, remote villages in which she works. McNulty also has the distinction of being this year’s oldest Pride Foundation scholar.

Pride Foundation gave its first scholarship in 1993 and since then has awarded $2.36 million to nearly 1,100 scholars from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Pride Foundation is the Northwest leader in bringing people, ideas and resources together to strengthen community and ignite change that advances LGBTQ Equality. We provide grants to organizations and scholarships for students in the Northwest.

For more information please contact Tiffany McClain, Regional Development Organizer-Alaska, at tiffany@pridefoundation.org or 907-903-1280. Learn more about Pride Foundation’s scholarship program.

Congratulations, Kara and Colleen!

And thank you, Pride Foundation, for all that you do to help advance LGBTQ equality in Alaska.