Foundation honors top gay scholars

A post for ``young gay America" on the Internet, advertising money for school, led Ceceilia Allwein to apply for a college scholarship.

This week, she will fly to Chicago to join fellow Boston-area college students Matt Oertli and Marcel LaFlamme in the Point Foundation scholars program for outstanding gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students.

In May, 30 students from across the nation received academic awards covering tuition, books, supplies, room and board, transportation, and living expenses, said Bruce Lindstrom, foundation cofounder.

Now they will get more than money. Each scholar will have a mentor and receive leadership training in Chicago.

``We see it as nurturing the future leaders of the LGBT world," said Lindstrom in a phone interview. ``We give them more than dollars; this helps us ensure that we will have qualified leaders in the future."

Allwein finds solace in music to counter her over-burdened schedule. ``Finding my voice is very metaphorical for everything I went through with my family," Allwein said. ``When I got kicked out of my family, I didn't have the resources to keep singing."

The 20-year-old sophomore is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in music at the New England Conservatory of Music. A perennial volunteer, Allwein is president of the Gay/Straight Alliance , a dormitory resident advis er, and vocal performance aficionado, all while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.

Now, with financial support from the Point Foundation, Allwein said, she will try to make an impact as a professional musician and address issues surrounding homophobia. ``It is one thing to say that I am queer and it is another to say that I am active and vocal about it," Allwein said.

The summer Somerville resident said moving around so much had made her a ``home is where the heart is" type of person.

``Boston is more home than Indiana," she said.

Rural libraries are exciting?

The social justice approach to them is, says LaFlamme.

LaFlamme pictures a world in which gay teens don't have to leave their small towns for New York or other large cities.

``For too many queer kids today, you choose between your new life that you are interested in embracing, or your home," LaFlamme said in a phone interview from Mauritius, an island nation off the African continent. He had just left a pickle factory where he is researching and writing about workplace discrimination. He received the travel fellowship after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard in 2005.

With financial support from the Point Foundation, he has enrolled in the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston.

Through literacy and the established infrastructure of libraries in small communities, he said, there is a place for ``queer activism" in librarianship. Leaving his ``coastal elitism" behind, he said, he wants to target states like Kansas for collection development.

LaFlamme said he spent much of the summer before he ``came out" at the library, reading the few books that were available. He remembers ``having my Time magazine hide the book so no one would see what I was reading."

He believes other teens will benefit from his library activism.

``I spent the summer there trying on this new identity I wasn't quite sure if it fit or not," LaFlamme said.

Oertli , a second-year medical student at Harvard University, said he is thinking of an academic career until 2010. Daunting as the academic obligation is, he said medical school and a master's in public health are the skills he needs to help the disadvantaged, including the underserved lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered communities.

``I can now choose the residency option that will help me help people," Oertli said.

He said he will spend this summer doing research and protesting against right-wing groups.

``This honor is helping me grow as a physician," he said.

Stephanie Conduff can be reached at sconduff@globe.com.