Student Stories: Past Award Recipients
Erica C. Bowman
Fond du Lac High School 2004 Community Activist
In 2005, I moved to Boston for school where I began
studying photography and graphic design at Simmons
College. Simmons offered me a surprise scholarship
for community leadership and activism, mostly due to
my involvement with GSAFE! There I continued to be
involved in special projects like the marriage
amendment and women's rights, but in general I
needed a break from activist work.
Through my job at a music production studio, I was
given the opportunity to start a lesbian music night in
Boston (an alternative to the club scene). It became a
hit and continues to run even in my absence, which is
a great feeling. Shortly after my first year, I got
accepted to a summer program in Paris with Columbia
University. I traveled solo all over Western Europe
during this summer. Last semester I studied for
four months in Mali, West Africa. There, I got to
photograph trance dance ceremonies, in which much
of the homosexual population is involved, though it is
never spoken about.
Now I am in my final months of travel in Dunedin, New
Zealand where I am taking classes in Maori,
anthropology, and religion. I will return to
Wisconsin in July before heading back to Boston to
finish school. I hold my memories of GSAFE close to
my heart.
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