2004 POINT SCHOLARS
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Julie Schell
Teachers College, Columbia University
Concentration: Higher and Post-Secondary Education
Doctoral Candidate
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Julie came out in
college. After losing the support of her family, Julie
experienced harassment from her college roommates. Julie
internalized the message that she could not be gay and lead
a fulfilling life. Finding solace only in her studies, she
worked obsessively on her academics as well as held three
jobs in order to stay in school. After graduating with a BS
with Honors in Health Sciences and an MS in Counseling and
Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno,
Julie went on to direct a large student program at Stanford
Law School. Working side by side with LGBT students, faculty
and staff who were out and highly successful, Julie’s
imagination for what was possible for her own future
expanded. At Stanford, Julie initiated programs to foster
the career development of hundreds students, with special
attention to LGBT and ethnic minority groups. She has since
held positions at some of America’s top universities
including Columbia and Yale. While pursuing her doctorate in
higher education at Columbia, Julie has conducted several
research projects on LGBT issues and presented her scholarly
work at venues across North America. She has given invited
lectures on LGBT topics in higher education at Columbia
University, Teachers College, and the Julliard School. Her
paper, The Transgendered Professoriate: A New Frontier in
Educational Research in the Public Interest, won a
Scholar-Activist Award from the American Educational
Research Association in 2006. Julie was recently honored
with an award for Outstanding Service to the Point
Foundation Mentoring Program for her creation and leadership
of that program from 2003-2007. Most recently, Julie’s
dissertation work was awarded the President’s Grant for
Student Research in Diversity at Teachers College. Believing
strongly that her own college education saved her life,
Julie hopes to spend her career developing as many
innovative pathways as possible for LGBT students to pursue
their college dreams.
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