2006 POINT SCHOLARS

Jennifer Wohlner

University of Southern California

Fine Arts

Jen grew up in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago, and is the oldest child of a Korean mother and a Jewish father. She attended Catholic school through junior high. Jen’s switch to public high school provided her with a more supportive environment for her coming out sophomore year.

Over the past several years Jen has helped shine light on homophobia in schools by bringing issues about LGBT and non-gender conforming youth to the forefront. In her high school’s variety show Jen performed a semi-autobiographical comedic piece about her life as a “minority poster-child.” Jen also was Homecoming Queen her senior year. She is a regular speaker on question-answer panels with faculty and student audiences. The panel focuses on her experience as an out lesbian in high school. Jen also helped her high school’s Day of Silence grow from under ten participants her freshman year to over seventy her senior year. By remaining accomplished academically, athletically (2005 U-19 IL state soccer champion with Sockers FC Chicago), and artistically Jen hopes to help erase some of the stigma surrounding gay youth.

Jen attends the University of Southern California as one of USC’s Trustee Scholars to study fine arts with a concentration in sculpture.