From left: Scholarship recipients Manuel Venegas and Abdon Orrostieta with Eric Ciasullo and Chanel DeLaney.Courtesy of National AIDS Memorial Grove


The National AIDS Memorial Grove awarded six undergraduate students with a Pedro Zamora Young Leadership Scholarship for their leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The scholarships totaled $40,000 and are funded mostly through grants from UnitedHealthcare, Wells Fargo and Project Inform, according to a National AIDS Memorial Grove press release.

Named after the MTV Real World star who died of AIDS complications more than 20 years ago, the Pedro Zamora scholarships began in 2009 and go toward undergraduates who are engaged in HIV-related work and include that as part of their academic curriculum.

Scholarship recipients include:

  • Raymond Jackson of Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. He studies business administration with the goal of working in global economics and fighting the AIDS epidemic in third-world countries.

  • Adrian Nava of the University of Denver. He focuses on international studies and sociology, and plans to work in the nonprofit sector and health services that help LGBT people and people of color.

  • Uzo Okoro at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She is majoring in public health and participates in sexual peer education, and plans to pursue a medical degree.

  • Abdon Orrostieta at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He volunteers at the nonprofit Latino Salud, which provides HIV services, and he promotes HIV prevention through his work at Health Awareness and Prevention Society.

  • Shira Smillie at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. She’s double-majoring in American Studies and Latin American Latino and Iberian Studies, with a focus on identity, poverty, power and privilege in the United States.

  • Manuel Venegas at the University of Washington in Seattle. His academic work focuses on Latin American and Caribbean Studies with an emphasis on global health. He has a background in community building and public policy.

Recipients are each awarded $5,000; both Venegas and Orrostieta each received two-year scholarships, or $10,000.

For more about the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco, visit aidsmemorial.org.