2026 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

The APIQWTC Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 APIQWTC Scholarship:

Tiffany Tran & Sanjar Kurmanov

and the 2026 Terri Higa Memorial Scholarship:

Gracyn Kent

Congratulations! Read more about the awardees below!
To continue our efforts to sustain the APIQWTC scholarship,
please consider donating here!

⭐ 2026 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees ⭐

Tiffany Tran (she/her) self-identifies as a Queer 2nd generation Vietnamese and is a 2nd year Master’s of Social Welfare (MSW) graduate student at UC Berkeley. Ever since she was a child, she knew she wanted to help vulnerable and marginalized communities. This core purpose has led to her pursuit of an Associate’s of Arts (AA) and Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) in Psychology, and is now currently aspiring towards an MSW. This pursuit in helping various communities is evident in her previous nearly 10 years of work experience in various non-profits in mental health and social services, serving populations throughout all age demographics and working in partnership with organizations across the Bay Area. One of her most meaningful projects involved developing and implementing the distribution of NeuroQueer Kits at Silicon Valley Pride in 2024 in order to support intersectional neurodivergent and Queer individuals. Additionally, she is proud to continue doing organizing work with Lavender Phoenix to build Queer, Asian, and working class power across intersectional movements. Having previously been in the Abundance Committee and currently in SKATE Committee, Tiffany has acquired fundraising and leadership development skills that are necessary to deepen community efforts and acquire resources in order to propel movements forward. She hopes to become a mezzo and macro level social worker, where she can develop healing groups and contribute to the programmatic efforts to fill in current service gaps. Overall, she hopes to utilize her organizing efforts and social work profession as avenues to liberate and uplift not only the Queer, Asian, and Vietnamese communities that raised her, but standing in allyship to better the present and shape a collective future that all oppressed communities can benefit from.

Sanjar Kurmanov (he/him) is a trans man, a first generation student and a Kyrgyz-Kazakh immigrant. Before he became a permanent resident in California in 2020, he was an Executive Director of the LGBTIQ organization in Kyrgyzstan where he advocated for legal gender recognition for trans people. Over the past two years, Sanjar has co-authored an article on digital spaces and violence of visibility in the first LGBT focused issue in the academic journal *Central Asia Survey*. He is currently working on the second co-authored article with a focus on urban spaces, feeling of safety and transgender people. Outside the classroom he supports operations work at the Bay Rising, Bay Resistance and Oakland Rising that fights for workers of color in the Bay Area. In May 2026, Sanjar graduated with Highest Honors from Berkeley City College with an Associate Degree in Anthropology. He plans to pursue a Bachelor of Arts with Geography major at the University of California Berkeley in Fall 2026. In geography, he plans to focus on the Earth’s biophysical processes such as climate change. His long-term goal is to pursue research as a PhD student, contributing to efforts to ensure the safety of transgender people in the context of global climate change including migration.

⭐ 2026 Terri Higa Memorial Scholarship Awardee ⭐

Gracyn (they/them) is an Asian American nonbinary educator transitioning from special education to aviation. They will begin the Aviation Technology program at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College, where they will work toward their degree and the pilot certifications needed to become a Certified Flight Instructor and pursue a professional career in aviation. They are active members of the National Gay Pilots Association and the Professional Asian Pilots Association and are involved with a local NGPA chapter that fosters connection and support for LGBTQ+ aviators and allies. Through their aviation journey, they hope to fulfill their potential and embrace their authentic self while helping create space for others to do the same.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/