This scholarship is dedicated to supporting the mental health of individuals in communities that are under severe mental stress due to current political climate.The scholarship will prioritize University of Utah students who identify as a member of one of more of theLGBT+, undocumented, immigrant, and BIPOC communities and who have declared a major or a minor in Disability Studies/ Ethnic Studies/ Gender Studies/ Pacific Island Studies.

The Scholarship Fund was named after the sisters Heloisa and Dr. Patricia Fernandes. Heloisa and Patricia were elementary school teachers in the public school system in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Working with students from diverse economic, religious, racial, and gender backgrounds, the sisters understood that learning was more than what happened in the classrooms. Their teaching philosophy pushed them to consider students in their classroom whole human beings, with needs outside of school that need to be fulfill in order to create an appropriate space for learning.

Heloisa passed away in 1996, at the age of 44. Patricia lived to be 60 and died in 2015.

This scholarship fund honors their teaching philosophy and legacy by supporting marginalized students in and out of the classroom.