Atheists United x Secular Student Alliance: 2025 $1,000 Scholarship Winners
Atheists United sent the Secular Student Alliance $1,000, which other local groups helped match. This allowed us to fund two scholarships for $1,000 each in Southern California this year!
The 2025 Winners
Chloe
Chloe is a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in Asian American Studies with an expected graduation in June 2026. She plans to pursue a JD and a career in public interest law, advocating for policy change through community-based approaches. As a second-generation Korean Filipina and granddaughter of war refugees, her heritage informs her academic work and activism, with a focus on immigration, labor justice, and healthcare.
Her secular identity was shaped by an interfaith upbringing that encouraged open exploration and discourse. Researching decolonial practices native to her culture deepened her commitment to justice and humanitarianism, while exposure to multiple traditions revealed the dangers of Christian nationalism and the importance of religious freedom. She now frames church–state separation as both a humanitarian and racial justice issue, using culturally grounded approaches to unify communities in movement building.
Chloe’s activism is rooted in her identity as a woman of color and her studies in Ethnic Studies. She has examined the impacts of eugenics, forced sterilization, and reproductive barriers on women of color, recognizing how religious influence drives such policies. Her work has included expanding Gen Z engagement with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, speaking on reproductive rights, co-hosting mobilizations for legislation such as the Equality Act, and presenting nationally at events including Netroots Nation. Beyond secular advocacy, she co-founded Melanated Youth, represented 26,000 students as Student Trustee of Fullerton College, and helped secure funding to establish the school’s first APIDA Center. She now serves as a Smart Justice Fellow with the Michelson Foundation, researching policy to improve wages and safety for incarcerated firefighters.
At UCLA, Chloe is pursuing an honors thesis on gendered violence in immigrant communities and studying Critical Refugee and Critical Race Studies. She also plans to establish a Public Interest Law Association chapter on campus. For her, the Secular Student Alliance provides a vital space for students to live authentically and collaborate freely. This scholarship eases financial burdens, supports her law school preparation, and enables her to continue advancing equity, representation, and secular values.
Breann
Breann is a student at Ventura Community College, graduating in May 2026 with plans to transfer to UCLA to study global studies and sociology. She is working toward a career in human rights, with the goal of earning a master’s degree and creating a community-led organization that bridges systemic gaps between Indigenous communities and government policy. Her focus is on protecting sovereignty and ensuring that agreements with Indigenous peoples are honored and implemented.
Raised in a strict Christian household, Breann identifies as agnostic after questioning the beliefs she was taught. She believes secularism is essential to preserving democracy and challenging the rise of Christian nationalism. Her worldview is shaped by her awareness of how organized religion has been used to suppress Indigenous traditions, restrict women’s rights, and influence immigration debates. These experiences fuel her conviction that human rights and social policy must be guided by secular values.
Breann is deeply engaged in activism through VC Defensa, a coalition in her community advocating for church–state separation and human rights. She has helped organize protests, tabled at community events, and led educational efforts on the dangers of religiously motivated policy. The coalition also mobilizes against illegal ICE raids, delivers food to families who feel unsafe, and connects residents with critical resources. Breann’s leadership roles include protest security, event organizing, volunteer coordination, and participation in subcommittees on organizing, family support, and research.
This year, Breann plans to organize a fundraiser to support her coalition’s work, continue advocating for immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, and pursue starting an SSA chapter at Ventura Community College. She values SSA’s commitment to justice and dignity, seeing it as a way to strengthen secular organizing and systemic change. A scholarship helps relieve the financial burden of self-funding her education while enabling her to continue both her studies and her activism.
In addition to the expense of the scholarships themselves, our Scholarship Program (which includes a second scholarship with Black Skeptics LA) costs $6,800 annually. This includes staff hours spent managing the program and vetting the candidates.
We’re funded overwhelmingly by small donors (as well as a few people who chip in a few thousand now and then). Your donation will go a long way in making things happen to keep atheist communities thriving.
